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DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics

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Offline PhyrePhoX

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Re: DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics
« Reply #10 on: 14 / September / 2008, 03:46:46 »
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wow, sounds very sophisticated - but not for me, since a) someone like me shouldnt be fiddling with electrical current too much, dont wanna die at such a young age :D but especially because b) i dont wanna lose the option to stay mobile with my setup. this means i will get like 3 speedlights, at least one cheap umbrella, a lightstand and i'm good to go to light just about everything. also, i need to go fibre-optical on one slave only, because this slave will fire off the others remotely (as this one is much stronger than my camera-popup flash). havent really invested much brains on how to do it yet, i think i will go for drilling a hole into a cheap optical-trigger to firmly attach the one end of the cable to it. good luck with your project, dont fry anything, especially not the subjects nor yourself :D
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Offline Aged

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Re: DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics
« Reply #11 on: 14 / September / 2008, 04:54:35 »
PhyrePhox
I'll guess your 'available' optic fibres are high quality glass. For the application you are proposing would plastic fibre be cheaper, less fragile and easier to DIY?
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Offline PhyrePhoX

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Re: DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics
« Reply #12 on: 14 / September / 2008, 05:04:39 »
giving the fact that these cables were used in a gbit network environment - yes, i think these are high quality glass fibres. however, i do think they come in cheap (well, you're not buying 1 kilometer of it). plastic fibre (supposedly often used for example in christmas lights and all the LED stuff) might be able to do the job, but as i read it ( i think wikipedia or so) it cant transfer in such a lossless way over a long distance (and the flash isnt really THAT much of light, especially as it is not shot directly into the fibre). of course it is cheaper, and i guess 10 meter should be sufficient for what most people are doing. i guess one can even use their optical cables from their audio environment as well, whatever floats ya boat ^^
but first i gotta build something, then i will post a diy tutorial or something :)
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databoy

Re: DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics
« Reply #13 on: 14 / September / 2008, 06:36:33 »
PhyrePhoX; your idea with the fibre optics is good. I live in Perth, Western Australia, one of the most isolated cities in the world. I looked into using audio grade fibre optic cable. There is a local project using a PICAXE chip to transmit infra-red codes.

The PICAXE site is at PICAXE

The link below has some technical information on using the inbuilt PICAXE codes.

PICAXE Questions & Answers


I looked at interfacing fibre-optics to infra-red. If I can get the audio receiver connector; there is minimum electronics and software involved.

Regarding mains electrical. I do not advise anyone to tamper with mains voltage; it is leathal. I have escaped death a few times. I will be using a double low voltage isolating system for maximum safety. That way everything connected to the camera is low voltage. I am planning to make a mains power board switched with external 12 volt input terminals connected to a relay suitable for mains contacts.

I will post details once everything is working properly.

     
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Offline cybercom

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Re: DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics
« Reply #14 on: 15 / September / 2008, 13:23:26 »
Since the toslink system for audio is pretty readily available, you might find something of interest there:

audio fiber optic cable - Google Search:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

Google*&q=toslink
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Offline ReDcOX

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Re: DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics
« Reply #15 on: 04 / May / 2010, 18:00:04 »
Though late to this thread ~ I am very interested in this for an A series camera ~ Was this build ever posted anywhere? (video+pics)
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Offline PhyrePhoX

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Re: DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics
« Reply #16 on: 04 / May / 2010, 18:43:41 »
you mean the system with fiberoptical cables? no, i never built it. but it should definitly work :)
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Offline ReDcOX

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Re: DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics
« Reply #17 on: 05 / May / 2010, 01:19:15 »
Thank you. I will try it. If you (or anyone) has any more thoughts about an off camera flash set up for the A series or is / has used an off camera flash with an A series camera I really would like to know about what you're doing.

Thank you again!

~ Red
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Offline PhyrePhoX

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Re: DIY - Flash PC Cord for cameras without hotshoe / PC cord jack using fiberoptics
« Reply #18 on: 05 / May / 2010, 04:54:21 »
there is no real difference between an a- and an s-series camera when it comes to offcamera flash (except that the new cameras have a hotshoe, but thats another issue :D).
one thing you should always do is set the flash power to manual (either via chdk or the camera menu, given your camera has that). set the power to low, so that the flash power is sufficient to trigger the remote flash.
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