We designed the Fibre Duplex Board for creating simple fibre links to embedded devices. This board has the same pinout as our Serial Breakouts, so they will connect directly to the serial header of many dev boards such as the Arduino Pro or Pro Mini.
We designed the Fibre Duplex Board for creating simple fibre links to embedded devices. This board has the same pinout as our Serial Breakouts, so they will connect directly to the serial header of many dev boards such as the Arduino Pro or Pro Mini. To create a fibre link between two dev boards, simply connect the Fibre Duplex Breakout to each board, connect them with two pieces of fibre cable, and then use the Serial library to send and receive data as you normally would.
This board also works in concert with the Serial Fibre Modem to create a fibre link from a dev board to a computer. We've even had success loading Arduino code over fibre this way (although because the fibre doesn't carry a DTR signal, we had to manually reset the Arduino board during upload).
The Industrial Fibre Optics line of emitters and detectors are by far the most economical way we’ve found to create a simple fibre link between two devices. The IF-E97 emitter is literally just a superbright red LED in a fancy plastic module that makes it easy to insert a piece of optical fibre and lock it in place. On the other end, the IF-D96F is a 5V TTL phototransistor in an identical enclosure. Connect the two with a piece of fibre and you have, basically, the simplest possible fibre link. Speaking of fibre, while you can certainly use glass fibre (in the proper jacket) to connect these modules together, we recommend PMMA plastic fibre! It’s cheap, it’s not at all fragile, and you can cut it with scissors. In our experience, it requires no polishing at all, simply cut it with scissors and jam it into the connector.
The emitter and detector are soldered but not screwed into place. For field applications we recommend anchoring the connectors with a screw and nut. A 4-40 screw with nut works great but we don't carry the ideal 3/8" length. Alternatively we do carry a 3/8" screw and nut in the smaller 2-56 thread.
We've tested these modules at baud rates up to 1Mbps and distances up to 50 meters with no transmission errors.
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