Re: Optical broadcasting
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 2:02 am
Hi Steve,
As a thought what about trying a 5ghz video sender located on a convenient place some distance away? This could be your "receive end".
Also you can easily buy neutral density filters for optical light which are effectively an "optical attenuator", or even make ones using such things as sheets of paper, etc.
This would permit simulation of a longer path without the need for actually involving those distances, making your R&D easier.
When you are ready, we have a few sites which are some distance apart as you know. Some of them aren't that far from you. I would be interested to try some long-haul links and put some form of logger onto them to see what the availability actually is.
On some sites, I can tell you from experience, you will have problems with the "natives" if you start putting visual light on the masts, and most site owners would prefer not to have visual light on their masts for this reason, so it may be worth considering a mixture configuration for your development, perhaps a static red LED for alignment coupled with a high intensity IR LED.
This way you can start to actually develop the long-range IR solution, using "attenuators" that you put in line, and using IR LEDs.
It would also be interesting to see the difference between low IR and high IR, the lower and high wavelengths. I am told the very low IR works surprisingly well, often more than compensating for the lower powers available down there, but it would be interesting to see this in practice.
Hope this is of interest, keep up the good work.
As a thought what about trying a 5ghz video sender located on a convenient place some distance away? This could be your "receive end".
Also you can easily buy neutral density filters for optical light which are effectively an "optical attenuator", or even make ones using such things as sheets of paper, etc.
This would permit simulation of a longer path without the need for actually involving those distances, making your R&D easier.
When you are ready, we have a few sites which are some distance apart as you know. Some of them aren't that far from you. I would be interested to try some long-haul links and put some form of logger onto them to see what the availability actually is.
On some sites, I can tell you from experience, you will have problems with the "natives" if you start putting visual light on the masts, and most site owners would prefer not to have visual light on their masts for this reason, so it may be worth considering a mixture configuration for your development, perhaps a static red LED for alignment coupled with a high intensity IR LED.
This way you can start to actually develop the long-range IR solution, using "attenuators" that you put in line, and using IR LEDs.
It would also be interesting to see the difference between low IR and high IR, the lower and high wavelengths. I am told the very low IR works surprisingly well, often more than compensating for the lower powers available down there, but it would be interesting to see this in practice.
Hope this is of interest, keep up the good work.