Off-Shoe Cord 2 Modification

[Raphael Emond]

Hi Everyones.

I'm currently in the progress of modding the off-shoe cord to make it 12ft.

I will update the post with pictures tonight as I proceed through the cutting and soldering.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

[woffles]

I'm considering doing that, I'd like to see the steps involved and the results also.

[Raphael Emond]

Everything is done, working fine.

I'm in the process of making the final pictures and writing the instructions.

[murphyrulez]

Waiting. Patiently. I just ordered a shoe 2 from Ebay tonight.

[Raphael Emond]

OK, here are the instructions to make a extension cable with the Canon Off-Shoe Cord 2



As english is not my primary language, some technical terms may be wrong.

As everything as a start, you must have the Cord at hand.
Tools needed for the operation: Wire Cutters, Wire Strippers, OLFA knife, soldering pen, Heat shrink tubing or Electrical Tape (Uglier).
AND about 12ft of Ethernet Cable. Mine is CAT5e compliant and not particularly of high quality. Maybe longer works, but it's what I have seen on the Web.

Now you only need to cut the coiled cord near it's middle. I have checked inside both ends to solder wires directly in the shoe, but it was not that easy and I prefer to keep a coiled length on each end to "sense" when you are about to be too far. Like if you walk on the cable and you have you camera in hand.



Next, take the Olfa knife and strip the outer black shell on about a inch 1/4 on each end. You must pull some what hard to remove the shell. And since it's coiled, it make it a little more difficule than a straight cable.
Separate each cable and the braided copper from the RED wire.
Strip about 1/2 inch of each.




Now take your CAT5e cable, strip the outer shell , seperate colors and strip them about 1/2inch. As for the colors:



Brown/Brown-White = Braided Cable
Orange-White = Braided Cable
Orange = Red
Blue = Blue
Blue-White = White
Green = Green
Green-White = Black

The important is keep the First Three in the exact order as described. To mimic the shielding of the Shoe Cord

Now insert small heatshrink tubing in each wires and a bigger one for the final cable
Solder everything in place. Shrink the tubing.
Repeat for the other end.

It's that easy!! You can check the continuity of your work using a good Digital Voltmeter.

Mine is about ±12ft and have no problem with my RebelXT/420EX combo.
Everything work fine.

If you have detailled questions, ASK... I will be happy to answer!!

[bokeh'ed]

one thing you have to keep in mind that the cat5 cable isn't really that resistant to bending repeatedly for long usage and the internal solid-core conductors might be stressed and break.

experienced that while i tried to use cat5 as my audio RCA cable.

[Raphael Emond]

Mine was multi-strand.
I was happy to see this.
Most Eternet cable are solid core

[tim]

Thanks for sharing!

[Ian Parkin]

Here is what i did to mine earlier this year
Remove the screws holding the Flash gun end together and unsolder the wires this leaves a straight end of cable ,onto this solder a mini din plug (like used on ps2 keyboards ) Now onto the now loose flash gun shoe fitting solder a short length of 6 core overall screened cable and put a matching socket on the other end..MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that you maintain the correct continuiety of the cores..If you make this cable about 4" long you now have much the same length off shoe cable as you had... Now if you want it to be longer you can just make up an extension cable to add into the cable.. in fact you can buy keyboard/mouse extension cables easily from computer shops.. The cable i was able to buy is nice and flexible and rubber covered feels very nice and coils easily for strorage purposes
Ian

[Ian Parkin]

heres 2 more images one of the type of cable i used and off an extension cable 8 ft long i made as well

Ian

[Snapman]

Thanks to both of you for sharing something which I've thought about but wouldn't have had the courage to attempt.

UK members might be interested to know that Jessops sell a cord very similar to the Canon cord for £29-99

[Kraig C]

haven't decided if I get a pre-made hot shoe adapter or make one and install the ps2 cable plug on the flash foot stand. The flexability of the ps2 cable + extension is more usable than the cat5 cable. Here's the early stages of my slim off camera adapter

From there I think I'll add the ps2 cable.

Your off camera extension looks good! I might have to do that.

[SkipD]

Both of the mods in this thread are very nicely done. I am a stickler for doing mods that look good as well as having them work well, and both of these mods do just that.

[PacAce]

Originally Posted by Raphael Emond

Mine was multi-strand.
I was happy to see this.
Most Eternet cable are solid core

Almost all in-wall ethernet cables are solid wired. Stranded wires are used for non-in-wall cables because of their flexibility so look for these when buying the wire.

[Raphael Emond]

Thanks for your input Ian Parkin.
Well done mod.

I have seen on the web the same mod as yours, but with standard DIN plugs.
It was my primary idea, but the size of theses plug set me off. Never though of
mini DIN plugs. But for my setup, I won't be using the shorter length. So I'm ok with my setup. But yours is certainly better than mine. How long can you go? It would be interresting to see at which length everything start to act strange.