Really Cheap Optical Cables

[Neopreneninja 0]

Hi Every one!

I found the ultimate DIY Otical Cables..the are standart HiFi Cables

At app. 2£ for 0.5m plus you can buy up to 50m..witch must be enough for every one..he he!

dobble Adabter(app.2£)...wich I belive can be split in to two single's(one for each end)

Plus this little gem..a 90 degree Adabter(2,5£)

Here is my favorit..a "splitter" enableing two strob's (app.3£)

Here is the Danish homepage http://www.av-cables.dk

But look around since everything is heaveily taxed here in little DK...

-ENJOY-

NB: I have tested this Cable and it work's just like the "Original"...

[Neopreneninja 0]

HI again...

 

If your Danish is "a little rusty" ore non-exsistend..you can always wright me

[ce4jesus 1]

Just by the bulk fiber cable from a vendor. Its even cheaper. Terminating them can be tricky but I purchased 20ft of cable for around $14 after shipping. I purchased some Sea&Sea adapters for $5 from Singapore.

[cninsd 0]

Just by the bulk fiber cable from a vendor. Its even cheaper. Terminating them can be tricky but I purchased 20ft of cable for around $14 after shipping. I purchased some Sea&Sea adapters for $5 from Singapore.

 

Do you have a web link for the Sea&Sea adapters? Thanks.

[ce4jesus 1]

http://www.fun-in.com.tw/catalog/index.php ... although I think those Sea&Sea adapters were $8 after looking at my last invoice. Send an email to their service department and ask for them.

[Stefin 0]

http://www.fun-in.com.tw/catalog/index.php ... although I think those Sea&Sea adapters were $8 after looking at my last invoice. Send an email to their service department and ask for them.

Had a look at the website through the link you gave but couldn't find the product you mentioned, any chance of a picture of them? And was there a product number on that invoice of yours that could further identify the items when I E-mail this company

[ce4jesus 1]

Had a look at the website through the link you gave but couldn't find the product you mentioned, any chance of a picture of them? And was there a product number on that invoice of yours that could further identify the items when I E-mail this company

 

Sorry. I asked for them along with the purchase of a Inon Z240. Joe Chang said he had them and would include them for an extra 8 bucks each. The package with the connectors, nor the connectors themselves, have any kind of part number. They look just like Sea&Sea connectors except generic in a sense that their all black. The other thing is they don't give you the metal crimp so a trip to the hardware store for some pins was in order. I then orderd some bulk fiber optic cable, real cheap and made some custom fiber optic cables whose through-put was better than my new S&S cable I had purchased before. I also now don't have that dangly cord going from the housing to the strobe and I can make the cable any length I choose and route it around the arms with zip ties.

Here is the email I use to order from their site. info@fun-in.com.tw I don't ever order directly from the site I simply email Joe with a request, he gets me a quote via email and I send money via paypal. Shipping is unusually fast from that part of the world.

[Stefin 0]

Had a trawl through the web and found these,

 

http://www.fantasea.com/product_details.asp?id=359

 

Two of these and a length of fiber optic cable and your laughing.

Edited April 5, 2008 by Stefin

[diver dave1 23]

Had a trawl through the web and found these,

 

http://www.fantasea.com/product_details.asp?id=359

 

Two of these and a length of fiber optic cable and your laughing.

 

Stefin,

Your web page suggestion did not work for me. I get a page at Fantasea stating they have moved their web page.

 

"Nothing is more common than the desire to be remarkable." Oliver W. Holmes

[greg_n 0]

Stefin,

Your web page suggestion did not work for me. I get a page at Fantasea stating they have moved their web page.

 

"Nothing is more common than the desire to be remarkable." Oliver W. Holmes

 

They moved it here:

http://www.fantasea.com/s.nl/it.A/id.234/....mp;category=495

Greg

[Stefin 0]

Sorry for the delay in replying, the part I was refering to is the "Nano adapter kit" Fantasea part number 61151 See if this link works,

 

http://www.fantasea.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.495/.f

 

It's the first thing on this page. My camera set up has one Sea and Sea YS110 hard wired to the camera housing, the fibre optic link is from one strobe to another YS110 on the other side of the camera.A couple of these and a length of fibre optic cable from your local electrical store, "Tandy" in the UK for instance, The beauty of these is if you damage the fiber optic they can be fitted to a new bit.

[Charles Stirling 0]

I've been using the Toslink digital audio cables for a little while, the 1mm plastic fiber with 5mm outer sheath ones, from eBay a 4m one with postage from USA to UK is £3. Works fine.

 

I wanted a coiled section in it to shorten the apparent length, so used a hot air gun slightly heating the cable as its wrapped around a mandrel and can easily produced a coiled section (the light does get a little dizzy going round all the curves but still works :-) ).

 

Connecting to a Z240 I made a connector with rubber tubing which slips over the light sensor. Use tubing which slips on without much strain or also found the plastic sheath from 15mm underground copper pipe is the right size and screws onto the Z240 threads. Cut about a 30mm length of this tubing and fill half full of hot melt glue then when cold drill a hole for the optical cable. No need to worry about polishing ends or anything, just cut with a knife.

 

Connecting to a S&S YS90 I modified the supplied diffuser as a starting point to produce a holder that will direct the fiber optic into the flash sensor.

 

At the camera end, on a Nexus D200 housing the optic fiber needs to slip into the little spring loaded optical bulkhead. The audio optic fiber has multiple layers of sheath, strip back the outer 2 of these a little way leaving the inner layer. This is too thin to be gripped, but a couple of centimetres of 3.7mm outside diameter polythene tube slipped and hot melt glued over the exposed inner sheath of the optical cable is gripped and is released by pressing on the spring release ring. Works better than the proper adapter.

 

On a compact camera just exposed a few mm of optic cable and used black tape to hold it over the flash on the housing.

 

Charles

[Neopreneninja 0]

Hi There Charles!

Great input on the whole DIY optical Cable issue..

I too used black duck tape to mount the cable at the P&S housing..I used the super slim cheapest version of the HiFi cable and just glued the small see trugh silicon(I suspect) "cap" (that comes with the cables to protect the end's) right on to my old Sea & Sea YS 50's sensor..kept the cabel in place with a rubber band(around the Strobe) and small pices of duck tape on the arm's..

Sold the kid to a friend and are now in the proces of a compact DIY "Tray & Arm" for my dual Ikelite DS 50 with EV-controller's kit.

Thanks Again Charles...

- -

[Charles Stirling 0]

The Inon Z240 (probably some of the other Inons as well) use a screw on blanking cap over the optical sensor to shield it from being optically fired as a slave or is replaced by a cap with optical fibre attached for optical firing. I bought some spars, open at the end, form Yuzo in Japan for 800yen ea.. Using a Toslink digital audio cables, cut though the plug about 2mm up from the cable strain serrations with a sharp knife. Trim the diameter on that cut end to just a little larger than the hole in the Z240 cap (that will ultimately hold it in the cap). Cut out the two supporting bridges between the cable strain relief serrations so the cap will slip into the grove. Push the trimmed end through the cap hole with a blunt tool and your done. Allows the cap to rotate around the cable for screwing onto the flash.

 

Produces a neat, strong optical cable connection for the flash in about 5 min. for little cost. If I can get the image upload to work the location to cut the cable is indicated with the knife blade and the finished cap with cable is shown.

 

The second photo shows a home coiled section of optical cable.

 

Charles

[jeremypayne 0]

So ... I'm trying this out. I want a long cord to stretch all the way from my YS-110 to my YS-27 at either end of a wide-angle setup and the stock cord from my YS-27 is just too short.

 

I bought a cheap 12' toslink cable and two Fantasea Nano adapters. Worked great ... on land ...

 

How do I know that the shielding around the fiber won't just dissolve in sea water? It feels very 'rubbery' and I'm concerned that it will just melt away. To mitigate the risk, I'm gonna buy a second one and make a back-up ... but I'll use a different brand of toslink cabling.

 

Any suggestions on what to look for with respect to salt-water resitance or any idea what will and won't hold up underwater?

 

Anyone have one fall apart underwater?

 

Thanks in advance!

[diver dave1 23]

So ... I'm trying this out. I want a long cord to stretch all the way from my YS-110 to my YS-27 at either end of a wide-angle setup and the stock cord from my YS-27 is just too short.

 

I bought a cheap 12' toslink cable and two Fantasea Nano adapters. Worked great ... on land ...

 

How do I know that the shielding around the fiber won't just dissolve in sea water? It feels very 'rubbery' and I'm concerned that it will just melt away. To mitigate the risk, I'm gonna buy a second one and make a back-up ... but I'll use a different brand of toslink cabling.

 

Any suggestions on what to look for with respect to salt-water resitance or any idea what will and won't hold up underwater?

 

Anyone have one fall apart underwater?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

You can always 'make' salt water at home and try it. Pour salt into warm water and dissolve it then run a test. Most plastics work well in salt water, its metals that have more trouble.

I believe salt water is about 3.5% minerals by weight...mostly salt. Obviously its not quite the same as ocean water but its a start.

[Charles Stirling 0]

So ... I'm trying this out. I want a long cord to stretch all the way from my YS-110 to my YS-27 at either end of a wide-angle setup and the stock cord from my YS-27 is just too short.

 

I bought a cheap 12' toslink cable and two Fantasea Nano adapters. Worked great ... on land ...

 

How do I know that the shielding around the fiber won't just dissolve in sea water?

 

I've used my cheap Toslink cable on a few dive trips, no problem past 50m depth anyway. Their seem to be two main types, the ones with 1mm plastic fiber optic which is the one which is fine. A slightly more expensive one uses a much finer glass fiber cable and this has a more open structure which would fill with water, not what you want. Oh, I didn't worry about sealing the ends either. Probably much more robust than my electrical cables which could track water down to inside the port socket.

 

Charles

[jeremypayne 0]

I've used my cheap Toslink cable on a few dive trips, no problem past 50m depth anyway. Their seem to be two main types, the ones with 1mm plastic fiber optic which is the one which is fine. A slightly more expensive one uses a much finer glass fiber cable and this has a more open structure which would fill with water, not what you want.

Cool. I made two different cords. Both audio cables were relatively inexpensive. One was $12 for 13' and the other was $16 for 10'.

 

The $12 cord is thicker and 'soft' with a rubbery outer casing (maybe 5 mm - kinda like my Ikelite electrical sync cord but a bit thinner) around a thin 1MM optical fiber. I had to strip the outer casing to reveal the fiber prior to sliding into the adapter.

 

The $16 cord was more like the stock Sea & Sea cable with a harder plastic coating around the optical core. This cord fit right into the adpater. I used the hair dryer trick to put a curl into this one.

 

I'll try them both out next week and report back ... I think I prefer the heavier rubbery one so far. I put a set of cable ties on the arms to guide and hold the cord and these work great keeping the heavier cord in place while the curly thin one is harder to thread through the cable ties.

[CompuDude 0]

Cool. I made two different cords. Both audio cables were relatively inexpensive. One was $12 for 13' and the other was $16 for 10'.

 

The $12 cord is thicker and 'soft' with a rubbery outer casing (maybe 5 mm - kinda like my Ikelite electrical sync cord but a bit thinner) around a thin 1MM optical fiber. I had to strip the outer casing to reveal the fiber prior to sliding into the adapter.

 

The $16 cord was more like the stock Sea & Sea cable with a harder plastic coating around the optical core. This cord fit right into the adpater. I used the hair dryer trick to put a curl into this one.

 

I'll try them both out next week and report back ... I think I prefer the heavier rubbery one so far. I put a set of cable ties on the arms to guide and hold the cord and these work great keeping the heavier cord in place while the curly thin one is harder to thread through the cable ties.

Old thread, sorry, but great tips!

 

I'm definitely going to pick up a tosslink cable or two (from www.monoprice.com of course... anyone who buys A/V cables at retail prices is crazy) and see if I can whip up some spare cables for my Inon D2000, in case I ever lose or damage the OEM Inon cable I have now. I've wanted spares for a while but haven't been able to bring myself to spend $65+ on a little piece of fiber optic. As long as I don't lose the cap that screws onto my strobe's sensor, replacing the cable itself should be a snap!

[bvanant 190]

Old thread, sorry, but great tips!

 

I'm definitely going to pick up a tosslink cable or two (from www.monoprice.com of course... anyone who buys A/V cables at retail prices is crazy) and see if I can whip up some spare cables for my Inon D2000, in case I ever lose or damage the OEM Inon cable I have now. I've wanted spares for a while but haven't been able to bring myself to spend $65+ on a little piece of fiber optic. As long as I don't lose the cap that screws onto my strobe's sensor, replacing the cable itself should be a snap!

Inon caps are I think about $6 from divervision

Bill

[CompuDude 0]

Inon caps are I think about $6 from divervision

Bill

Good call!

 

It's a shame shipping on that order is $15!

 

The caps are $12 at Reef Photo, IIRC. I might just pick one up there at some point, next time I place an order, so that I have one around, and then I'll play with making a spare fiber cable.

[Neopreneninja 0]

Hi All!

Great stuff posted here...

I've used my audio cabels for a Ike EV-controller "fix" (including duck tape).

As I had some miss fireing problems while shooting at dusk...due to reflections activating my EV's.

This set up is working Great! haven't had one miss fire since!

blacked off the two EV's with Duck Tape and placed the Optical cable over the sensors then Duck Taped the other endes of the cabels over the flash!!!

Have fun