[time-nuts] LTE-Lite

Dave M dgminala at mediacombb.net
Fri Dec 5 15:04:10 EST 2014


I finally took an ineterest in this thread, because I have needed (rather 
infrequently) a way to get LED light from a PCB to a front panel.  I Googled 
"flexible light pipe" (no quotes in the Google search) and got loads of hits 
for them.  So, I guess they're called "pipes" after all.  And they're 
stocked at Mouser, in various sizel and lengths.  How quaint!
Check out Mouser's catalog page at 
http://www.mouser.com/catalog/catalogusd/647/186.pdf.  There's probably 
more, but this was as far as I went.

Cheers,
Dave M


Don Latham wrote:
> actually, Magritte had it:  “this is not a pipe”
> Don
>
>> On Dec 5, 2014, at 8:01 AM, Chuck Harris <cfharris at erols.com> wrote:
>>
>> The OP said he couldn't find anything applicable when he was
>> looking for "light pipe".  So, I offered him a suggestion for
>> why.  Ultimately, we are talking about locating something
>> using a search engine.
>>
>> The public has taken to the high tech sounding term "fiber optic"
>> to describe what used to be called a light pipe.  If it is thin,
>> and flexible, and moves light from one location to another, it
>> will be known to most people as "fiber optic".
>>
>> As an example, sitting here on my workbench is a light that I use
>> to illuminate objects under my Olympus stereo microscope.  It is
>> made by Nikon, and has the following words inscribed on its panel:
>>
>> "NIKON, Inc.  MKII Fiber Optic Light"
>>
>> Do you imagine that it is a precision glass or plastic waveguide,
>> or just a flexible light pipe?
>>
>> -Chuck Harris

>>
>> paul swed wrote:
>>> That is a good suggestion. But I fall into the camp. "Not really
>>> that important now."
>>> At least not to get me to pull it out of the rack. :-)
>>> The little LED are pretty bright and I remember some broadcast
>>> equipment used light pipes.
>>> OK now I am going to get silly but this is time-nuts. I think light
>>> pipe and fiber optics are two different terms.
>>> Yes they both pass light. But a fiber optic is a precision glass or
>>> plastic waveguide. A light pipe is a bulk piece of plastic that is
>>> not a wave guide in respect to the accuracy of the walls.
>>> Oh I am so doomed now that I said that.
>>> Regards
>>> Paul
>>> WB8TSL




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