Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

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elf
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by elf »

You might try aluminum gilding(leaf).

kaleun96
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by kaleun96 »

elf wrote:
Thu Jul 29, 2021 12:17 pm
You might try aluminum gilding(leaf).
Yes! I have some aluminium tape and regret not covering the walls with it before gluing the "top" on. I suspect it would make a significant difference, though not sure how much.
- Cam

Troels
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by Troels »

Very interesting and creative ideas.
I had just written a long story about covering surfaces with aluminum when I saw the latest comments. It seems you understand the principle, but here it comes anyway. Perhaps explaining the subject to some other people for the first time.

I strongly agree you could get better control with the light distribution if you think in reflection versus diffusion.
Your paper-white synthetic material works as a diffusing surface. That means that light hitting the surface is spread in all directions, some in the direktion you want (further away from the light source) but a lot goes back towards the source and some goes out of the construction towards the object. The result is that only a smaller part of the light will end up in the farthest part of the circle.

Your idea with the triangle to guide the light at the entrance of the angled diffusor is good, but it only works if the surface is really reflecting light and not just spreading light. You can change this by using (almost) totally reflecting material. Like glossy alu-folie.

I suggest you cover the triangle with glossy folie. And the same with the first part of the walls, both at the inside and the outside of the circular light guide. Think of placing mirrors to push the light away where the light is too strong and using spreading, diffusing surface where you need the light to be used. The keywords are: mirrors reflect, white diffuses (and absorbs somewhat). That is the principle behind fiber optics: The light hits the walls at an angle so low that the inside surface of the fiber works as a mirror.

I also have a pair of suggestions to your nice, curved cones.
The first part of the cone (nearest the flash) will spread a lot of light. When the light is bounced back and forth a lot of times a greater part of it will be absorbed and used for heating up the material.
If you cover the first 2/3 of the cone with reflecting folie inside, a much greater part of the light will be thrown forward (fiber optics again).

The last third of the length combined with the front diffusing material should be sufficient for a perfect diffused light. Alu-folie is not a perfect mirror, so it will ad some diffusion anyway. This same argument also makes me think that you might not solve your distribution problem with the angled diffusor by making the light path longer (if the walls of the longer path are all covered with diffusing material like white plastic).

At last I would suggest that you think in a concave front cover as a supplement to the convex dome you have shown. That will give a more even light distribution if you are very close to a small object.
At less magnification the convex dome might work fine.

I really like the look of your different devices.
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums

kaleun96
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by kaleun96 »

Very interesting and creative ideas.
I had just written a long story about covering surfaces with aluminum when I saw the latest comments. It seems you understand the principle, but here it comes anyway. Perhaps explaining the subject to some other people for the first time.

I strongly agree you could get better control with the light distribution if you think in reflection versus diffusion.
Your paper-white synthetic material works as a diffusing surface. That means that light hitting the surface is spread in all directions, some in the direktion you want (further away from the light source) but a lot goes back towards the source and some goes out of the construction towards the object. The result is that only a smaller part of the light will end up in the farthest part of the circle.

Your idea with the triangle to guide the light at the entrance of the angled diffusor is good, but it only works if the surface is really reflecting light and not just spreading light. You can change this by using (almost) totally reflecting material. Like glossy alu-folie.

I suggest you cover the triangle with glossy folie. And the same with the first part of the walls, both at the inside and the outside of the circular light guide. Think of placing mirrors to push the light away where the light is too strong and using spreading, diffusing surface where you need the light to be used. The keywords are: mirrors reflect, white diffuses (and absorbs somewhat). That is the principle behind fiber optics: The light hits the walls at an angle so low that the inside surface of the fiber works as a mirror.
Thanks Troels! That is really helpful and gives me a better idea about the direction to head in with these designs. I might revisit the dual-opening design and line the walls with aluminium foil as you suggest but will first see how my revision of the single-opening design performs (as it's nearly done printing). I've made the triangle much bigger on this one and will cover it with aluminium tape as well.
I also have a pair of suggestions to your nice, curved cones.
The first part of the cone (nearest the flash) will spread a lot of light. When the light is bounced back and forth a lot of times a greater part of it will be absorbed and used for heating up the material.
If you cover the first 2/3 of the cone with reflecting folie inside, a much greater part of the light will be thrown forward (fiber optics again).

The last third of the length combined with the front diffusing material should be sufficient for a perfect diffused light. Alu-folie is not a perfect mirror, so it will ad some diffusion anyway. This same argument also makes me think that you might not solve your distribution problem with the angled diffusor by making the light path longer (if the walls of the longer path are all covered with diffusing material like white plastic).

At last I would suggest that you think in a concave front cover as a supplement to the convex dome you have shown. That will give a more even light distribution if you are very close to a small object.
At less magnification the convex dome might work fine.

I really like the look of your different devices.
Appreciate the tips on the curved cone diffusers as well. Makes me think I could redesign them to be printed in halves, split down their length. That way I could much more easily cover the inside with aluminium foil. A more convenient but less effective option could be a combination of some glossy paints and surface finish perhaps?

Glad you mentioned the concave dome as one thing I really like about the Profoto Dome Diffuser is that it can be mounted backwards (concave) and fit exactly the same in my flash heads. It also has magnets on the back and a metal ring that I glued some diffusion gel too, so I can stick that on (in either concave or convex orientation) for added diffusion if needed too.
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- Cam

kaleun96
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by kaleun96 »

The single-opening design revision finished printing and for the most part came out well, particularly the dovetails to connect the two pieces. I made some mistakes with some mounting holes on the bottom for a 50mm adapter so made some minor changes and am now printing the main part again. In the mean time I experimented with some aluminium tape on the triangle and parts of the opening where the light from the flash will first hit. I noticed a small increase in brightness across the subject (a Seleucid coin from ~100 BC) so I think there is some promise to this approach. Once the new part has finished printing I'll do a more thorough job of lining it with aluminium tape.
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Left is without the aluminium foil, right is with the aluminium foil. Sorry for the poor quality, hard to fit the originals in only a 1024px wide image!
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- Cam

kaleun96
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by kaleun96 »

New part printed and working well and I printed a small retaining part for the diffusion gel. It just press-fits into the top of the cone and seems to hold well. The light distribution is also looking much better with the aid of the aluminium foil.

I don't yet have the right 50mm to 67mm adapter so haven't mounted it to the lens for the testing so far but it's not too hard to get it into place with a MagicArm.
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- Cam

dhmiller
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by dhmiller »

These look great. Would you be interested in selling some?

kaleun96
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by kaleun96 »

dhmiller wrote:
Tue Nov 02, 2021 1:12 pm
These look great. Would you be interested in selling some?
Thanks! If you have a 3D printer, you're more than welcome to print them for free, you can find the files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4916557

If you don't have a 3D printer, I would recommend using something like 3D Hubs, which finds someone close to you with a 3D printer and will print it for you for a small fee. I think that's likely the best option as I live in Sweden and shipping can be pretty expensive, even within the EU. I've used 3D Hubs before and was pretty satisfied with it, there are also other companies that offer the same service.

Let me know if you're interested in the most recent design I had been printing, the one that screws onto the lens filter. I haven't put that on Thingiverse yet, mainly because the metal adapter I use to screw it to the lens was from some random lens I had and it's unlikely anyone else can find the same adapter.
- Cam

JKT
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by JKT »

kaleun96 wrote:
Wed Nov 03, 2021 1:11 am
I haven't put that on Thingiverse yet, mainly because the metal adapter I use to screw it to the lens was from some random lens I had and it's unlikely anyone else can find the same adapter.
I would tackle that one by ending the plastic part to a ring, which has outer diameter that matches the inner diameter of some common filter thread size. Preferably large enough that you can use standard step-up adapters for most lenses. Then it would be simple to just glue the appropriate step-up ring in place. Using the outer diameter of the metal adapter would not be universal as the outer diameter varies between adapters.

kaleun96
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by kaleun96 »

JKT wrote:
Wed Nov 03, 2021 3:13 am
kaleun96 wrote:
Wed Nov 03, 2021 1:11 am
I haven't put that on Thingiverse yet, mainly because the metal adapter I use to screw it to the lens was from some random lens I had and it's unlikely anyone else can find the same adapter.
I would tackle that one by ending the plastic part to a ring, which has outer diameter that matches the inner diameter of some common filter thread size. Preferably large enough that you can use standard step-up adapters for most lenses. Then it would be simple to just glue the appropriate step-up ring in place. Using the outer diameter of the metal adapter would not be universal as the outer diameter varies between adapters.
That should work, as long as no one tries to thread the adapter on too tightly :shock:

Originally I was going to print filter threads in the plastic but got turned off by the idea because they probably wouldn't last if you were frequently unscrewing and screwing on the step-up adapter. But it's probably worth trying anyway and I have since realised it's much easier to just buy a step-up ring for this purpose and leave it attached than constantly switching them around.
- Cam

JKT
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by JKT »

kaleun96 wrote:
Wed Nov 03, 2021 9:27 am
That should work, as long as no one tries to thread the adapter on too tightly :shock:

Originally I was going to print filter threads in the plastic but got turned off by the idea because they probably wouldn't last if you were frequently unscrewing and screwing on the step-up adapter. But it's probably worth trying anyway and I have since realised it's much easier to just buy a step-up ring for this purpose and leave it attached than constantly switching them around.
I was thinking of epoxy. That's why I did not suggest any interference. That kind of mandates making it permanent. :D

I wouldn't trust printed threads either. Maybe if the pitch was over 1mm, but not with 0.75mm.

dhmiller
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by dhmiller »

Very definitely interested and thanks for the tip about a good source for printing. I would be interested in designs that would work with a microscope objective, which is what I tend to use most. Are you building these mostly for camera lenses?

dhmiller
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by dhmiller »

I've been looking for a good source to print these. 3D Hub is now "Hub"and wanted $90 to print just one of the smaller ones - they require a $50 surcharge for some reason. Found another site and they ask what Process to use - DLS, DMLS, etc, and what material EPU, SIL, etc. What would you recommend?


"Thanks! If you have a 3D printer, you're more than welcome to print them for free, you can find the files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4916557"

Scarodactyl
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by Scarodactyl »

3d printers are not that expensive anymore.

elf
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Re: Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

Post by elf »

These seem to be pretty good starter machines: https://creality3d.shop/collections/end ... gKKxPD_BwE
A friend has one which he is happy with. I built my delta printer from scratch a few years ago for 3 times that price :D

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