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A comment on Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament f... by kobalsky on Thursday April 11, 2024 @12:59PM (#40004343)
Maybe I'm not understanding the blog post so bear with me. Isn't what he is described what a time domain reflectometer does? [1]. I mean that's what it's used to detect breaks or kinks in fiber optics cables. The same tech is used to detect problems in civil infrastructure with embbeded fiber optics.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_time-domain_reflectome...

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Re:Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament f... by 00702 on Thursday April 11, 2024 @01:14PM (#40004492)
Oh yeah cable companies have long been able to do that - I wasn't trying to compete with or replace that technology. My work was soft robotics-focused with simplicity in mind.
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Re:Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament f... by georgeburdell on Thursday April 11, 2024 @01:16PM (#40004529)
Yeah my thoughts exactly. OTDR is what the optical networking industry uses (for much larger runs of fiber) to find kinks/breaks.
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Re:Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament f... by moralestapia on Thursday April 11, 2024 @01:47PM (#40004831)
It could still be a novelty if it uses a slightly different method or even materials. Hence why the advice is to get this on the hands of IP experts.
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Re:Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament f... by georgeburdell on Thursday April 11, 2024 @02:44PM (#40005419)
I wasn't commenting on the novelty aspect, I was more wondering in which situations the author's device might be better. Also, the author noted they started with a time of flight sensor, which would have made it extremely similar to OTDR
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