Endglow Fibers with Lenses

(Illuminator is running a Color Wheel)

 Fiber Lighting

Sideglow & Endglow
Fibers
 

Tungsten Halogen
&
Metal Halide Bulbs

 


Tungsten Halogen Bulb
Fiber Illuminator
(1 large fiber or hundreds of small fibers)

Metal Halide Bulb

The Results !!!

In the Case Mod world, no one has used this stuff "yet" that we've seen.  So you may never see these white lights and this wondrous "stuff" called sideglow and englow fiber.  However, the illuminator can drive a cluster of plastic (not glass) fibers - and the effect is nothing short of incredible (see buildings and pools lighted by the stuff at

Super Vision - 7 MB PDF).   It is a mod I am certain will become popular if someone just makes the community aware of it - so it is included here.  Also, these two lights are the 2nd brightest lights in the world (the brightest is a laser), so they have a lot of promise when it comes to lighting up any type of light guide (tubing that can be fiber, acrylic, etc).

This mod is very costly if you use this stuff the way it is intended by the vendors . . . that is, using a fiber illuminator with a halogen or metal halide light.

*** here we will show you how to use Luxeon LED's to bring the cost way down, and where to buy the fiber in small lengths.  All the manufacturer's of this fiber only sell it in full spools, which cost thousand of dollars !!!

Now - imagine wrapping a thick, 1/2" magically lit, flexible light guide (fiber) around your machine.  It not only looks incredible, but it will cast a gorgeous array of hues inside the case.  Halogen and Metal Halide are typically always white, but the illuminator box changes that to colored light.

Fiber Illuminators

These units can be expensive as hell ($125 to $1300), so for a computer case mod, realize you do not need a powerful unit since you will be running short spans of fiber (or use a Luxeon, which is what is recommended - only get an illuminator if you are after un-godly brightness levels).  Virtually all of these come with motor-driven color wheels, but check this out before you buy one.  You may see a color wheel called a "sparkle wheel", and these have tiny areas of either black and clear, or tiny colored circles - the idea is they cause quick flashes (sparkles):

Color Wheel

Sparkle Wheel

For buildings or pools you may need multiple units, and you will have to connect them together electrically for synchronization of the color wheels.  You also need to make sure to buy units that are capable of being synchronized (many are not).  You can, alternatively, go radical and add a DMX device which can dictate the colors to any pattern you desire. 

NOTE:  DO NOT buy an illuminator that is made for Microscopes - you can tell these apart by their weird appendages attached, as shown below:

DO NOT BUY !!

The following is a reasonably priced unit from FiberOpticProducts.com - it is made for "Limousines" which would work well for a case mod,  It is $125 and comes with a 4-color Color Wheel.  You can also buy "gels" to make your own color wheel if you are ambitious:

The Fibers

As mentioned there are two types of POF (Plastic Optical Fiber).  The reason traditional glass fiber is not used is two-fold.  It does not glow on the sides, and it does not allow a tight bend radius.

Where to Buy - You can buy both solid and stranded sideglow fiber

Here, by the foot.  The minimum is 5 feet, but he also sells a fiber-optic test kit to test his fiber out for 20 bucks, which includes one 6-inch piece of 1/4" diameter sideglow and a couple pieces of Endglow (multi-fiber only).

Dual-Usage with Solid SideGlow - the solid sideglow fiber also has an extremely bright endglow to it, so you can use that fiber for both purposes.

Sideglow Fiber

This is the fiber you would most likely use for a case mod, since it looks the best and makes full use of the entire fiber.  It comes in either solid or stranded.  The solid type is a single large strand which is teflon coated for reflectivity (my favorite).  The stranded type uses multiple strands as shown below.   You can run multiple sideglow fibers from an illuminator box - but to me, the most amazing use is to run a single, fat, 1/2" fiber from the box - wow !!!  If you search the web and check out the images you will see what I mean.

Distance Limit - although some sites claim several hundred feet, the real max is about 100 feet, and even then they recommend using an illuminator at both ends.  Now you're talkin' big $$$$.  But those distances are only needed for building or pool lighting.

Close-up, the multiple strands look like rope, which is why I do not care for it, although as you can see, from far away it looks awesome.

Solid Sideglow Fiber

 

Stranded Sideglow Fiber

 

Endglow Fiber

Endglow is not my choice for a computer case mod.  However, you could conceivably use it to add numerous points of light to the front or side of your case.  If you already have point LED's for that effect, then sideglow would look much better, since the point of light it so intense.  One advantage of endglow is that the illuminator can take a bundle of hundreds of small fibers, or 40 or 50 medium fibers. That way you can really add a ton of light points to your project.  Sideglow can also be used with multiple fibers, but the light tends to dissipate much faster that way.

Distance Limit - for endglow you can go much, much farther than sideglow, since you are not emitting any light throughout the length of the fiber, until the final enpoint.  You can run endglow several hundred feet - no problem !!     

CAUTION:  be careful here - endglow fiber can be intense enough to damage your eyes, so if you use Endglow, do not use a fiber illuminator box (way too intense).  Instead, use a small cluster of LED's or a 1-watt superbright such as a UFO, Apollo or Luxeon.

Endglow Fiber - an intricate "Chandalier"

The Lights

Here we will discuss the traditional fiber lighting sources (Halogen and Metal Halide) as well as relatively weak lighting (Luxeon) which is all you really need for the short fiber length required for a computer mod. 

Luxeon vs Halogen vs Metal Halide - Both Halogen and Metal Halide lights will blow away Luxeon LED's as far as brightness is concerned.  However, their light is not as concentrated, and that is what the fiber illuminator box does.

Halogen lamps (actually they are "tungsten halogen") are incandescent lamps, but are much brighter than household light bulbs.  They use a tungsten filament surrounded by halogen gas.  They have been used for Automobile Headlights for years.  But as bright as they are . . . they only produce about 1/4 the light per watt that Metal Halide lamps produce.

Luxeon Lighting

For a computer mod, you can, and should, use a Luxeon or similar extreme LED.  Unless of course you are independently wealthy.  But even if you are, the illuminator boxes are clunky, large units and there is no way to place one inside your computer and have it blend in.

Connecting the Fiber to the Luxeon LED

Do not use a lens for this - it is made to collimate the beam, but it actually reduces the brightness. 

You can buy

special lenses made for 6 mm fiber at Quickar.  The source for sideglow fiber sells 5 or 7 mm, so you can use 5 mm and add some filler or epoxy.  Or better yet buy the larger 7 mm and drill the hole out slightly.

For other widths of fiber, you can rig something to hold the fiber end right next to the dome of the LED.  Make sure to use a heat sink so that the device itself does not melt for fiber end.  You can use a short piece of hard plastic cylinder to hold the end of the fiber just a few millimeters away from the LED.  Cut off 1/4" from a black Bic Pen - that works fine.  Then either rig some device to hold it together, or simply tape it all up with electrician's tape or duct tape.  Finally hide that part (you can insert it into a plastic box and cut a hole for the fiber and wires).

Tungsten Halogen

The halogen cycle describes a complex chemical interaction between tungsten, oxygen and a halide that makes tungsten halogen lamps possible. Incandescent lamps operate by using an electric current to heat a filament so that it glows. Edison and later inventors needed to cope with material that evaporated from the hot filament since this material would build-up on the inner bulb-wall and darken the lamp. This "lamp blackening" becomes even more severe when the filament is situated near the bulb-wall, as in thin tubular lamps. The halogen cycle prevents lamp blackening.

The Halogen Cycle

High temperatures near the filament break the tungsten oxyhalide molecules apart. The oxygen and halogen atoms move back toward the bulb wall and the tungsten atoms re-deposit on the filament. The cycle then repeats:

 

It is important to note that the tungsten does not return to the exact spot from which it evaporated, but rather re-deposits on cooler areas of the filament. Breakage usually occurs where the filament connects to the molybdenum lead-in wire, as the temperature drops sharply at that point. (The halide fluorine can return tungsten to the hottest parts of a filament, holding the promise of a true regenerative cycle. Unfortunately, fluorine also attacks the cooler areas of the filament. Experiments to resolve that problem continue.)

Step 1: Tungsten atoms evaporate from the hot filament and move toward the cooler wall of the bulb.

Step 2: Tungsten, oxygen and halogen atoms combine at the bulb-wall to form tungsten oxyhalide molecules.

Step 3: The bulb-wall temperature keeps the tungsten oxyhalide molecules in a vapor. The molecules move toward the hot filament where the higher temperature breaks them apart.

Step 4: Tungsten atoms are re-deposited on the cooler regions of the filament–not in the exact places from which they evaporated. Breaks usually occur near the connections between the tungsten filament and its molybdenum lead-in wires where the temperature drops sharply.

Because tungsten is cleaned from the inner bulb-wall, halogen lamps can be operated at higher temperatures than ordinary incandescent lamps. Energy efficiency (or "efficacy") is due to the higher temperature–the hotter an incandescent lamp operates the more efficacious is becomes. Likewise, the longer life ratings of tungsten halogen lamps stem not from the presence of halogens but rather are a function of the higher pressures at which these lamps operate.

 

 Metal Halide HID

HID bulbs are particularly attractive in their Design

These lights are the kings of brightness, and their light is cool, sparkling white.  Since their light is similar to the Sun, they are popular for lighting fish aquariums.  The efficiency of conversion of electricity into photons is roughly the same for metal halide and regular output fluorescent tubes. You can pack a hell of a lot more watts into a small package with metal halides.

Metal halide lamps, a member of the high intensity discharge (HID) family, produce high light output relative to their size, making them a compact and powerful light source.  Metal Halide-HID (High Intensity Discharge) HID lamps do not have filaments like the halogen lamps but energize the gas under pressure and thereby require a ballast. HID lamp life average 9000 - 10,000 hours. Lumen output of the HID lamps are much higher than the halogen lamps

Originally developed in 1965 for exterior and industrial lighting, metal halide technology today includes lamps suitable for nearly any lighting application. Wattages range from 32 to 1500 watts, and a large number of envelope and base configurations are available.

Like fluorescent and high pressure sodium lamps, metal halide lamps produce light by passing an electric arc through a mixture of gases and require ballasts to provide proper starting and operating voltages. In a metal halide lamp, a compact arc tube contains a high-pressure mixture of argon, mercury, and a variety of metal halides. The argon gas, which is easily ionized, facilitates striking the arc when voltage is applied across the electrodes. The heat generated by the arc then vaporizes the mercury and metal halides. These metal vapors produce light as the pressure and temperature within the arc tube rises, with the light's color properties depending on the specific mix of metal halides. About 24% of the energy used by a metal halide lamp produces light, making them generally more efficacious than fluorescent lamps.

Color Temperature

The color temperature of a light source is related to the proportion of blue light it gives out. Higher color temperatures mean more blue light.  

Halogen lamps are great for producing a lot of heat. The light they give is fairly yellow.  Metal halide lamps are available in a large number of different color temperatures (higher color temp = more blue light, and more high energy photons.  Up to "6500K".  Most of the industrial-type bulbs you will find have color temps of 4300K.