Making sync cord for Nikon flash on Canon camera

Hello, I am in the process of building a camera trap that will use Nikon flashes (SB-28) on a Canon camera. To do this I am following instructions from an e-book by Emmanuel Rondeau. Basically, I have a Vello Nikon flash cord and Vello Canon Flash cord that I need to splice together, so it has the Canon body attachment and the Nikon flash attachment. To connect these together, Rondeau says to use a cable rated for outdoor use, with 2 wires + ground. I went to Home Depot and was told that an outdoor extension cord would work for this. Now, when I cut open the Vello cords to expose the wires, there are 6 small colored wires + ground. Rondeau says to use a multimeter to identify 2 particular wires + ground and connect them to the longer cord (extension cord) by soldering. My question is, what about the other wires that aren't being used? do I just leave them cut? Isn't that an electrical hazard? And does the difference in wire gauge b/w the sync cord and extension cord matter? Please forgive my ignorance when it comes to this stuff, I have very little experience with it. I have tried to contact the author but haven't had much luck (perhaps he is busy out in the field). I appreciate your feedback.

-Zach

Bjarne Hemmingsen wrote in post #18632631
Backlit - (Podiceps nigricollis) - Black-necked Grebe from yseterdays trip to the lokal pond

Wires in any application that are exposed, like in your photo, are subject to touching each other and shorting out or causing some sort of trouble. A cut wire with no copper exposed would pose no problem as long as the copper doesn't touch another wire or grounded metal. To ensure no problem each unused wire should be wrapped with electrical tape and also any "soldered" connections. Having said all that, you claim that you have very little experience with this so, if I were you I wouldn't attempt this without help from someone who knows what they're doing.

The SB 28 will work in the Canon hotshoe without any modification, or you can buy a set of these for 29 dollars.

https://www.adorama.co​m …1wLgeWEAAYASAAE​gL4BvD_BwE

I have used both combinations.

I don't know about the cable or wires, but you won't get any sort of TTL function out of the Nikon flash regardless of the set up.

My guess would be cut them, wrap in an insulator and forget about them.

It sounds like you are trying to fire a Nikon flash manually from a Canon camera. Is that correct?

If so I think the Canon or Nikon flash cable by itself would have worked. All you need is the ground of the camera and the center pin of the hot shoe to fire a flash manually. The other pins on the camera and flash are to control the ETTL function and Nikon and Canon use different methods to do that communication.

The easy way to do this would be to use an alternate connection on the camera and the flash to connect them. Most likely both your flash and camera have a PC Sync connector, which is a round connector with a tiny hole in the middle. You can read more about it HERE.

You can get a 32 foot cable from the same site HERE. They also have non-screw-lock cables but most modern equipment should take the screw lock cables. They also have PC extension cables to make an even longer cable.

To answer your question about the other wires on your project, I would cut them flush with the insulation and cover each end with tape or heat-shrink to be sure they can't contact anything. and connect the two that you need.

Thanks but I need to use the flashes off camera. I don't need TTL function, but prefer a wired setup to conserve power.

Thanks for the info. Regarding help from someone who know what they're doing, that's what I'm hoping to find here (I've done some soldering before).

That's correct, but the camera/flash would be triggered from a motion sensor, and as I understand, without the correct wiring the flashes only fire at the 2nd shot (1st shot would wake up the flash). For photographing wildlife this way, it's best for the flash to fire immediately.

There is a setting in the flash to make it not go into standby mode. Here are the instructions from the manual.

Standby function: If both the SB-28 and camera are not used for after approx. 80 seconds, the SB-28 shuts off automatically to conserve battery power. This is called the standby function.

Canceling and setting the standby function
1 Press the on/off button for approx. 0.5 sec. to turn the SB-28 off.
2 Hold down the MODE button as you press the on/off button. The SB-28’s standby mode indicator STBY on the LCD panel appears when the function is set and disappears when it is not set. Perform steps 1 and 2 to cancel it or reset it.

Thanks Bob. According to the guide I'm reading, we do want the flashes to go into standby mode, as they may be out in the field for weeks to months at a time. Just have to rewire some things to make them wake up as soon as motion is detected.

Interesting. I'd appreciate it if you would report on your success. Sounds like a good project.

I'll do that!