Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

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Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby dviv on Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:04 am

Well I finally worked up the nerve and did it:

Image

I cut the cord and terminated it onto two RJ45 jacks - Now I can use any CAT5/6 cable to have the cord any length I need (this has been tested by others up to 50ft. I had a 5 meter cable hooked up last night and got full ETTL into an umbrella

Got quite a nice pic of the better half while testing:

Image
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby gstark on Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:08 am

Dave,

What a great mod. Well done.
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby dviv on Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:12 am

Thanks Gary

Working up the guts to cut a $60 cord was a hell of a lot harder than the actual mod :oops:

The setup with the umbrealla:

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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby Glen on Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:51 am

David a great and very useful mod. Cat 5 cables are everywhere, even my local $2 shop has a big selection, so very easy to get longer lengths. Well thought out.


Let me congratulate you on the colour coordination of the cables and connectors :lol:
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby gstark on Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:56 am

Just think: You can now use a network switch to power, say, 8 different flash heads from the one trigger! As if.

And you can now even trigger the flash in a different room from that within which the camera is located.

:lol: :lol:
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby dviv on Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:12 am

Glen wrote:Let me congratulate you on the colour coordination of the cables and connectors :lol:


Michael Jackson would be proud - "it don't matter if you're black or white" :mrgreen:

Gstark wrote:Just think: You can now use a network switch to power, say, 8 different flash heads from the one trigger!


I Wish!
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby wendellt on Thu Aug 07, 2008 12:49 pm

bravo you should be the 1st to win invention of the week
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby MATT on Thu Aug 07, 2008 12:57 pm

Cat5.. You should have done the wireless mod :lol: :lol: :lol:

Nice work..

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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby dviv on Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:03 pm

MATT wrote:Cat5.. You should have done the wireless mod :lol: :lol: :lol:


Again, I wish :mrgreen:
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby PiroStitch on Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:15 pm

will it work if you use a hub? :mrgreen: :lol:
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby Mr Darcy on Thu Aug 07, 2008 2:36 pm

gstark wrote:Just think: You can now use a network switch to power, say, 8 different flash heads from the one trigger! As if.

And you can now even trigger the flash in a different room from that within which the camera is located.

:lol: :lol:


Why stop there. Use VPN and do it all from he other side of the planet :lol:
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby gstark on Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:02 pm

Greg,

Mr Darcy wrote:
gstark wrote:Just think: You can now use a network switch to power, say, 8 different flash heads from the one trigger! As if.

And you can now even trigger the flash in a different room from that within which the camera is located.

:lol: :lol:


Why stop there. Use VPN and do it all from he other side of the planet :lol:


Damn!!!!

Why didn;t I think of that??? :P
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby surenj on Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:32 pm

That's awesome!!!
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby miikeboyle on Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:12 pm

Nice work. Is there any chance of suffering a delay with the flash as length increases?

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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby dviv on Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:21 pm

miikeboyle wrote:Is there any chance of suffering a delay with the flash as length increases?


Don't think so - singal propagation is pretty fast :up:

This mod has been tested on other sites out to 50 feet still working perfectly - I think ETTL stops reporting properly when the cable gets too long and the flash will only work on manual/TTL.
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby Wocka on Fri Aug 08, 2008 10:19 am

Great mod, I would be the same as you. Cutting a $60 cord is a big thing if you stuff it up.
But if I had the cord I would do this myself.

Gary, any change of getting these cord ( un-modded ) through the Forum?

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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby Yi-P on Fri Aug 08, 2008 1:50 pm

Well done, how is the wiring done in the RJ45 connectors? How many wires are inside the TTL cable?

I wonder if you hook them up to network adapators and through a wireless router, if you could send the exact signal through a wireless 100m range??? That would be a very very interesting project... :D
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby Mr Darcy on Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:12 pm

I wonder if you hook them up to network adapators and through a wireless router, if you could send the exact signal through a wireless 100m range??? That would be a very very interesting project... :D


Seriously, Dont try this.
1. An ethernet cable is a set of twisted pairs of wires. In a network, Each pair is used as data/ground. ie. one wire has the signal. The other is a reference for that signal. OTH the TTL cable probably uses a wire for each purpose, possibly with a ground shield.
2. THe voltages probably do not match

If you connect the TTL cable to the network using this device, you stand every chance of destroying the cables, the camera, the flash and the network router.
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Re: Canon off-camera cord mod - It's longer!

Postby dviv on Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:20 pm

Yi-P wrote:Well done, how is the wiring done in the RJ45 connectors? How many wires are inside the TTL cable?


There are 5 wires and some stranded shielding - I terminated the 5 wires into random spots in the socket. It doesn't matter which you use as long as they match up on the other end. The wires are roughly the same as a cat5 cable (though not twisted) so they terminate nicely. You just need a punch-down tool.

I split the shielding into two bunches and terminated them onto two different spots in the socket. Not sure if it was necessary but I thought best to make sure.

re the hub connection - What Mr Darcy said :mrgreen:
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