Fibre optic cable - what type transmits the most light?

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Tassie_Rohan

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Location
Hobart
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What type of fibre optic cable would capture and transmit the most light over a short (30 to 50 cm) distance. I've been trying to research cable types on the net but thought a question here could be a lot faster.

The problem:
My aiming light on my strobe (Inon 2000) will automatically activate if the strobes optical sensor detects moderate light levels - such as the red focus light on my camera when the strobe sensor is held close to the cameras focusing light.

However existing optical cables do not transmit enough light from the camera focus light to the strobes sensor (which is only 0.5 mm wide) to trigger the focus light.

The Plan:
If I can find a way to capture and transmit a lot more light to the strobe sensor I may be able to make my aiming light automatic: activating when I half press the shutter/the red focus light comes on.

So what style of cable out there would transmit the most light, and are there ways to pump more light into the cable (ie a lens).

Cheers,
Rohan.
 
Thanks to some very helpful PM's from Bobbing Along I'll be experimenting with a mirrored collection bowl and multistrand optic cable to see if i can transmit enough light to the strobe sensor to trigger the focus light.

It comes down to getting the maximum cross sectional area exposed to the light. As all optic fibres are the same diameter and all transmit the same amount of light this means I'll need a mutistrand cable (compaired to the single strand used in my exisiting camera to strobe cable). A polished bowl type collector over the focus light and flash should get enough light into the fiber.

As its snowing up here this should provide something dive-related to do until my next break in 8 weeks...

Cheers,
Rohan.
 
All fiber is not the same diameter although the larger ones are harder to find. Something you may want to look into is the fiber used for home audio inconnections. It's fairly cheap, easy to find (at least here in the US) and it is considerably larger in diameter than standard communications fiber. It's design takes into account poor alignment and dirt so it's a lot more forgiving than the standard comm fiber.
 
Thanks for the tip herman - I'll look into sourcing some.

Cheers,
Rohan.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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