Re: Seeks ideas/opinions on Fascia switches & graphics

Edward A. Oates wrote: 
in article WQUvAaCXwCODFwlS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Mike Hughes at
mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 9/26/05 10:12 AM:


In message <BF5D6C30.10BA7%nowayedward.oates@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Edward
A. Oates <nowayedward.oates@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

What I'd really like, though, is to find a way for an LED to illuminate a
"line" of light about an inch or so long. That way, the through path could
glow green  and the blocked path red, not just a "point" of light on each
leg.


You could try using some glass fibre threads - the sort of thing that is
used on the small Xmas tree lights that change colour. Put the LED in a
small 'box' with the glass fibre ends at one end then run the fibre
glass on to the panel. You could even put both LED's in one box so that
you only have the one set of holes. In theory you could then have red,
green or even yellow aspects in both LED's are lit at the same time.


Unfortunately, those fibers mostly put out a point of light from the end.
There is some leakage along the length, but not much. Certainly, one could
drill a series of small holes the size of the fiber diameter and place one
fiber in each hole in a line, then illuminate the line with a single led
source. Hmmmm...

I've got something that sounds like what you want, in an old Heathkit clock. The kit comes from before the days of jumbo 7-segment LEDs, instead the digit segments are each a block of clear plastic with a frosted surface. A low-voltage light bulb fits into a hole drilled into the back of each block. When the bulb is on, the light sort of fills the block and shines out evenly (IIRC, you had to wrap black tape around the sides of each block so light escaping from the sides wouldn't spoil the effect). Seems like it should be possible to do the same thing only smaller using bi-colour LEDs and a "sliver" of plexiglas the thickness of the line you want.

-- Kizhe


.

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