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New Strange research request
Many years ago I went to Disney and I was amazed by the LED blocks. That means there were cement pavement blocks that had fiber optic driven visuals. I always wanted to create this.

10 years later I had my own house and I had to replace my cement on my sidewalk and I blew the opportunity.

I'm about to have a cement pour it in a week. I would like to construct some type of grid that sends fiber optic cables up without harming the strength of the cement. It will be 6 in high by 12 ft by 20 ft with no reinforcement. At least not steel bar reinforcement.

I should be able to construct some type of grid to feed these cables through and place it in some manner so that when the cement is poured they stick out the top and then we can shave them off. I see all kinds of various light show cable bundles on Amazon but I have no idea if any of them will work for the situation.

First of all, do you need a special kind of fiber optic cable when feeding through cement? Cement is highly caustic while it is curing. Will it hurt the cable?

I will have to feed a bundle of cable out of the side via some type of tube. Do I need any type of specialized conduit?

The light show choices on Amazon are varied and I don't believe any of them. I've bought various light toys off of Amazon and they just never lived up to their b******* promises. I miss the old light toys from Spencer's gifts.

Does anyone have any recommendation for any particular light toy to drive this application?
New It looks like people have done it for countertops, etc.
Presumably it will work outside as well.

E.g. https://homesteady.com/12616823/how-to-install-fiber-optics-into-a-concrete-surface

There are lots of YouTube videos as well.

Optical fibers are just glass (or plastic). There should be no issue with using them in concrete. The various ties to keep them in the position you want (one video (part 2 of 23 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKwnE-uHI5A ) shows them using nylon cable ties to tie them to the steel wire grid) may have more impact on the concrete strength (presumably small ties are better).

There are also optical fibers that are designed to be "leaky" so that the side of the fiber lights up. I don't know much about them.

https://bllighting.com/product-types/optical-fiber/ seems to be a decent site for professional products. (They're in Vancouver but have US distributors.) Even if you don't want to use stuff like that, it might help you know what is available and what to look for. (via - https://www.ecmag.com/section/fiber-optics/fiber-optics-lighting )

Presumably you want to seal the surface as well as you can once the concrete has cured (the concrete and glass/plastic may expand at different rates, giving a path for water to get in and eventual cracking, etc.).

I cannot recommend any brands, etc. Your Google-fu is as good as mine.

Sounds like a fun project, but it also sounds like you don't have much time!

Good luck!

Cheers,
Scott.
     Strange research request - (crazy) - (1)
         It looks like people have done it for countertops, etc. - (Another Scott)

Only technical details are missing.
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