Choosing between different numbers of cores

[Unaware6905]

When purchasing a fiberoptic cable, is there any practical difference between one with 613 cores versus one with 217 cores?

 

[bvanant]

For the great majority of cases, No. I have made cables with the 217 and 613 and 1000. They all work fine for my LED trigger and strobes from S&S. Inon, AOI and the Backscatter Mini (1 and 2). The minimum bend radius for the 613 and 1000 core fibers is 1 mm, for the 217 core it is 2 mm so a sharp bend might put you out of commission with the 217 faster than the others but I have not seen anything like this with the fibers I use.
Bill

 

[Unaware6905]

For the great majority of cases, No. I have made cables with the 217 and 613 and 1000. They all work fine for my LED trigger and strobes from S&S. Inon, AOI and the Backscatter Mini (1 and 2). The minimum bend radius for the 613 and 1000 core fibers is 1 mm, for the 217 core it is 2 mm so a sharp bend might put you out of commission with the 217 faster than the others but I have not seen anything like this with the fibers I use.
Bill

Thanks. Any recommendations for making my own cables? What cable to buy? Connectors? Etc?

 

[bvanant]

cables I get from industrial fiber optics. Connectors you can 3-D print (Dave Hicks has some excellent ones) or you can buy connectors from a variety of places (Inon has both straight and angled connectors, Howshot also has some). Coiling (if you want ) is simple, wind the cable around a mandrel and put it in boiling water then turn off the heat and wait til it is room temp.
Simple, and there are a ton of threads here on making your own.
Bill

 

[Unaware6905]

cables I get from industrial fiber optics. Connectors you can 3-D print (Dave Hicks has some excellent ones) or you can buy connectors from a variety of places (Inon has both straight and angled connectors, Howshot also has some). Coiling (if you want ) is simple, wind the cable around a mandrel and put it in boiling water then turn off the heat and wait til it is room temp.
Simple, and there are a ton of threads here on making your own.
Bill

I need a little bit more help, if you don't mind. Since I don't have a 3D printer, I'm going to get the Howshot connectors for my YS-D3s. I saw the cables from Industrial Fiber Optics, but I have no idea which particular one to order. Also, I can't find how to order less than 500m lengths. Would you mind telling me specifically what you order from them?

 

[bvanant]

Sure. For the 217 core material here is the page

MCS-1000P 217-core Fused Multi-core Simplex Cable, Polyethylene Jacket

Asahi Kasei Multi-Core Cable MCS-1000P 217-core Fused Multi-core Simplex Cable, Polyethylene Jacket

i-fiberoptics.com

and you see at the bottom a price of $6 per meter.
Similarly for the 613 core

MCQ-1500-22 613-core Fused Multi-core Simplex Cable, Polyethylene Jacket

Asahi Kasei Multi-Core Cable MCQ-1500-22 613-core Fused Multi-core Simplex Cable, Polyethylene Jacket

i-fiberoptics.com

and you see the price is $7.50 per meter
hope this helps
BVA