I beat them by 34 years. Back in 1992, I bridged an AppleTalk network between two buildings that exceeded the approximately 150 foot limit of AppleTalk networks by building a very similar setup to the one in the article. The network speeds AppleTalk were just 115/230 KBPS it wasn't a crazy timing critical requirement so I just experimented with using light as a link between two network segments. Back then visible laser diodes were very costly so I used 960nm laser diodes like you would find in a CD player. They still cost a fair amount back then but didn't break the bank. A few clever uses of some Op-Amps and comparators and a few lenses and mirrors and I was able to build an optical link that worked. It was a fun project but it got replaced with an ethernet network in less than a year of use.
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I beat them by 34 years. Back in 1992, I bridged an AppleTalk network between two buildings that exceeded the approximately 150 foot limit of AppleTalk networks by building a very similar setup to the one in the article. The network speeds AppleTalk were just 115/230 KBPS it wasn't a crazy timing critical requirement so I just experimented with using light as a link between two network segments. Back then visible laser diodes were very costly so I used 960nm laser diodes like you would find in a CD player. They still cost a fair amount back then but didn't break the bank. A few clever uses of some Op-Amps and comparators and a few lenses and mirrors and I was able to build an optical link that worked. It was a fun project but it got replaced with an ethernet network in less than a year of use.