Fiber optic lighting?

[cyberwollf]

Oh yea, i was thinking wrong with that photography example of IR film But there are filters.  Most people use a skylight filter simply to protect the lens, but those are made to filter out UV.  Dont some people have to use a UV filter with MH? Would we need to filter that out here too? Since most 15k-20k lighting setups are meant to reproduce the look of 30+ feet below water, UV is naturally absorbed by then i think.

[Dankicity]

Had to post this before I passed out for the simple reason of how impress I was that Blender actually did it right.  I knew that I wanted light to hit the 2nd mirror at the opposite angle from which it hit the first mirror, except just a tad off so it focuses inward -- but I'm no math whiz -- [insert Blender] -- Just mess around until light bounces where you need it and take measurements.



Render Pic is from the fibers point of view looking straight up at the 2nd mirror.  Above is the alphabet followed by a "Sun Lamp" as Blender calls it.  Notice that you are seeing the reflection successfully bounced off the first mirror, the second, and continue straight toward the fiber.

Oh yea... the 2nd mirror is the whole deal.  I don't know if I can find something that does the job.  I mean borosilicate glass with multilayer dielectric coating.  Extreme thermal temperatures and narrow band dielectric mirrors.

[cyberwollf]

Any full sun tests yet?

[Dankicity]

Not yet.  I've burned through a couple inches of fiber optics with ease and successfully ruined the first 24" acrylic mirror... if that counts as progress.

Fresnel lens is cool though.  Wrote my name in a piece of wood with mild sun light in about 15 seconds. -- and about killed my retina from staring at it.  In full sun light it will create a 6" flame coming from anything I point at...  and its really easy to point it at something... you don't want it point at.. like the siding of a house. 

I made a cheesy holder for everything but I'm evidently terrible at cutting pieces according to my own measurements because 10 cuts later and it still doesn't focus on the right spot....  I guess I could just suck at measuring.

I'm going skiing in NY before it all melts but I'm planning on ordering some serious lengths of cable when I get back.  After that I planned on setting up a simple LED test rig on my buds tank.  Hopefully some candy corals (i think) will show results.

[cyberwollf]

Any updates? 

[Dankicity]

I finally got the lens stable enough and far enough away from the fiber (as to not melt it) but getting that to where I can test the growth of something is a bit different.

The setup works as a flash light (and death-ray) but does little given the fibers short length and it being daylight.  Really the sun tracking and IR are show stoppers.  Unless you want a collector the same size as the area you're lighting you need it to track the sun and without limiting the IR you are only using about 30% of the collected light -- even then I think these fibers would continue to melt in a couple hours if I could keep tracking the sun.

Oh and I did contact those guys about a custom IR lens.... note to self: when people laugh at your questions... it's not a good sign.  I got the impression the conversation was likened to a poor kid talking about beefing up his station wagon to a race car driver.  Which is ok.  God knows I've been there before with web clients.  But dag-nab-it, I want that lens!... and don't have a $200k budget for research, designing, testing, designing, bla-de-bla-bla.

[edit] Actually I did think about going small on it.  If I put normal plastic caps (lens) on the end of fibers (which they sell.. cheaply) and spread them out on a grid (on roof again probably) it would probably be low enough heat and high % of light captured.  So, that's where I've been.  Deciding if there is a whole different approach that could be taken -- for uber cheap of course.