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Are there cables available for wider basis?

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 6:30 pm
by mr.burns
Hi,

the StereoPI V2 has connectors for two cams. These connectors are aligned horizontally in a certain distance.
I want to built a camera with flexible basis so I need to move the cams horizontally to the desired distance.
The problem is one can bend the flat cable only in one direction, as it is flat.
With the current horizontal alignment of the two connectors on StereoPI I can move both cams up and down - this is the way the flat cable can bend easily.
But I need to move the cams horizontally to get a bigger distance between them - but the flat cable I cannot bend horizontally :(
I hope it is clear what I mean.

Can I fold the flat cable like this?:
Image

Are there (round) cables available which I can bend in horizontal direction?
Or is there another way to solve this problem?

Re: Are there cables available for wider basis?

Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:40 pm
by Realizator
Hey Mr.Burns,
You see, for our wide-base camera, we are using exactly the same bend approach as in your photo. The key idea is to bent cables at 45 degrees only once (and do not unbend them), otherwise, you can damage the ribbon cable.
As for the round cables - we try to find the Pi-compatible cable like this, but no luck...
The only similar cable we were able to find is this one (see attached photo). Please note, that on the photo it's not 15-pin cable as needed for RPi, but we have 15pin version on hands.
This cable is not as flexible as expected. We're in a process of our search...

Re: Are there cables available for wider basis?

Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2021 4:43 pm
by mr.burns
Hi Realizator,

thanks - then I will go ahead with the 'one time bend' option.

Re: Are there cables available for wider basis?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 7:57 am
by stereomaton
These cables have some flexibility to elastically bend and twist in several directions, but if you need it, you can bend them hardly like in your photo, including at several places. The trick is that once bended hardly, you should not unbend to avoid to break the metallic tracks in it.