Step by step: Making remote triggers

Contents:

Contests:

Newsletter:

Members:

About Us:

Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features.

|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2003-03-12

Step by step: Making remote triggers
By Thomas Witte

Now then you've finally decided to give remotes a try. You've disposed of all the B.S. people tell you about remotes, planned your angles, figured out how to mount them, found the right motor drive cable to go from the receiver to the camera, but now you're stuck on how to fire the transmitter.

Photo by Thomas Witte

[ Image 1 ]

When I first started using remotes with a 16 channel Pocket Wizard, I tried to keep it simple and just use the test button on the transmitter. That worked alright for a while but with multiple remotes it was always a juggling act remembering which transmitter was for which camera and setting it back down on my lap in the correct, left to right system I developed. I would typically do this blindly, just reaching down and grabbing it while firing away with another camera in my hands. There had to be a better way.

I looked at some foot pedal triggers but the ones I found were too expensive for the relatively simple task that it needed to perform. Would you spend $90 for light switch? Me neither, but that's in essence what you're buying. The other reason I didn't want the foot pedal was because it wouldn't do me a bit of good with basketball and hockey where I typically have to sit cross-legged on the floor or stairs.

Photo by Thomas Witte

[ Image 2 ]

The easiest way I found so far was the design for the cable described in this article. It's one cable that will fire two separate remotes. It cost me $6.00 to make versus $180, which is the cool part. It will take you less than a half hour to put together if you are good with your hands. This is just one way to do it. There are thousands of different ways you can make your own trigger cable. You can use an actual light switch if you want, cross the wires, use a pressure pad... Use anything you want to complete the circuit, but one thing will remain the same: you need to use a mono mini phone plug on the other end of the cable.

Before I get into the step by step, I wanted to explain this design a little more as I've already received a lot of questions about it. This cable has two triggers, for two cameras. (You don't need to hold both buttons down to trigger.) This doesn't plug in to the camera; this is just a switch that will plug into the "sync IN" jack on the Pocket Wizard transmitter. You do not need to worry about polarity, as this is an in-line switch that simply completes a circuit. For this one the pad will then be velcroed to the inside of the grip on my main camera for use to be fired by my ring finger.

Photo by Thomas Witte

[ Image 3 ]

Now then, get out your wire strippers and soldering iron.

What you'll need.

- 15 minutes for an expert, 30 minutes for a novice.
- Soldering iron, solder and flux.
- A volt meter would be handy if you have one.
- Push button switches like the type behind your computer monitors on/off switch. It's identical to the "test" button on the classic Pocket Wizards.
- Phone cord.
- 3.5mm MONO mini-phone jacks from an old pair of headphones. (Mono plugs will have one black band, stereo will have two.) (See image 3.)
- Electrical tape.
- Spare velcro strips from your pocket wizards.

Photo by Thomas Witte

[ Image 4 ]

Step 1:
Cut the plugs off both ends of the phone cord, and cut the mini-phone plugs off the headphones. The phone cord is technically what's called "4-wire", meaning it has four wires inside. You'll need two wires to complete each circuit, an IN and OUT line. (So if you want to make this for 5 remotes, you'll need 10-wire.) Pull all four apart like in image 1.

Step 2:
After you have all the wires exposed, firmly twist them together. This will make it easier to handle later when you are making your connections. (image 2) The mini-phone cable is a little different. The second wire acts as a shield and is braided around the central red wire. Just fiddle with the shield a little bit to get it separated from the red wire and twist it up like the others. (image 3)

Step 3:
Now everything is ready to connect. Very delicately solder one wire to one of the buttons two prongs. The best solder I've found is Craftsman's Very Fine rosin core solder that is 0.032" diameter, (product number 80061). It's perfect for this tiny stuff. Solder the other wire to the other prong and making sure to keep it clean and neat. If the solder drips over and touches the other side, it will close the circuit and you'll have it stuck in ON. (image 4) Do this again for the second button on the two remaining wires.

Photo by Thomas Witte

[ Image 5 ]

Step 4: (Optional)
Test the connections if you have a volt meter.

Step 5:
Splice a mini-phone plug to the other end of the cable. MAKE SURE that you use the same two wires that go into ONE of the other buttons. (I've actually seen people not do this before and they couldn't figure out what was wrong). You can solder them together if you need too, but just twisting the wires around each other will work too. Wrap one splice with a little electrical tape, then twist the remaining wires together and wrap the whole thing again with a piece of tape. Make sure that no exposed wires from the first splice are visible as this will short out the circuit. (image 5)

Step 6:
Grab some velcro strips and poke two holes in the soft stuff for the buttons to stick through. On the back side of the buttons, use the stiff stuff and sandwich the buttons between the two pieces. (image 6)

Photo by Thomas Witte

[ Image 6 ]

Step 7:
Put another strip of the soft Velcro on the inside of grip of you main camera. Slap the pad onto that strip and plug the cable into two transmitters and you're good to go. (image 7)

It will take your brain a while to get used to using your middle or ring finger to fire a camera, but if you play a lot of PlayStation it'll be a piece of cake.

There are a few other designs that I'll stick up on my other website in due time. You can see those at www.mindspring.com/~photoj under the tips link.

Have fun with it and let me know if you need any further explanation.

Related Links:

Thomas Witte's member page

Thomas Witte's personal site