Fiber Optic to see Heartbeat light

[Dave_C]

Fellow Machinist:

I've read a few post from people wishing that the power light and the Heart Beat light could be seen when we close the control panel door.

Has anyone come up with a solution that works?

I'm thinking if I had some fiber optic cable that I could fasten one end in front of the lights on the board and then rout the other end to a red and green lens in my panels front door, then maybe I could transmit enough light to tell what is going on.

This would be helpful on startup so I know the heat beat light is pulsing before I try to boot CNC 12.

Any thoughts?

Dave C.

[martyscncgarage]

Yes, filament would work. Light pipe perhaps?
Hopefully they will add a header so one could connect an LED remotely if it's possible.

[DICKEYBIRD]

I was going to stick an old USB webcam next to mine but never did. My Acorns learned how to behave & I never got around to it.

[robtown]

I was just sitting here thinking “it sure would be nice to be able to see that heartbeat led on the outside of my case...”

[Dan M]

How about cutting a lexan mirror and some double side tape? I have a hole in the side of my encloser that was originally for the ethernet cable that I put a piece of lexan over and I have a small window now that I can see the lights from. A whoops moment turned into something useful in my case lol.

Dan

[BDubs]

The light pipe idea sorta works using a 6" piece of TGlase clear PET 3D print filament with shrink over all but the ends - butted up to the heartbeat LED...however, it's pretty faint and you'd be hard pressed to see it under the lights of the shop. It just isn't bright enough.

I guess it depends how fancy you want to get and how important it really is to you. For me, as long as it is connected and I can move things around, I really don't care if that LED is blinking or not...when things don't move, then I care - and if I have to get under the hood and look around, I can just as easily look at that LED on the Beaglebone.

If you absolutely want it - I would get an arduino and light sensor - get the light sensor right under the LED and have the arduino light up an external LED of your choosing - however bright you want - whenever that heartbeat LED lights up. The code is pretty simple (just modify the very first 'Blink' tutorial code for your new LED & conditions) The overall thing is cheap - but your biggest challenge will be interfacing the light detector in such a way as to not short out the BB.

[DICKEYBIRD]

I bought a few feet of this stuff a while back. The orange LED on the Acorn is fairly easy to see remotely with it in the tests I ran. Actually installing it on the lathe is on my "Round Tuit" list.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/6mm-Solid-Core ... 544ee8f4e7

[robtown]

If you absolutely want it - I would get an arduino and light sensor - get the light sensor right under the LED and have the arduino light up an external LED of your choosing - however bright you want - whenever that heartbeat LED lights up. The code is pretty simple (just modify the very first 'Blink' tutorial code for your new LED & conditions) The overall thing is cheap - but your biggest challenge will be interfacing the light detector in such a way as to not short out the BB.

Way too much effort...
Something like this might work though:
http://www.alliedmoulded.com/catalog/in ... amhmi66cx/

Or just a little viewing peephole... I can’t seem to figure out the correct search term for it, but I’ve seen something like what I’m thinking about on furnaces. A small round plastic window, that magnifies a little bit, positioned over the furnace control board so you can see the led indicator light on the control board.

On edit:
Googled "plastic sight glass"... found some interesting items that might work.

[DICKEYBIRD]

The orange LED on the Acorn...

To clarify the issue my 1st generation Acorn has is: The heartbeat light never fails to come on but the orange activity light next to it won't come on intermittently on the initial start-up of the day. No orange light = no comms & I get the time-out error. A shut down/restart usually gets gets it working. I assume its something to do with the Beaglebone startup glitch discussed on various forums. No biggie, I just open the front panel, slide out my equipt tray & push the start button. Soon as the orange LED lights up I KNOW it's good to go. The fiber optics cable will make the process easier but so far it hasn't installed itself.

[Dave_C]

No orange light = no comms & I get the time-out error

Milton,

I had this issue as well but I found out that if I started my computer first and let it come full up then turn on the power to the Acorn board, all the start up porblems went away.

100% starts using this proceedure.

The reason is that the ethernet port is not "active" until the computer is fairly well along on the start up process. Just watch the orange (some are red) and green transmit and recieve lights on the ethernet port and you can tell when it is "talking".

The Acorn board then has an ethernet port with the same lights and it has to handshake with an active port before it shows its lights. (confirmed connection)


Dave C.