I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

Ones which were designed to be panel mounted at one end and cut
to length at the other end would also be of interest, but I've
never seen anything like this. Has anyone else?

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 27 Jun 2008 20:25:37 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

RS do clear plastic rod from 6mm diameter.

--
Frank Erskine

On Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:25:37 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

Ones which were designed to be panel mounted at one end and cut
to length at the other end would also be of interest, but I've
never seen anything like this. Has anyone else?

==================================
You could try clear plastic knitting needles. They're readily available in
a variety of sizes and should be cheap enough to experiment with. You
might be able to bend by heating in a pressure cooker as we did with pipe
stems.

Cic.
--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

Ones which were designed to be panel mounted at one end and cut
to length at the other end would also be of interest, but I've
never seen anything like this. Has anyone else?

Is this for a specific requirement ?

i.e. do you have precise dimensions?

some CH pcbs use them, else I could possibly turn something on the lathe


--
geoff

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
.. .
I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

Ones which were designed to be panel mounted at one end and cut
to length at the other end would also be of interest, but I've
never seen anything like this. Has anyone else?

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup

Farnell in Leeds carry an extensive range of light guides, pipes, splitters
etc

see
http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/browse.jsp?N=500005+1002418&Ntk=gensearch_001&Ntt= light+guides&Ntx=

Ones to extend LEDs to front panels are already made and stocked, without
you having to mess about bending up your own.

Arfa

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

I might have seen something like this in B&Q, but might be dreaming.
They certainly do various sizes in white plastic.

David

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
.. .
I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

Ones which were designed to be panel mounted at one end and cut
to length at the other end would also be of interest, but I've
never seen anything like this. Has anyone else?

Perspex was the traditional material for light guides before fibre optics.
It has a high level of internal reflection, so, unless you make the bends
too sharp, you get very little loss even in quite long runs. However, that
also means that the light is very directional when it emerges, so you need
to dome and roughen the end if you want anything but the narrowest viewing
angle. Perspex rod should be fairly easy to get hold of and it does bend
with gentle heat.

Colin Bignell

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

A pack of 100 that may suit - 7 quid delivered.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10536
From the look, these are simply a fibre bundle with a bit of heatshrink
to connect them to a LED.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1937 is a source of the raw
material.

"Ian Stirling" wrote in message
et...
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

A pack of 100 that may suit - 7 quid delivered.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10536
From the look, these are simply a fibre bundle with a bit of heatshrink
to connect them to a LED.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1937 is a source of the raw
material.



Are there any 'shows', sunday markets, car boot sales, near you, i.e stalls
selling overpriced tat, usually including fibre-optic lamps for a pound or
two. A couple of the fibres and a touch of superglue to bundle them together
is all you need.
--
Keith

** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Keith wrote:


"Ian Stirling" wrote in message
et...
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do.
(A bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

A pack of 100 that may suit - 7 quid delivered.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10536
From the look, these are simply a fibre bundle with a bit of heatshrink
to connect them to a LED.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1937 is a source of the raw
material.



Are there any 'shows', sunday markets, car boot sales, near you, i.e stalls
selling overpriced tat, usually including fibre-optic lamps for a pound or
two. A couple of the fibres and a touch of superglue to bundle them together
is all you need.

But at that price - 7 quid for a hundred precut-delivered free, ...

Dealextreme has way too much stuff though.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1807

On Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:25:53 -0500, Ian Stirling wrote:

Keith wrote:


"Ian Stirling" wrote in message
et...
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I construct various bespoke electronic items from time to time.
Something I could use but have never seen in any of my suppliers
catalogues is a light guide to effectively extend an LED from a
circuit board to a front panel, spaced anything from 10mm to 50mm
away. Plain clear plastic rods of 3 to 5mm diameter would do. (A
bonus would be if they could be bent by gentle heating.)

A pack of 100 that may suit - 7 quid delivered.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10536 From the look, these
are simply a fibre bundle with a bit of heatshrink to connect them to
a LED.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1937 is a source of the raw
material.



Are there any 'shows', sunday markets, car boot sales, near you, i.e
stalls selling overpriced tat, usually including fibre-optic lamps for
a pound or two. A couple of the fibres and a touch of superglue to
bundle them together is all you need.

But at that price - 7 quid for a hundred precut-delivered free, ...

Dealextreme has way too much stuff though.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1807

Terrible isn't it. First time I found it I must have spent hours ticking
boxes. Ordered what seemed like a huge number of things and it only came
to about £40...