Are there cables available for wider basis?

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mr.burns
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:16 pm

Are there cables available for wider basis?

Post 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?

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Realizator
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Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2019 9:23 am
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Re: Are there cables available for wider basis?

Post 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...
Attachments
tubed cable
tubed cable
round-cable.jpg (81.74 KiB) Viewed 12057 times
Eugene a.k.a. Realizator

mr.burns
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:16 pm

Re: Are there cables available for wider basis?

Post by mr.burns »

Hi Realizator,

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

stereomaton
Posts: 215
Joined: Tue May 21, 2019 12:33 pm
Location: France

Re: Are there cables available for wider basis?

Post 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.
Stereophotographer and hacker
Despite my quite active participation in the forum, I am not in the StereoPi team
StereoPi (v1) Standard Edition + CM3Lite module + a few cameras

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