Looking for Source of Cheap LED Light Pipes

[BobW]

I've built a few projects with those tiny little stamp sized modules—Arduino, ESP8266, Bluetooth Audio, etc.—and they all have on board LED indicators. Once these are built into their final project enclosure, I'd like some way to have the LED status visible to the user. You can buy panel mounted light pipes for this purpose, but they are expensive. All I'm looking for is something that looks like a clear plastic rivet (domed head and straight cylindrical body), that would be a press fit in a hole in the enclosure. Nothing fancy. I'm sure I've seen something like this at some point in the past, but can't remember where. Any ideas?

 

[Pommie]

You can get 3mm diameter acrylic rods very cheaply, heating this to 150C in an oven makes it very flexible. Would this serve your purpose?

Mike.

 

[Reloadron]

The Button or Mushroom head might be an issue but I would think a Plexiglass or Acrylic rod stock would work. If you are planning to use these in a finished product and intend to market (as in you want 1,000 pcs and have dimensions) you could likely contact people that make the stuff. I would start with a company like this one, call them and ask to speak with an applications engineer. You can try a dew short pieces of solid 0.250" stock and see if it works. You can apply heat to bend the stuff as required.

Ron

 

[BobW]

Acrylic rod would work. I guess I could get some and see how hard it would be to heat it, and form some kind of domed head, but I'd be happier if I could find individual pieces ready made. This is just for my own personal hobby projects. I don't need production quantities. I may have to make a trip to a craft supply store. They often have odd little bits and pieces that might work. Or, maybe stop at a bar and check out their swizzle sticks (and other things on offer).

 

[Pommie]

We use acrylic a lot in school and routinely heat it to 150c in order to bend it. Haven't tried molding it but cant see why it wouldn't work. Note, you need to maintain the shape until it cools.

Mike.

 

[Visitor]

Or you could order purpose-built light pipes at Digikey....

Digikey Light Pipes

 

[BobW]

Or you could order purpose-built light pipes at Digikey....

Digikey Light Pipes

That's interesting. I'd checked Digikey earlier for light pipes but nothing suitable seemed to come up. This last listing provided some useful possibilities. Something like this is roughly what I'm looking for, and the price is reasonable:

3-102-195 SCHURTER Inc. | Optoelectronics | DigiKey

Order today, ships today. 3-102-195 – Light Pipe Single Clear Flexible 1.29" (32.7mm) Board Mount, Press Fit from SCHURTER Inc.. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.

www.digikey.com

 

[Visitor]

I've used some similar ones from **broken link removed** I think.