Thinking of using fiber optics for lighting

Alot of what could be your problem is the bends in the cable strands. Even tho light will still shine through a strand of FO cable bent 90degrees, the bend wil cause alot of the light to bound back along the way it came, making the light dimmer. The quality of the FO cable will matter too and the color of the cable as well. You can use fishing line but it was not made for light transmittion even tho it will. If you want street lights to have that sodium light look like most street lamps do try using a red/green ultra bright LED as your source that will give off an orangeish light like the RL streetlamps do. As for melting the ends together that may not be the best way to get a brighter light cause the ends will be slightly distorted optically thus not giving you the most efficient use of the light. I would recoment getting a "hot knife" made for FO cable and make a uniform end of your bundle to fit into your lightbox. Some larger Radio Shack stores should have tools for cutting and preping FO cable. After you make your light box and have a small bundle of strands made into a cable then you can take a strand or two and rout them into your lighting fixtures. Small fishing line size strands will not throw alot of light out of the cable and will prolly not light up a street like you would want but if you were to say make the light pole out of a clear polycorbonate dowel and then give the "lightbulb" end a nice smooth finish and use the LED mentioned above that may light your streets just fine. The Fishing line strands should work OK for signals and clearance lights on your layout. Hope this helps.

I'm afraid fiber optics just aren't very good at general lighting purposes like street lamps, houses, etc. The problem is that they don't diffuse light very well - it's very directional. Heating their end to form a bulb helps a little, but not much.

They're great for lights that are viewed head on (ditch lights, headlights/taillights for cars, marquees, etc) but not for general lighting.

Some of the smaller Surface Mount (SMD) LEDs (sizes 1203 or 0806) available are good choices for general lighting in the yellows, whites, and oranges. Their small footprint allow them to be placed in many places where conventional LEDs won't fit. But they can be a bear to solder wire to. It takes practice. On-line sources are mouser.com, digikey.com and lc-led.com, among others.

Mike Tennent

Fiber optics is not a good lighting source for general lighting. In the real world (1:1) lighting applications such a display and home use the fiber cable is made of many strands and can be 3/8 to 1/2 inch in dia. The source or light bulb is housed is a special housing located in the attic or other out of the way place. 150 watt to 300 watt halagon bulbs are used. Very costly and used only where space is a problem.

I don't agree with many of the previous responses on fiber optic lighting. I work for a company that fits out the interiors of museums. We use fiber optic lighting often for illuminating artifacts on display inside of showcases. I do wonder what diameter of cables you're using. The larger the diameter, the greater the light level. Also a 25w MR16 bulb just isn't bright enought. Go up to a 75-100 watt bulb (or brighter, the brighter, the better). For lighting houses you will most likely need a small magnifier or beam spread lens to broaden the light beam. Keep experimenting with it!

Have you considered using Christmas decoration lights?. They were already clearance priced (50% off) at my supermarket last week.

NOOOOO do not use fiber optics. I would recommend using LEDs. There super bright and never get hot. They also last forever. They come in many different colors also. My locomotives are equiped with yellow glow LEDs and they look great coming around corners with there bright lights.
James

I bought some 20 light Wal-mart strings for 97cents and some battery operated Christmas lights (LED) that use 2 "C" cells. Haven't figured out how to wire the battery lights into the layout yet.

I use fiber optics in my locomotives for headlights but that's about all it's good for..they don't make good street lights or target lights...I use two different strands, a 1.5 mm for the headlights (flare the end with a lighter or candle flame) and .75 mm for ditch lights...I run them to the back of the locomotive inside the shell to a "White light" LED and hold the fiber optic strands together with heat shrink tubing..they are really nice lights on the locomotive..here's a pic of how it looks (sorry..don't have pics of the locomotives with ditch lights right off hand) ...send me an e-mail and i'll send you back a diagram of how to install them in a diesel locomotive using the fiber optics and the white light LED's...chuck