psilandia

Remote control for F-801(s), F70 (US: N8008(s), N70) and relative cameras (Virtually replaces Nikon MC-12A).

I made a remote shutter/AF release for my F-801s camera, based on J.Suokas' excellent original work.
I managed to make some things differently, so I think I should share them with you.
Things I did differently:

• A bit cleaner.
• Camera side contact is easier to make (depends..)

Warning: Everything you do, you do on your own account. I'm not liable on any damage you, or your equipment may suffer if anything goes wrong. (I did everything succesully).

Needed things:

• 2 non-lockable switches.
• 3 1N4148 diodes (or similar).
• 3x female + 3x male 2.5mm stereoplugs (3.5mm aren't sold in Finland)
• 5m 4-wired (1x stereo..) of cable.
• 20cm of covered patch cable.
• 1 IDE patch cable
• Candle, needle, film canister (preferably soft plastic).
• Black permanent marker pen.
• Epoxy-harz glue.

As original article by J.Suokas is really good, I will not repeat it here, merely just things I did differently from his design.

Connector to camera.

I made connector to camera from a leftover IDE (harddrive) cable. I separated (using sharp knife) a block of 2x2 pins from it. You should get something like this one below.
Notice that 'X' piece. You'll need to cut it away (outmost 'walls'). There's not much need of cutting, just that it goes inside the connector (There's a small edge that stops the connector from rotating).
One problem you may bump into, is that holes may be a little too tight. Here's what I did: I took a sharp needle, warmed it over a candle and stuck it where pins go (1 and 2). This enlarged them just enough for pins to get in.
At this stage you should test the connector. It's easy, just shortcircuit wires coming from pins 1 & 2 (while camera powered), and it should take a picture. If not, then check contacts with potentiometer. Voltage difference between pin 1 and 2 should be approximately 5.2V, depending on your batteries (they are connected directly, so voltage is there even if power is off).
Now go on and connect a female connector (JS used a male connector, but there's a voltage, so I thinks it's not that wise move..) to the connector.

Now we need to make that connector look good :).
Take a permanent marker pen, and paint that (usually grayish), piece of cord black (or your favorite color, Nikons look best in black, however =).
Next step is isolating those sharp pins on back of your connector. We'll use epoxy-harz glue for that. It's hard as a rock, and it doesn't conduct electricity. So, put some of it on the connector, shape it with a match or something you can spare, and wait till it dries. Be careful with this glue, it seems to flow rather well through _tight_ places. I managed to get glue inside the pinholes, and believe me, it was hard to get it out.
After that you can paint it black ;)

Trigger -can

Go on and do it like JS says. I did shortcircuiting switch first, so I could test it. Remember that the header should be male now. I personally located button in this fashion: Triggering switch at the top of can, and focusing switch on vertical side (so I can push it with my index finger).
Remember to test it again! I didn't and had to debug whole structure, believe me, it's not fun ;)

Pictures:

Full set in view. Notice that other plug, it's shortcutted, so I don't have to press the release button all the time when doing long exposures. Another alternative would be to make a switchable button, but there's already pretty crowdy on (and in) the film canister..

Thing attached to my f801. notice how cord is pointing to 0400, and curling by itself to camera's rear.

Now we're ready to shoot. I often use Kodak film canister cap to seal the eyepiece, especially with sun coming from behind & long exposures. I haven't actually ever heard about anyone having problem with this with F801, and the mirror seems to be pretty lighttight..

Extending cord

Now that you've done all this stuff, it's easy to make an extending cords. Remember you have 2 male/female 2.5mm plugs left. They make for 2 cords with one at each end. Well you do get the picture.
I personally made 2 cords, both 5m long. I can stack them, so I get 10m distance. I could buy some old cheap cord and extend that even further away.