DIY fiber optic writeup with parts

Can you try something like this from Ebay?  It says free world wide shipping.

I use the fiber like this (2mm version) with my Nauticam trigger and Inon 330's. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/5m-Black-Plastic-Pmma-End-Glow-Fiber-Optic-Cable-Light-Inner-Diameter-1mm-6mm/373009104276?hash=item56d9133d94:g:YIkAAOSw5BVehWPR

These will work with Inon strobes, but not likely with Sea and Sea. Also they are big (5 mm is quite large). It also depends a lot on the exact placement of the LED trigger (at least mine is quite sensitive to left-right alignment.

Bill

13 hours ago, bvanant said:

These will work with Inon strobes, but not likely with Sea and Sea. Also they are big (5 mm is quite large). It also depends a lot on the exact placement of the LED trigger (at least mine is quite sensitive to left-right alignment.

Bill

I said 2mm.  You can select from 1 - 5 mm.  The person I replied to has Inon 240s.  It will work just fine.

Great topic guys, really informative!

Can i ask for guidance as i am struggling to "bend" my 2.2mm 613 core fibre optic cable (one i purchased from a photo retailer), so that it fits in the S&S adaptor i have (brand is Howshot). See the photo attached.

Basically the shape of the groove is too curved for me to succeed in fitting the cable. Reading the above, i was thinking maybe i should first soak the cable into warm water, to make it more flexible. Would that help? I don't want to damage my cable neither :-)

On another note, as i have the Nauticam red LED flash trigger, and picky strobes (e.g. the Backscatter MF-1), i need to be wary about cable  quality if i am to follow you guys in some experimentation. One question i had: do you think the distance between the end of the cable and the actual "window" whereby the red light comes out of the Nauticam housing matters? I am asking because different Nauticam-to-sea&sea adapters have different heights...

I would think warm water would help you bend it, the recommended method to set fibre in a coil is to coil it on a form and dip it in very hot water and let it cool.  You could bend around a form of the right radius first and let it cool then fit it to adapter. 

The photo of the adapter is not showing up BTW. 

Can you try something like this from Ebay?  It says free world wide shipping.
I use the fiber like this (2mm version) with my Nauticam trigger and Inon 330's. 
 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/5m-Black-Plastic-Pmma-End-Glow-Fiber-Optic-Cable-Light-Inner-Diameter-1mm-6mm/373009104276?hash=item56d9133d94:g:YIkAAOSw5BVehWPR
 

3 hours ago, hellhole said:

Sorry. I wrote and ask them. How long are these?

Sent from my XQ-AT52 using Tapatalk
 

5 meters

10 hours ago, Nicool said:

Great topic guys, really informative!

Can i ask for guidance as i am struggling to "bend" my 2.2mm 613 core fibre optic cable (one i purchased from a photo retailer), so that it fits in the S&S adaptor i have (brand is Howshot). See the photo attached.

Basically the shape of the groove is too curved for me to succeed in fitting the cable. Reading the above, i was thinking maybe i should first soak the cable into warm water, to make it more flexible. Would that help? I don't want to damage my cable neither :-)

Hi Nicool

Although there's no pic attached, I think I know what you mean by the Howshot fitting you are using and the bend that's needed. I bought the fitting too some time ago.

I was able to get Toslink fibre cable to fit with a bit of a push and squeeze - eventually. As Chris says, some hot water should help with that too (as well as the "coiling"). 

11 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

I would think warm water would help you bend it, the recommended method to set fibre in a coil is to coil it on a form and dip it in very hot water and let it cool.  You could bend around a form of the right radius first and let it cool then fit it to adapter. 

The photo of the adapter is not showing up BTW. 

4 hours ago, TimG said:

Hi Nicool

Although there's no pic attached, I think I know what you mean by the Howshot fitting you are using and the bend that's needed. I bought the fitting too some time ago.

I was able to get Toslink fibre cable to fit with a bit of a push and squeeze - eventually. As Chris says, some hot water should help with that too (as well as the "coiling"). 

Thanks both! I just re-added the photo.

Will try the boiling water. I really like the shape of the angled Howshot s&s adapter, will be easy to plug/unplug underwater, which is my intent as i will be juggling more strobes in the future.

Warm water helps as does a moderate heating with a heat gun, but be careful. Certain fibers have minimum bend radii that are much bigger than the Howshot and you will lose lots of light. The multi-fibers are not a worry, they can bend over a 1 mm radius, but some of the  larger fibers like the 2mm end glow have 80 mm minimum bend radius for an 11% (0.5 dB) loss. 

Bill

Another thanks for this thread, I'm going to make me own based on this info as well. 

Question, has anyone ever tried to split a cable to fire two strobes with something like this? Working on a project where I'd like to fire 3. I was going to use the recommended Asahi Kasei MCQ-1000. 

https://www.i-fiberoptics.com/couplers-detail.php?id=4

My thought is to use a heat knife to help create the best end I can to maximize the throughput (is the correct term amplitude?). 

Or is there a better way to fire a 3rd strobe? I'm using the Nauticam LED trigger and a7riv housing along with a pair of ys-d2j and an older ys-d1.

The housing hasn't arrived yet, is it THIS along with the standard connection for the housing side? I also see this one, which looks perhaps like Backscatters version of the Nauticam one I linked to.

Thanks all!

Has anyone found the multi-core fiber optic cable in any store in Europe or an store in Aliexpress? Buying in USA has expensive shipping costs and customs tax payment. Thanks

Not the cable by itself but Tooke sells multi-core cables on Ali quite cheaply.

Bill

There is an interesting thread in a French underwater photography forum on using large (4 mm) fiber optic cables.

These fibers are cheap, do not break easily, and transmit tons of light ... after a few trial and error, the posters managed to get them working very well. It worked so well that in some of the early trials, where they used uncoated fibers, the flashes of neighboring photographers triggered the strobes!

They have made 3D printed parts to adapt these fibers to standard connectors. Interesting of the DIY minded ...

As Algwyn says above, the 4 mm fibers, and in my experience the 3 mm Toslink single fiber cables, transmit abundant light and trigger both Sea & Sea and Inon strobes in a highly reliable manner. 

One can use Uxcell strain relief boot protectors from Amazon, they are 7 mm diameter and work fine.  I glue the cable to the Uxcell boot with ABS glue, then trim the end with a sharp razor.  

The resulting cable is inexpensive, simple, tough and excellent, those are the words that best describe them.

As for the coupler, we have used those in our lab with quite good results. BVA

On 10/7/2020 at 10:30 AM, bvanant said:

As for the coupler, we have used those in our lab with quite good results. BVA

 

Thanks! I'm going to try and diy something suggested by Kraken, I'll keep that in mind if it's not reliable. Appreciate it!

Great thread!   I've been playing with some of the 2mm endglow cable (Plastic) and have found, when you coil it (basically, around a 5/16" aluminum tube and drop it into boiling water (for, litterally, 10 seconds)), you will lose about 60% of the light output.     I took two 5 foot lengths, one I coiled 36" of the cable, the other, I just left straight.    I'm testing it with a flashlight to a set of BackScatter MiniFlashes.    The coiled cord does NOT trigger the flash from the flash light but the straight cable does.    Not exactly Lab level testing but it's pretty real world and does show, there is quite a bit of lose when coiled.    BTW, this is the same level of coil most of the "Production" cables have.    I've not tested with a "looser" coil (say, 3/4") but will in the future and will post back what I find.

I've also started "treating" the ends of the cable with just a little bit of heat.   So, the plastic inner fiber, I take a heat source (candle if nothing else) and get the very close to the flame WITHOUT catching it on fire.   When (not if) you catch it on fire, just snip off the end and start over.   No big deal.   This seems to transfer considerably more light too.   So, the combination of un-coiled and treated ends passes a lot of light for trigger.

More information in my signature links!

That observation is how fiber optics work. If you look at the ESKA fibers for example, their 2 mm fiber has a minimum bend radius (0.5dB) of 80 mm or more than 3 inches. If you look at their 1 mm fiber the minimum bend radius is 25 mm or about an inch. If you look at the 613 core fibers (1 mm fiber diameter) the minimum bend radius is 1 mm, and for the 1.5 mm diameter fiber it is 3 mm. This means that it is easy to coil the multi-core stuff and that if you crimp a large diameter fiber it will stop transmitting. Certainly polishing of the ends (there are better ways than candles) will improve transmission. If you don't want coiled cables then large diameter fiber is fine. If you want them coiled then the multi-core stuff is easier to work with. YMMV

Bill

I guess that the main benefit of coiled fiber optic cables is that they may be adjusted to different arms setups. I find the coiling more bothersome than convenient when installing arms.

With cheap fiber optic cables, there is no need to coil: just cut a cable length for each arm setup combination.

Regulary fiber optic cables loose a lot of light when they are bent, so coiling them is not a great idea, unless you are using these multicore fiber cables, which are not so easy to get.