Experimental Study of a Power-Over-Fiber Module and Multimode Optical Fiber for a Fishing Camera System

We determined the feasibility of a fishing camera system using an optical fiber as the fishing line by testing a power-over-fiber (POF) module and multimode optical fiber. Operation of the remote camera module (RCM) without the battery was preferred because the removal of the charging or battery replacement section enabled a waterproof single-body type design. The average efficiency of the photovoltaic power converter (PPC) in the tested POF module was 32.6% at 820 nm, and thus, a high-power laser of at least 1.27 W was required for operating the developed RCM with an electrical dissipation of 413 mW. Because the optical fiber was wound on a fishing reel, composite loss composed of bending and tensile loss occurred. To mitigate the composite loss, we employed a simple holder that showed an improvement in the composite loss of 0.38 dB to 0.8 dB, which was considerably better than the losses without the holder.