Moreau Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 This site was brought up in a previous LED post, but I was curious if anyone thinks you could use this as an LED system? http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Kits.htm Item FSK-2 and it would wire up like this: Battery___LED______|______|______|______|______|______|______| Each of the vertical bars, being the fret dots. Could add a switch no prob. You may need to buy more connectors, but is this not basically an LED system? just cut n connect with T-Shaped Connectors. Looks very professional too. Not some radio shack hack job. Let me know what u think. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 (edited) I don't think there is such a thing as a T connector for fiberoptics. If you want to light your fret markers with a fiber optic wire you will need one wire per marker you wish to light, if I'm not mistaken. if you look in the tutorial section there is a great tutorial on putting leds in a fretboard. Check out this link LED turorial Edited November 23, 2004 by jer7440 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveq Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 That's where I get my fiber from. I don't use it as often as embedding LEDs though. The biggest problem I have with that stuff is the bending radius. I have not been able to find connectors that work well inside a fretboard. You can use lightpipes to do the angles but I have not been able to find lightpipes small enough yet. When I have used fiber, I've had to use the super-thin stuff. I don't think I used anything above .75mm due to the bending radius and the bundle size. Finding small lightpipes would be key. If anyone finds any, please let us know! It would still be a bit of a task though - joining the fiber with the lightpipes but with practice I'm sure there would be a way. I'm just finishing up another LED fretboard/neck now. I did front dots this time. I was going to use fiber for the side dots but I wasn't happy with the amount of wood I was going to have to route away. If you are able to come up some angled pipes/connectors small enough, I'd love to see! DaveQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moreau Posted November 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 Im sure if you had to, you might be able to take out a lil room from the neck itself. but correct me if im wrong, im not sure. especially as it would be on the bass side. but the idea of using .75mm cable is kool. could u not run aline to each do, and then, use one of those 25 line connectors and put an LED in it. this would be in the body of course. but it would draw little power and only one LED to service or fix if need be. all in the body. This is your idea from ur post is it not? Im just trying to see if i understand it. thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveq Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 I think we are understanding eachother. You'd use as many pieces of .75mm cable as you need for dots, inlay, ... and run them back into the body where a single 5mm LED would sit. You could use more than one LED but it wouldn't be needed. What I meant by the removal of wood comment was that I have already routed a bunch for the front LED markers and I didn't want to route more fretboard away for side markers as well. It's not that it can't be done, I just didn't want to do it on the neck I'm building now. Keep me in mind though if you ever find right angle light pipes or similar for directing the larger fiber (which has a larger bending radius). That would solve a bunch of issues with the larger cable. DaveQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moreau Posted November 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 what unit would you use for the led? is there something on www.fiberopticproducts.com you could point me towards? i dont know anything about fiber optics... id like to get a parts list together. so, it would just be a battery n switch going to an LED with an attachment to the led wires? so when u install the .75mm wire, the strand curves up over a few frets? do u run it shallow then ange the hole on the edge of the fingerboard? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.