Do It Yourself and Commercial Strobe Trigger Cables

Currently several Wetpixelers have an ongoing group-buy of  i-Fiber optic cable (1).  This cable appears to be untested and requires a team effort to obtain, while inexpensive fiber optic cables, either DIY or complete, are tested and readily available.

a) Single fiber Toslink cable, about $1 to $2 per meter, outer diameter of 2.2 mm or 4 mm, is sold by Amazon and eBay (2). I have made several 2 mm, 3 mm and 4 mm Toslink cables and all consistently flashed the strobes. The connectors (plugs) are secured to the cable by pressure, or with plumbers ABS cement (Fig 1).

Sources: Amazon sells 7mm connectors as Uxcell 7 mm o.d. strain relief protectors. Fun-In Photography and DiverVision in Taiwan, Backscatter and Reef Photo in the US, sell rubber and L-shaped connectors. The rubber connectors hold one or two cables, the L-shaped connectors hold the cable in a curved, 6 mm radius, conduit (Fig. 2).

b) Ready to Use, Low Cost Cables:  AliExpress sells low cost Tooke fiber optic cables (3). In case of breakage, I would carry a spare cable while diving, but have not had the opportunity to use these Tooke cables. Amazon also sells low cost coiled cables. 

c) Fiber patch cable: I built and tested, but do not recommend, a multi- glass fiber cable (also known as ‘fiber patch cable’) (Fig. 2), sold by Amazon or Vandesail, as it is difficult to cut and the multi fibers bunch up at the cut end (Fig. 3). When tested, it transmitted light unreliably as it flashed a new Inon S2000 strobe, but not an older D2000 strobe.

Conclusion:  While we await the results of the i-Fiber cable group-buy, the Toslink cable with Uxcell connectors may be the top choice for a reliable, low cost, DIY fiber optic cable.

References::
1. https://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?/topic/68006-group-buy-for-613-core-fiber-cable/

2. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XYM5XCR?pf_rd_r=9YK6RC8J1KYRF3TTMK6Q&pf_rd_p=8fe9b1d0-f378-4356-8bb8-cada7525eadd&pd_rd_r=22f45633-65a6-4f06-a8d6-3a37cf203a15&pd_rd_w=rQREn&pd_rd_wg=eC6Dj&ref_=pd_gw_unk 

https://www.amazon.com/20pcs-27mmx7mmx4mm-strait-relief protector/dp/B00XBG5U82/ref=sr_1_11?child=1&keywords=uxcell+strain+relief&qid=1632787913&sr=8-11 (uxcell 20pcs 27mmx7mmx4mm Micro Strain Relief Cord Boot Protector)  

3. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32966164929.html?spm=2114.12057483.detail.3.17d34826fOubSx

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I purchased the Toslink FO cable and L-shaped Connectors for S&S YS-D1 strobes. As best I recall I bought the connectors from X-404 (??). Using an Aquatica housing. Worked great. Highly recommend. Easy fabrication with a sharp razor blade. Used wire strippers to remove about 1/8" of the outer coating on the tip toward the housing.

Well I am not sure what you mean by "untested". I have made a bunch of cables from this fiber as have Sea and Sea and Inon and many others. For triggering TTL via LED for some strobes I have found the Toslink unreliable. For firing via onboard strobe it works fine. I personally like to use 90 degree connectors on both the strobe and housing end and that is not possible with thick single fiber material since the minimum bend radius is too large for the single fibers. 

As for the group buy that is a problem only in the sense that if you don't live in the U.S. the supplier of the fiber by the meter charges a ton to ship to Europe. If you are willing to pay duty and shipping getting it in the EU/UK/... is simple but expensive. Getting it in the U.S. is trivial ($7.50 per meter).

Bill

As background, standard HiFi Cables (Toslink cables) were originally proposed by Neopreneninja of Denmark in 2008(1), and endorsed by a number of Wetpixelers (2), while i-Fiber cables were, I believe, first suggested by Bill VanAntwerp in 2017 (2).

At present, iFiber cable seems to be rarely used for DIY, as I was unable to find somebody in Wetpixel, other than Bill, who has access to it. But I would not hesitate to use it, if available.

Let us review some points: 
Reliability: I have used Toslink cables in a Nauticam D500 housings with internal LED triggers, and the strobes flashed flawlessly, same as in Subal ND500 and Isotta D500 housings with internal LED triggers, and Subal ND800 and ND7100 housings with the camera flash as trigger. The strobes I have used are S&S YS-D2J, Inon S2000, Inon Z240 and Inon Z330. Toslink has not failed me, not once, nor have I read that it has failed others while in use. Also, since 2008 there have been no complaints about Toslink cables by Wetpixelers that I am aware of. 

Cable failure is always a possibility; there are at least two ways for Toslink, or any fiber optic cable made of translucent plastic, to fail: one, the light fiber breaks, which has yet to happen to me, and two, the light fiber is damaged (rendered opaque) by heat, such as dipping the cable for too long (for more than about 5 or 10 seconds) in boiling water to coil it. Multi-core plastic cable is resistant to breakage, but may be susceptible to heat.

Price and availability: i-Fiber cable is  overpriced relative to Toslink, and obtaining it in the US is an exercise in frustration as the seller sometimes will sell short lengths, other times not. I say this as I phoned the seller some days ago and was told they only sold 500 meter spools; also, the group-buy as of today (Oct 4,2021) is running into delivery problems (3).
In contrast, I can get Toslink cable at a low price, from eBay and Amazon, delivered to my home in a few days. 

In the future, I hope i-Fiber cables of 1 and 1.5 mm, become easily available, as I know they will test well and be widely accepted. The more kinds of cables - inexpensive, reliable, tough and readily available - we have to flash our strobes, the better.

References:
1. Really Cheap Optical Cables, by Neopreneninja, March 28,2008. (First use of Toslink cable).  https://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23789-really-cheap-optical-cables/&tab=comments#comment-173303

2. DIY fiber optic writeup with parts, by Chrisdarke  https://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?/topic/60564-diy-fiber-optic-writeup-with-parts/  2017 ( Practical points on using Toslink cable and Uxcell plugs by chrisdarke,
i-Fiber proposed by Bill VanA, followed by members' lively give and take discussion).

3. https://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?/topic/68006-group-buy-for-613-core  cable/page/4/&tab=comments#comment-431730, note of Oct 4, 2021.
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I guess that I have to repeat myself (again). I HAVE had significant issue with Toslink cables firing S&S strobes in TTL mode. Sometimes they worked sometimes they didn't. So here is your first report of Toslink not working. 

There are scads of places to get 1 or 2 or you pick it mm diameter single core end glow fiber. Some is better than others. i-fiberoptics sells Eska fiber for $1.50 or so per meter, on Amazon as we speak, Toslink cable (the amazon brand is $2 per meter more or less. Startech is more like $1.25. You can get just fiber for less if you buy more. The issue with Toslink is that you are paying for the connectors; just buy the cable.  

The multi-core cable has significantly higher transmission than the same cross section single core fiber as tested in our lab; in the real world it is hard for me to test the triggering efficiency of strobes as a function of input light power; I know some folks have done it but I don't have the test equipment. As for heat/coiling causing a change in transmission it has not been observed. I have tested cable throughput before and after coiling with no measurable (<10% loss). 

As I said before I like 90 degree connectors and those are hard to make from fiber that has a 40 mm minimum bend radius.

In any case, time to stop talking about cables and lets go diving (but I think the oil rigs are probably off limits for a bit).

Bill

I am using a pair of the AlienExpress Tooke coiled multicore cables, cited above, for Inon Z330 and Nauticam housing (NA-EM1II) since approx. 2 years and I am 100% satisfied (I must say I use my flashes exclusively in manual mode and did not test TTL). They are as reliable as the coiled multifiber Sea&Sea cables that I used previously with YS-D2 strobes and were more expensive. One has to take care to select the right type of connector, when ordering, as many types are offered (as with all premade fiberoptic cables). I always have spare cables with me, when I go somewhere for diving, but do not take the spares under the water (my wife had the tendency to break her fiberoptic cables several times, when she was using cheap prefabricated cables from a local vendor; since she is using my old Sea&Sea cables no breakage occurred any more). The cost of shipping the Tookes to Austria/Europe is < 2 Euro, but it lasts approx. 1 month until they arrive here...

Wolfgang

I purchased 6m of the 613-core Fused Multi-core Simplex Cable from i-fiberoptics.com this past week. It arrived in a couple of days. I used the same same strain relief boots that are mentioned above by Kraken De Mabini and picked up some 7mm o-rings (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MTO0US6?ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details&th=1). Put a cord together this morning just to see if it would work. In about 15min and for about $15 I had a new 1m fiber optic cable that triggers my Ikelite DS161 strobes from a Nauticam housing. So now I can make a few more and have several spare cords for less than the price of a single new item. It's not as clean looking but it works.

Jon