Creating your own HOT shoe 2 extension cable.

I ended up being able to solder a solid 25 foot cord in. I wasn't able to do the din connectors. Partly because I had a 7 pin ones that made the tolerances just a little tighter between each pin. I will probably add the din connectors later.

Can somebody make me one of these? I really dont wanna chance it maybe TMR Design, JMB4370 or Nabil-A?

Thanks in advance

Mike,

Michael Bass does that kind of stuff. He's a POTN member too.

Yeah here he is jmb4370, I sent him an email

Finally got a chance to make my own cord extension. I have to say it works like a charm. It looks like a professional cable, didn't cost much, and my 380EX fires with E-TTL. What else could I ask for?

I used the mini-DIN connectors and a 25ft. Cat5e cable that I cut the ends off of. I ran around the city quite a bit looking for multicore cable that would be suitable but couldnt find any. Tip to other fellow Canadians: check out Home Depot for bulk cable. I didn't think of it at the time, but I think they might have what you'd need for this project. Thanks to everyone for the info!

I'm a little confused about the ethernet cable use. There won't be any issues using a standard ethernet patch cable (blue cables) that are typically used for connecting your PC to a router? They seem flexible enough for the job.

I'm also thinking about ordering these parts from DigiKey
http://parts.digikey.c​om …in-plug-6pos-620006p.html
http://parts.digikey.c​om/1/parts/indexc5282.​html

I'm hoping that outer part of the shell actually fits near the connector rather than being so far back.

I can't find any PS2/mini DIN connectors in town. I was hoping I could find a nice female network adapter so I could just use ethernet patch cables, but that doesn't seem to be a possibility.

(I'm not sure about the difference between multicore and stranded... and how to tell which cables have which kind of core)

Some Ethernet cables have a solid core and some are stranded. If you have a cable with stranded leads then that will work fine. The issue is the solid core wire. It's meant for fixed installation and will surely fail if it's rolled up, connected, disconnected, thrown on the floor, stepped on, etc.. It won't survive if it's solid core copper wire.

As long as you use stranded wire it will flex and bend as needed.

Alright. It's rolled up in a tight roll right now... and is very flexible.
I guess I've never seen the solid core cables.

Alright, I'll order some connectors and get on this. I have 2 cables I'm itching to mod. I tried to do some iPod macros and kept pulling my flash off the table or out of alignment.

Well, I got it done last night on one of my 2 cords. It works great!
I just used the standard blue ethernet patch cable as I mentioned before.

One thing that drove me nuts... the ethernet cable must be a little thicker or something because I'm having one heck of a problem getting the covers all the way over the adapter. It's a pretty tight fit for sure and doesn't like sliding on the cable.
Any tricks to help with that if I do another one??

RAitch wrote in post #3657225
Well, I got it done last night on one of my 2 cords. It works great!
I just used the standard blue ethernet patch cable as I mentioned before.

One thing that drove me nuts... the ethernet cable must be a little thicker or something because I'm having one heck of a problem getting the covers all the way over the adapter. It's a pretty tight fit for sure and doesn't like sliding on the cable.
Any tricks to help with that if I do another one??

Use WD-40/soap/lotion on the wire as a lubricant. Then wipe it off when you are done.

Mike has the right idea. I've done a lot of wiring and when collars would not slide down over a connector I just used a little bar soap and zzzzzzzzzz away we go!

I'll do that next time. Thanks for the tip. My finger tips are raw from trying to squeeze that thing over top... I'm sure I probably stretched the wires a bit... but at least I know I did a good soldering job to hold it together.

It's close enough for me, so I'll just leave this one as-is for now... but I'm sure I'll be making another cable at some point (I have 5 other connector sets).

Next project: Extension for my remote shutter cord.

RAitch wrote in post #3657336
I'll do that next time. Thanks for the tip. My finger tips are raw from trying to squeeze that thing over top... I'm sure I probably stretched the wires a bit... but at least I know I did a good soldering job to hold it together.

It's close enough for me, so I'll just leave this one as-is for now... but I'm sure I'll be making another cable at some point (I have 5 other connector sets).

Next project: Extension for my remote shutter cord.

I just got done making a 25 and 5 foot extension for my XT. That was fun. Soldering the connectors was a pain in the a$$. I should have done it a different way but it is done and works great.

Glad to hear Mike. The soldering isn't difficult, just inconvenient.

Part of the problem that I'm sure you found is that most wire has a thicker guage conductor and thicker PCV jacket than the mini-DIN connectors require. That makes things a bit chunky and makes it difficult to fit the 2 halves together and slide the collar down.

RAitch wrote in post #3657336
I'll do that next time. Thanks for the tip. My finger tips are raw from trying to squeeze that thing over top... I'm sure I probably stretched the wires a bit... but at least I know I did a good soldering job to hold it together.

It's close enough for me, so I'll just leave this one as-is for now... but I'm sure I'll be making another cable at some point (I have 5 other connector sets).

Next project: Extension for my remote shutter cord.

If you need any assistance in modding the wired remote to use an extension cord just let me know. I make them all the time.