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Build Your Own 10Mbit/sec Optical Data Link

Posted by timothy on from the neighbornet dept.

redcliffe writes: "This website has complete plans to build a 10 megabit per second optical data link that can work over up to 1 kilometre. It uses fairly cheap components, such as standard LED's instead of laser diodes. This also makes it a lot safer to work with, i.e. you won't burn your eyes out if you accidently look into it."

3 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. How do you aim with these things? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    you wont be able to see em from 1km away, so how would you kow where to aim the things?

  2. Re:Sigh... by mlknowle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Exactly - the biggest saftey risk here is those nasty cuts you can give yourself with Fiber Optic tubing.

    I once had a .5mm strand of the stuff stuck in my thum - it took weeks of soaking in warm water to get it out.

  3. OT a little but stuff optical, go with speakers :) by new500 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    . .

    Hey, flame / mod me away here - I deserve it because I've been looking for a thread in which to post this rejected story sub from a week ago . . But what the heck here it is anyway :

    ( I was originally going to say this post is well OT because of the distance limitations of the below, but what about using this transmission in a PA system at a stadium, or a train station, where volumes and hence transmission possibilities are greater / farther? And just how much is over the air networking really explored by companies? This story is already dang good and right where it hurts for community and campus networks, but if I were building this kit for business I'd be thinking that planning permission would be the area I'd be researching most. In other words, do the "amateurs" have a real chance at a lead in this technology, especially price / performance wise? After all, you and I personally *don't* have to make budgets for contingent liability just in case the town planning dept. gets difficult. I'm all for guerilla networks - take a look at the below . . )

    Aerial Acoustic Communications


    Network with just a pair of pc speakers and a $5 mic! This recent paper explains the theory and writes up the experiment.

    This may not be the answer to all your needs - 1000bps was one of the best results - but the authors talk about short distance communications for PDAs, or a television using sound for remote control. The environmental noise against which the authors deployed Spread Spectrum techniques, and a reference to audio steganography make for interesting reading, and radio hams may appreciate the use of FSK. Is this the future, or just a hint that playing albums backwards wasn't really the way to get the message?

    There's also a lecture video here which was held at PARC on 11/8/01. You can grab the stream as a file using ASF Recorder or you can read up on some applications musings here. Happy Listening . .

    .