Fibre Optic Cables? Make your own....

[makar0n]

4 hours ago, TimG said:

I thought you'd been quiet. We missed you! Hope your Xmas and NY were good

Thanks, missed the Waterpixel crew as well! Hope you all had a nice time and Santa did not bring too many coal bags, broken snorkels, or worse, Macbooks 😉

[Muellema]

On 1/9/2024 at 2:14 PM, makar0n said:

 

I think I will find enough for 2 cables but unsure about 4.  But let me check, only back in the land of chocolate and taxes recently. I should be around Germland possibly in a week or two though. I will ping you once I have some idea, so we can sort out the shipping. I definitely want avoid using Bpost from here....

Hi Makar0n,

 

thanks for reply & offer. Just path me pm once you know details. We can then clarify shipment 6 payment.

 

Br Markus

[brightnight]

This post is awesome, just what I was looking for? Couple questions:

 

-Anyone have a sense of how long a cable you can make? If I wanted a 15ft fiber optic cable I assume that would still effectively trigger the flash

-Has anyone made a splitter? Would like to make a Y cable to trigger two flashes off one cable

[TimG]

3 minutes ago, brightnight said:

-Anyone have a sense of how long a cable you can make? If I wanted a 15ft fiber optic cable I assume that would still effectively trigger the flash

 

A case of suck it and see, I think. I watched fibre being installed to my apartment in Sint Maarten and that was WAY longer than 15ft so my guess is, not a problem! 

 

I don't think you can split a cable - or at least I've never heard or seen of one - but it's easy enough to drive 2 strobes from one bulkhead using one of the 2-hole Inons bushes. If one cable is essential, could you not use a slave trigger on the second strobe?

 

[brightnight]

slave trigger was my backup plan but figure if I can save the $300 on a trigger I might as well split a cable. I'm sure I can design a fiber breakout board that does as many stobes as I want but easiest way would be to split the cable if that's possible.

[makar0n]

On 1/11/2024 at 6:22 AM, Muellema said:

Hi Makar0n,

 

thanks for reply & offer. Just path me pm once you know details. We can then clarify shipment 6 payment.

 

Br Markus

 

Just had a look, 2m is doable, more unfortunately not, as its cutting into my last-resort-backup cable reserve 😉

Might be able to post next week, just cover the postage and we are good.

Edited January 18 by makar0n

[CaolIla]

Some Idea I have, and partialy made.

1) using bigger fiber cable. , done. 

To do 

2) make a some connection  to couple 2 cable together base on the standard connection of Inon. Is to try if with more than one section of cable it works like with one

 

If yes

3) make new arm with fiber cable in it. with a  in and out Inon connection (female)

4) only have a set of small cable to join all the part housing-arm1-arm2-flash with  Inon male connectors

 

will be done before the next holyday in mai 

I'll make a review of my DIY 😉

[johnohuk]

I make my own cables from 4mm single core fibre optic, link below but I bought 15m and so had a quite a bit left to test with. In fact, it triggered my strobes over a 10m length. Source was an Olympus EM-5 with accessory flash (FL-LM2) to a Inon Z-240. I won't use that sort of length but the cable works really well.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223205400644?var=522004584178

 

"Fibre optic lighting cable in 3 mm / 4 mm black PVC waterproof tube (DIY)"

 

I use the "Sourcingmap 20pcs 27mmx7mmx4mm Micro Strain Relief Cord Boot Protector" and "sourcingmap Fluorine Rubber O-Rings, 7mm OD 5mm ID 1mm Width FKM Seal Gasket for Machinery Plumbing, Green, Pack of 50"  off Amazon to make the connectors..

 

 

[FrancoisC]

3 hours ago, johnohuk said:

I make my own cables from 4mm single core fibre optic, link below but I bought 15m and so had a quite a bit left to test with. In fact, it triggered my strobes over a 10m length. Source was an Olympus EM-5 with accessory flash (FL-LM2) to a Inon Z-240. I won't use that sort of length but the cable works really well.

 

 

 

 

I use same kind of 4mm cable with EM1 mk2 and FL-LM3 triggering Retra Pro-X
It works alse very well.

[Chris Ross]

On 1/18/2024 at 5:26 PM, brightnight said:

slave trigger was my backup plan but figure if I can save the $300 on a trigger I might as well split a cable. I'm sure I can design a fiber breakout board that does as many stobes as I want but easiest way would be to split the cable if that's possible.

It will depend on a lot of things including how bright your trigger source is and what strobe you are trying to trigger.  With a mini-flash and an INON strobe I suspect it would be easy.  With an LED trigger and a YS-D2 you would probably struggle.  I think splitting is probably not going to work and what to do depends upon what problem you are trying to solve. 

 

If you have a single fibre port, the twin hole INON bush will allow you to have two cables in one port, BUT if you are using a trigger with this I have seen reports of it not working as the narrow LED beam is not aligned under the cable properly . 

 

If you have two strobes at the end of a long cable run, daisy chaining them triggering second  strobe off the output of the first would be a good solution.  INON also have what they call a wireless connection system - a couple of mirrors to direct light from a trigger into a second strobe:  http://www.inon.jp/products/strobe/optical/wireless.html   though that probably risks being triggered by other strobes in the area.

[bvanant]

splitters exist for topside FO work. Here is a $13 1-8. Fiberone makes a 1x2. We use some more expensive ones in our lab to run spectrometers.

[Scubakron]

On 12/21/2023 at 4:58 PM, TimG said:

Yeah, that thought struck me too, makar0n......

I've just emailed various fibre suppliers in Europe to see if they have that 613 core, so let's see what happens. 

Another possibility is if a member is heading to the US and can bring a bundle back. It weighs nothing and if it's not on the cable drum, takes up little space. We might be able to do a bulk order again. 

The Inon single L-shape bush you suggest from Onderwaterhuis would work well.

It was Oskar at Retra who told me about the problems of cutting fibre with scissors. One other thing he mentioned that can impact on TTL-quality transmission: offset two-hole bushes.  One central hole in a bush delivers a more reliable signal than a bush with two holes.

 

Great thread! Any replies from european suppliers?
I've been doing my own fiber cables for years but never had any chance to get hold of the 613 multi core. I usually use single core that's not reliable and snaps to easily.
Latest try is a 6mm solid single core. Thought I could just wrap some tape around it to make some sort of connector, but it's not a good solution. Thought of going for a 3 or 4mm single core and 3d-print a connector but a 613 multicore seems way more interesting if I only could find somewhere to buy it within EU or with reasonable shipping to EU.

[Dave_Hicks]

3 hours ago, Scubakron said:

Great thread! Any replies from european suppliers?
I've been doing my own fiber cables for years but never had any chance to get hold of the 613 multi core. I usually use single core that's not reliable and snaps to easily.
Latest try is a 6mm solid single core. Thought I could just wrap some tape around it to make some sort of connector, but it's not a good solution. Thought of going for a 3 or 4mm single core and 3d-print a connector but a 613 multicore seems way more interesting if I only could find somewhere to buy it within EU or with reasonable shipping to EU.

A good fall back to multi core is a 2mm OD TosLink cable you can buy anywhere. It is nearly as good as multi-core at light transmission, but maybe not as robust. 

 

I tend to make my cables 1 meter long, sometimes 1.5 meter for extra-long arms. Find a Toslink with 2mm OD  that is several meters long and you will be good. These are very inexpensive on Amazon.

 

I posted a thread with 3d printed designs for connectors that work perfectly with 2mm cables. 

 

 

 

Edited March 13 by Dave_Hicks
Typo

[TimG]

8 minutes ago, Dave_Hicks said:

A good fall back to multi core is a 2mm OD TosLink cable you can buy anywhere. It is nearly as good as multi-core at light transmission, but maybe not as robust. 

 

I tend to make my cables 1 meter long, sometimes 1.5 meter for extra-long arms. Find a Toslink with 2m OD  that is several meters long and you will be good. These are very inexpensive on Amazon.

 

 

 

Yep, agreed on the Toslink. It works seemingly just as well; and, yeah, Amazon is your Toslink friend. Just cut off the connectors using a box cutter. 

[TimG]

58 minutes ago, Scubakron said:

Great thread! Any replies from european suppliers?

Annoyingly nothing vaguely helpful. It left me wondering what Europe uses for fibre. 
 

Perhaps folks in the U.K./EU who might be interested in clubbing together for a bulk 613 order from the US could post here with how much they’d like? If it’s worthwhile  I’ll look into the possibilities. 

[makar0n]

On 3/13/2024 at 9:14 PM, TimG said:

Annoyingly nothing vaguely helpful. It left me wondering what Europe uses for fibre. 
 

Perhaps folks in the U.K./EU who might be interested in clubbing together for a bulk 613 order from the US could post here with how much they’d like? If it’s worthwhile  I’ll look into the possibilities. 

 

Hmm I could be up for another 4-6m, as barely have anything left now -  won't hurt to stock up 😉 

[TimG]

18 minutes ago, makar0n said:

 

Hmm I could be up for another 4-6m, as barely have anything left now -  won't hurt to stock up 😉 

 

Noted!

 

[Chris Ross]

On 3/14/2024 at 7:03 AM, TimG said:

Yep, agreed on the Toslink. It works seemingly just as well; and, yeah, Amazon is your Toslink friend. Just cut off the connectors using a box cutter. 

The toslink connectors themselves will fit in a Sea&Sea standard socket if you shave the corners off the square connector that surrounds the round metal piece which holds the fibre - just trim carefully with a Stanley knife.  I've purchased a toslink cable in the past to get me out of trouble.

[brightnight]

Made my first set of cables today. Originally cut the fiber with sissors and couldn't get the strobe to trigger. Used a razor blade to cut the fiber and now it's firing every time. Pretty pumped! Based on reccomendations from this thread I went with DiverVision for the parts and INDUSTRIAL FIBER OPTICS for the fiber optic cable: 

81 0556 - 613-core Fused Multi-core Simplex Cable, Polyethylene Jacket Leadtime:estimated 3-4 weeks- MCQ-1000

[Michael]

On 3/13/2024 at 9:14 PM, TimG said:

Annoyingly nothing vaguely helpful. It left me wondering what Europe uses for fibre. 
 

Perhaps folks in the U.K./EU who might be interested in clubbing together for a bulk 613 order from the US could post here with how much they’d like? If it’s worthwhile  I’ll look into the possibilities. 

Hi Tim,

unfortunately i gave away too much to my friends, so after i cut some to short i need some more...
If it's going to happen that we get a bulk order together, you can count me in for another 12 m.

Or does somebody have a few meters of the 613 left? I would need 5 m as soon as i can get my hands on...

Edited July 30 by Michael

[TimG]

Argh! 
 

At the moment no one else seems to want fibre cable so no plans for a bulk order currently. Sorry, Michael. It seems odd to me that we can’t find it in Europe. Anyone know why?

[Michael]

4 minutes ago, TimG said:

Argh! 
 

At the moment no one else seems to want fibre cable so no plans for a bulk order currently. Sorry, Michael. It seems odd to me that we can’t find it in Europe. Anyone know why?

i just saw that Macar0n also fancies 4-6 m. But that is not enough to get a bulk order yet. Too bad that i-fibreoptics charge 150$ for shipping... (plus tax it doesn't make sense...).

Maybe too many people don't want to save money on DIY-cables und prefer to buy them from the shelf.


I really don't know why we don't find them in Europe. I've been searching every few weeks but with no luck. 



 

[fruehaufsteher2]

2 hours ago, Michael said:

i just saw that Macar0n also fancies 4-6 m. But that is not enough to get a bulk order yet. Too bad that i-fibreoptics charge 150$ for shipping... (plus tax it doesn't make sense...).
 

Did you ask i-fiberoptics about alternative shipping other than UPS? I think they stated that you could ask them individually....?

[TimG]

Whenever I’ve asked them a question they’ve just referred me to the costs listed on the website. 

[bvanant]

If you want to put together an order for say 20 meters, I will be happy to ship it to anyone via USPS. I have done this for individuals in Europe before.

BVA