Light Pipes

Ron Czapala

I placed a PING behind the front panel in my robot and needed a way to project the SMD LED thru the panel.

The PING Protector has a nice little light pipe for that purpose but I didn't want to remove it.

My initial effort involved using some heat shrink tubing with some tiny fiber optic filaments clipped from a Christmas tree. It worked okay but...

I ordered some 3mm White Core Light Pipe from SparkFun and it looks much better. They have it in Clear Core and 1ft or 5ft lengths and also in 6mm diameter.

You could use some heat shrink to connect it to an LED...

piguy101

Why is it necessary to see the light on the PING)))?

Matt Gilliland

Hi piguy101-

It's not really "necessary", but it does give you a visual indicator that the Ping is still operational and that your program isn't "locked up" - not that that's ever happened to me...I mean I've heard stories...;-)

-Matt

Ron Czapala

Here is the light pipe with a laser pointer (looks pink here but it is bright red)

Microcontrolled

I have 2 PING sensors that lock up in the middle of a program if you run them too fast or too long, with the occasional "pure random" fail. It's nice to see if they are still working or not.