Total noob has questions :)

[JForce]

Hi all,

First of all, great site here, a wonderful source of information, and from reading other threads, help and advice.

Some background on me and my project:

I made a ton of models as a kid, but never lit any. Now I have taken the unusual step of building a model from scratch based on the online game Eve Online.

It will include a reasonable amount of lighting, and I have some basic questions that a brief search of the forum hasn't turned up:

Will any-old fibre optics as sold at my local electronics store (primarily as data cable) do?

What's the best way to "source" the light? I understand running 100 different strands all over the place etc, and having them come back to a single source, bundled together, but how then do I light them? Simply "point" them at an LED?

Can you cover fibre cable on the flat? By that, I mean if you imagine a ruler, with fibre lying down it's length....could I duct tape it down, and as long as the ends are out it's ok?

Thanks for your help guys

[Joseph Osborn]

Welcome to the forum! I am by no means an expert at lighting starship models, but I know the fundamentals. Maybe I can help you.

Will any-old fibre optics as sold at my local electronics store (primarily as data cable) do?

Some types of data cable will work, but IMHO they are not the best solution for lighting a model. I think what most of us use is "unjacketed" fibers. These are usually plastic, not glass, and much cheaper. Look here: http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Unjacketed.htm
I got a big bag of this stuff many years ago from American Science & Surplus. The little "fiber-optic art" lamps at Wal-mart have a generous amount of these fibers in them.

What's the best way to "source" the light? I understand running 100 different strands all over the place etc, and having them come back to a single source, bundled together, but how then do I light them? Simply "point" them at an LED?

Here's something I like to do: use a short length of brass or aluminum tube as a collar to bundle the ends of the fiber together and insert an LED into the opposite end of the tube. Then tape or epoxy the assembly securely so that nothing comes loose. You can use telescoping tube segments to match the diameters needed on each side. Seems to work well for me.

Can you cover fibre cable on the flat? By that, I mean if you imagine a ruler, with fibre lying down it's length....could I duct tape it down, and as long as the ends are out it's ok?

Oh yeah, that's the beauty of the fiber. As long as you don't kink the strand, the light shoots though the length to the other tip. You can paint the shaft or tape it or glue it or whatever.

A neat thing you can do with the plastic fiber is to "lens" the tip to better duplicate the look of a spotlight. Hold the end near a flame for a few seconds and it will mushroom a little and gloss over, making a very convincing light. If you shine a very bright white LED though it, it will throw a lot of light. The beauty is that you can run a whole bunch of lights like this from a single 5mm LED. I lit up a Klingon Cruiser with just 3 basic LEDs: a bright white, a dim white, and a blinking red:
http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m72/ ... n_0001.flv

Here's another hint: choke down the LED you're using to light your "porthole" fibers with more resistance to dim it down. This will help provide a sense of scale and differentiate them from brighter exterior lights.

[jwrjr]

Optical data cable would be of limited usefulness in a model. Here's why. Plastic optical cable runs 0.1" in diameter. If you want fiber that thick, then go for it. Glass optical fiber runs 0.1mm thick (I've used both for communication purposes). Kinda thin. And it is brittle. If you happen to break it, imagine a needle floating around about the thickness of a hair.
One last thing. Never use superglue with optical fiber. It eats the fiber.

[Pat Amaral]

Optical data cable would be of limited usefulness in a model. Here's why. Plastic optical cable runs 0.1" in diameter. If you want fiber that thick, then go for it. Glass optical fiber runs 0.1mm thick (I've used both for communication purposes). Kinda thin. And it is brittle. If you happen to break it, imagine a needle floating around about the thickness of a hair.
One last thing. Never use superglue with optical fiber. It eats the fiber.

I'd like to add to this, if I may. Another reason that glass optical fiber isn't practical is that because it's brittle and so thin, it is considered hazardous when exposed fiber breaks. Getting a piece of the stuff under your skin can be very painful and very difficult to completely extract. I used to teach a telecommunications cabling course and on a couple of occasions I had to take students to the ER to have a glass fiber fragment extracted. Best to avoid the data fiber altogether in modeling applications

[Chacal]

And about the 'superglue with fiber' thing, better use white (PVA) glue. You just wanna hold the fiber in place, no need for extra-strength glues.