There exist power over fiber components that can provide 3v 180mA from 1.5W of 800nm infrared light coming through a standard multimode optical fiber.

chaos.social F4GRX SÃ©bastien (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Wow. Did you know this? There exist *power over fiber* components that can provide 3v 180mA from 1.5W of 800nm infrared light coming through a standard multimode optical fiber. These are very expensive, but also very cool! https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2785190.pdf

This Mastodon post hit #1 on Hacker News today, I think people around here would be interested.

Then you look at the $350 price point and walk away.

Hacker News @derp.foo

Power over Fibre (3v 180mA)

chaos.social /@f4grx/111697027153656114

5 0

8 comments

I just googled "low power camera module" and found this consuming 14ma. That would leave 166ma available for encoding/signaling circuitry.
So you could dangle a camera off of a single strand of fiber with zero EM interference in transmission for miles. Sounds like a good application for deep sea use.
- Maybe not miles. Even in Fiber Optics, there is a degree of attenuation / power loss as the cable absorbs some light and emits it as heat. But you might get a good enough distance before enough energy dissipates.
  
  Multimode cable tho, doesn't go very far

1.5W of 800nm infrared light

I don't know why this is so big. Apologies.
- Don't worry. Its infrared. You'll never see it coming (and probably never see anything else coming after it either...)

So only 30% efficient?
- It's power over light. You're gonna lose some of it.
  It's incredible you can do this at all really.
  
  $350 and 30% efficient today, $3.50 and 90% efficient* in a decade. Gotta start somewhere.

8 comments