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DiY Fiber Optic Light Using ESP8266

59 points by adysan 11y ago

phyber 11y ago
fun project sorry this is off topic of the OP but on topic for fiber: a few months ago i saw a video on youtube of a person projecting video, or perhaps still images, through a fiber cable since then i've been unable to find the video and i've been unable to figure out the right combination of words to be able to search for it online has anyone seen this video? know where to find it? have any information on projection through fiber? was it a hoax? did i dream it up?
- adysan 11y ago
  Thanks. Did a quick search, are you referring to this? http://video.mit.edu/watch/fiber-optic-bundle-11499/ http://video.mit.edu/watch/fiber-optic-bundle-11499/ Looks like they removed it, try contacting them.
  - phyber 11y ago
    the video i am referring to was just one guy sitting at a desk holding a single fiber cable in his hand and projecting some image onto the wall and desk and whatever he pointed it at.. i've seen that mit video in the search results but the description: "The image of printed words is transmitted through a bundle of approximately 25,000 coherent optical fibers and projected onto a screen"; states more than one fiber the actual video itself aside i just wonder if there is any information on image projection through a single fiber
    - adysan 11y ago
      Nah, image through a single fiber sounds like a hoax, it's against the physics of how optic fibers work. But if it's a bundle on fibers, I can see how that would work, but again, projecting it onto a surface seems unlikely. The moment the light leaves the fiber, it starts dispersing.
HorizonXP 11y ago
Awesome! Going to have to do this myself.
NotPhillipsHue 11y ago
Not Phillips hue related at all; it's like you have no idea how Philips hue works. It's a diy wifi bulb plain and simple.
- dang 11y ago
  You're right that the submitted title ("Philips Hue Fiber Optic Light Using ESP8266") was misleading, since the blog post makes clear it's a clone. But your comment would be a lot more valuable if it dropped the personal swipe ("it's like you have no idea") and taught us specifically why. As it stands, it's just an acerbic dismissal, and that makes for a poor HN comment, especially when the target is someone's work.
  - adysan 11y ago
    got similar feedback on reddit too https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/40w7et/philips_hue_fiber_optic_light_using_esp8266/cyxu43z https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/40w7et/philips_hue... I can see how people can get worked up over this. Here's what I replied over there: Thanks for pointing that out. I agree that from a technical standpoint this is not the same as a Philips Hue bulb or light strip. If you look at it from a users point of view, all Philips Hue is a lamp that you control the Brightness and Hue of. This gives you that functionality. No Zigbee protocol. True, but in the context of HomeKit/HAP-NodeJS, does it matter how the bridge talks to the light? I might as well be using 433MHz transceivers, nRFs, or directly controlling the Raspberry Pi's GPIOs. For that matter, ZigBee would be doable too, but I don't know enough about the protocol to see it's benefits. No smart mesh network where each device extends your coverage. True, but a mesh network can be implemented with ESP8266. But if my whole house has WiFi, I don't see the point. No possible compatibility with either Phillips' Hue bridge, Hue remotes, or any other kind of Hue hardware (like Phillips' Hue+Ambilight TV's). Actually, using the Philips Hue shim in Homebridge, I believe it should be possible to make it compatible to Hue bridge. My motivation behind making this was to prove that with ESP8266 based projects, you don't need to have a clunky web UI or a custom app. This lamp can be controlled with any app that support HomeKit. Philips Hue was just the most similar commercial product I could think of. Btw, HAP-nodeJS can be completely eliminated here by using nRF51/52 BTLE chips. They can emulate the HomeKit API and control the NeoPixels both in one chip, so no bridge necessary!
unwind 11y ago
Nice! Totally amazed by the Siri integration, had no idea you could do things like that. Not an Apple user, so I don't follow that corner of the DIY world.

59 points by adysan 11y ago

fun project sorry this is off topic of the OP but on topic for fiber: a few months ago i saw a video on youtube of a person projecting video, or perhaps still images, through a fiber cable since then i've been unable to find the video and i've been unable to figure out the right combination of words to be able to search for it online has anyone seen this video? know where to find it? have any information on projection through fiber? was it a hoax? did i dream it up?

adysan 11y ago
Thanks. Did a quick search, are you referring to this? http://video.mit.edu/watch/fiber-optic-bundle-11499/ http://video.mit.edu/watch/fiber-optic-bundle-11499/ Looks like they removed it, try contacting them.
- phyber 11y ago
  the video i am referring to was just one guy sitting at a desk holding a single fiber cable in his hand and projecting some image onto the wall and desk and whatever he pointed it at.. i've seen that mit video in the search results but the description: "The image of printed words is transmitted through a bundle of approximately 25,000 coherent optical fibers and projected onto a screen"; states more than one fiber the actual video itself aside i just wonder if there is any information on image projection through a single fiber
  - adysan 11y ago
    Nah, image through a single fiber sounds like a hoax, it's against the physics of how optic fibers work. But if it's a bundle on fibers, I can see how that would work, but again, projecting it onto a surface seems unlikely. The moment the light leaves the fiber, it starts dispersing.

HorizonXP 11y ago

Awesome! Going to have to do this myself.

NotPhillipsHue 11y ago

Not Phillips hue related at all; it's like you have no idea how Philips hue works. It's a diy wifi bulb plain and simple.

dang 11y ago
You're right that the submitted title ("Philips Hue Fiber Optic Light Using ESP8266") was misleading, since the blog post makes clear it's a clone. But your comment would be a lot more valuable if it dropped the personal swipe ("it's like you have no idea") and taught us specifically why. As it stands, it's just an acerbic dismissal, and that makes for a poor HN comment, especially when the target is someone's work.
- adysan 11y ago
  got similar feedback on reddit too https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/40w7et/philips_hue_fiber_optic_light_using_esp8266/cyxu43z https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/40w7et/philips_hue... I can see how people can get worked up over this. Here's what I replied over there: Thanks for pointing that out. I agree that from a technical standpoint this is not the same as a Philips Hue bulb or light strip. If you look at it from a users point of view, all Philips Hue is a lamp that you control the Brightness and Hue of. This gives you that functionality. No Zigbee protocol. True, but in the context of HomeKit/HAP-NodeJS, does it matter how the bridge talks to the light? I might as well be using 433MHz transceivers, nRFs, or directly controlling the Raspberry Pi's GPIOs. For that matter, ZigBee would be doable too, but I don't know enough about the protocol to see it's benefits. No smart mesh network where each device extends your coverage. True, but a mesh network can be implemented with ESP8266. But if my whole house has WiFi, I don't see the point. No possible compatibility with either Phillips' Hue bridge, Hue remotes, or any other kind of Hue hardware (like Phillips' Hue+Ambilight TV's). Actually, using the Philips Hue shim in Homebridge, I believe it should be possible to make it compatible to Hue bridge. My motivation behind making this was to prove that with ESP8266 based projects, you don't need to have a clunky web UI or a custom app. This lamp can be controlled with any app that support HomeKit. Philips Hue was just the most similar commercial product I could think of. Btw, HAP-nodeJS can be completely eliminated here by using nRF51/52 BTLE chips. They can emulate the HomeKit API and control the NeoPixels both in one chip, so no bridge necessary!

unwind 11y ago

Nice! Totally amazed by the Siri integration, had no idea you could do things like that. Not an Apple user, so I don't follow that corner of the DIY world.