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I have some equipment that is mounted some distance from the front panel on the wrong side. It has some flashing LEDs which are used to indicate whether the equipment is ready, in an error state etc. I am looking for an off the shelf method for bringing the flashing light to the front panel.

 ___________________
|  ________         |
| |        |        |
| |________|        |
|    *   *          |   <- LEDs on the device
|                   |
|___________________|
                 * *    <- Where they should appear in the front panel

I had a look at the PCs - they have the LED just behind some clear perspex: not 30cm away on the wrong side. All the cables are already the correct length so I can't shift the equipment. I don't know if cutting the perspex with a handsaw would dull it too much.

I had a look at optical fibre - it is really thin and does not emit enough light.

Is there a simple way of bringing the flashing light to the front panel?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Would a light pipe work for you? \$\endgroup\$
    – nanofarad
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 14:04
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    \$\begingroup\$ Can you solder a wire to move the led from PCB to the front panel? \$\endgroup\$
    – Deepak
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 14:09
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ This question is a bit broad to fit here, and the "off the shelf" request makes it sounds like a prohibited "shopping question". Depending on your comfort level and the number of copies needed, remoting the LEDs on wires may be an option. Many sub-modules (at least better ones) have status output signals or status register bits which could be read by something in the host system and used to re-generate status lights elsewhere. \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris Stratton
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 14:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ If they are throug-hole LEDs you may be able to replace them with 2-pin headers. The rest is easy. \$\endgroup\$
    – user16324
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 14:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ think nanofarad's answer is the right direction, my mechanical colleagues design and simulate light guides for our products, so I guess you should ask this in a mechanical / synthetic material forum. You need somebody with experience in 3D CAD and FEM simulations \$\endgroup\$
    – schnedan
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 14:46

1 Answer 1

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A light pipe, such as this example, is often used for this purpose. For example, I've seen these used to get status LEDs from a PCB of a disk enclosure on a server, to the front panel of each drive carrier.

Digikey and other distributors carry the flexible variety in a number of lengths, ranging from a few mm to over a meter.

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