macro lights (>2mm) or possibly fiber optics for art project

[mariedennis]

Hi folks,

I am going to be working on an art project and I need help figuring out what kind of, and where to find specialty lights. I need, or better put, I am hoping to find, very tiny lights maybe as small as 1mm connected by very thin wires that can be submerged in resin. They need to be able to flash randomly and/or in a line. In the end I am hoping to create a resin structure about the size of the proverbial bread box times 2 or 3. It will have a few hundred tiny lights flashing randomly within it and then also have lights that go in straight lines within it as well but lit at different times. Maybe it will be two sets of lights, one random, one in line. Or possibly fiber optic lights for the straight lines and something else for the randoms. My other thought is....what is the possibility of having a clear resin structure that allows light to be sort of projected from underneath that glows through the resin almost the same way fiber optics glow from the light being project through it?

I know, lots of questions. I'm just not sure how to bring this to life yet. Thanks for any help that can be provided, even if it's just pointing me in another direction.

thanks in advance,
marie

 

[DM51]

Welcome to CPF, mariedennis 🙂

This sounds an interesting project, and I hope someone with good ideas responds.

The Special Application Lighting section is rather a backwater with not many threads, but this one does fit here. If you don't get any replies within the next day or two, post again and I'll think about where else to move it to.

 

[mariedennis]

Thanks DM51!

I have my tentacles spread out in several waters and if I get some ideas from somewhere else, I will post them here and share. I am very excited about this project! 😀

cheers
m

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

fiber optics would probably be a better fit, but one thing you will want to watch out for is whether submerging the fibers in resin will have an effect on their efficiency. Usually they rely on the large difference in refractive indices at the border of the fiber's diameter and the air around it. When you replace the air with resin, the resin and the fiber material will probably have more closely matched refractive indices which may end up leaking light through the fiber wall instead of reflecting it back inside the fiber.

Baring that, though, I'm imagining getting one of those big, poofy fiber lights and modding it to have some fibers on constant, some blinking, some in sequence, etc. Some kinds of those use an RGB LED blended using a microcontroller. Those might be harder to mod. I'm thinking of the ones that rotate to create the changing pattern, they probably have a light source inside and a rotating light filter with different colors between the light source and the fiber ends, so different fibers see a different color at different times.

Good luck with your project, hope you find a good solution!

 

[stevephillips]

Sparkfun has a number of unusual LED formats. May not be exactly what you are looking for, but are addressable for flash sequencing by an arduino or other micro-controller. The link below might be easiest to use, but they also have strips of 1mm leds worth looking at. These are RGB LED's which means there are three LED's at each point, red/green/blue, allowing for color control as well.