Ok folks, I've just finished making and fitting my DIY Lanc to the HV20 - it uses the standard WL - D87 remote controller and a bit of ingenuity, but provides both standard IR operation when not tethered, along with all the D87 functions when connected via cable from over 50 feet away (and behind the camera). No light pipes required.

How many of you would be interested in how it's done?

Cheers,


Chris

Count me in! I need lanc control if I try and do a stereoscopic video. I might use the "lanc shepard" which controls 2 cameras at once.

Please let us all in on the technique.

Thanks.

Sounds realy intresting for me.. :)

Come on ... Spill the beans! ... please :)

Yeah...count me in too and spill the beans, I'm going out to buy an HV20 this afternoon.

That's maybe useful for a DIY figrig. Go ahead! Thanks in advance,

Sorry all, been out on a shoot all day so running waaaay late with everything.

To work:

The lanc is based on the standard IR remote. I didn't want to trash my one and only, so bought a second (cheap as chips, $29 NZ - about, oh, $20 US or less). As this process does involve making some "hard" changes to your remote and the ever present chance that a mistake totals it completely, you may want to get a second one for this procedure as well. Of course, once you start on this, you can wave your Canon Warranty on it bye bye! So be warned.

[Before I go any further, does anyone know what the upload limits are on photos here? I searched but failed to find, and this will be heaps easier with the accompanying photos].

Anyway, for part 1 I'll stick to a brief overvew of what I did, you can decide from that whether you're prepared to try it AND have both the tools and soldering experience to complete it.

In essence, very simple - the IR sensor on the camera is on the lower right front (Duh!). Not much good from behind or at distance. Need to get an IR feed to sensor. Have looked at previously posted "lightpipe" systems and though highly ingenious, (thanks to all) not really suitable for me with a dual 360 degress underslung P/T head requireing extremely flexible and secure links.

Ok, so use an IR sender attached electronically and use super thin cable. Which sender?

OK, here's where your first choice is:

You can make this easy, use the sender led from the remote, remove it from the circuit board and attach it using "blue tack" to the IR sensor on the camera and hard wire it back to the controler. Easy to do, and works, but remote is now stuck to camera on indeterminate length of cable and no longer works as proper hand held remote.

OR

Fit a 2.5mm panel mount phono socket onto the remote case and wire it into the led circuit so that when the "remote" led is plugged in, the "local" led is not, and vice versa.

What "remote" led if we're not using the one from the remote control itself? (I hear you ask!)

Easy, get hold of a trashed remote from practically anything (or, preferably a good remote from something else that has been trashed) and use the led out of that. You can probably also get a perfectly good new one from Radio Shack (do they still exist?) or whomever your local electronic components shop is.

Parts List for entire job:

1 X WL - D87 Canon Remote (intact) & battery
1 X IR LED (from wherever)
1 X 2.5mm plastic** panel mount phono socket (Mono) with "break" contact
2 X 2.5 mm Phono plugs (Mono)
1 X 2.5 mm Phono Line socket (Mono)
About 6 inches thin single core hookup wire ( I mean tiny!)
About 6 inches thin "single core with shield" cable
As much single core and shield as you need to get from remote to camera in worst case scenario - almost unlimited length.

Tools:
Soldering Iron (fine tip) & Solder
Small pliers
Tweezer heatsink
Small side cutters
Sharp knife
Drill and say 1/16" and 1/8" drill bits (1 - 3 mm ish)
Slot screw driver
Electrical tape (if it matches the camera colour, so much the better)
Small amount of "Blue Tack" (like plasticine but for office use - usually blue)

The "single core and shield" I used was one side of a figure 8 pair (used for double shielded feeds) simply zipped apart, presto, 1 core! You can use double core without a shield but you may have trouble finding anything small enough, the stuff I used is only about 1/16"/ 1/8" in diameter.

********************************************************

OK, that's gonna have to hold you lot till tomorrow, as I've work to do - anyone feeling brave and wants more, just post and let me know, this really is simple but does require stuff that probably isn't on the average bods "I can do that" list these days.

Cheers,


Chris


PS: Tip for remotes.

Does it work? To find out, turn on HV20, point lens at yourself, flip screen so you can see it. Fire remote (ANY remote) at lens. If remote is working, you will see it flashing on the screen. You can now test any remote in town and earn a fortune on the side.

Cheers.

Yes, I would love to see more about this. I'm brave enough to give it a go. Why Canon left out lanc control on this camera is beyond me.

Yes, I would love to see more about this. I'm brave enough to give it a go. Why Canon left out lanc control on this camera is beyond me.

You gotta remember that this is a sub 2k(aus) "consumer cam". I doubt that the average Joe would even know what a Lanc was.

A consumer cam that's much better than I think Canon intended - at least picture-wise. But I agree, most buyers of this camera have little idea of what you can coax out of it. I saw someone using one the other day, whipping it around on ultrafast pans as he tried to get every inch of the Chicago skyline. I pity the people that have to watch that!

OK, well, tonights episode of "Build the lanc" is cancelled due to incompatible time commitments (in a nutshell, have been off shooting again all day and if "her indoors" doesn't get some serious quality time I'll never hear the end of it).

However, till Part Deux arrives (hopefully tomorrow) here are some thoughts:

1. The build parameters were based largely on what I could source easily here in Dunedin (not the planets greatest metropolis) and so the final build will to a large extent depend on what you can get hold of yourselves.

2. I did not make clear in Part 1, there are NO electronic connections to the camera itself. The connections are "physical" in that they are temporarily attached and can be easily removed, (grab and pull will do it) so the only component that is compromised is the remote itself. Unfortunately this system only gives you what is available on the remote, but, hey, it's still a lot better than nothing!

3. Just to get some of you wondering, (as I have only just discovered this and it has to be worth further investigation), DID YOU KNOW that the HV20 remote actually works some of the functions of the A1? I mention this only because a large number of bods seem to have both (as do I), but I seriously do not have time to thoroughly investigate to what extent each remote works with the "wrong" camera. It would be real cool if the A1 remote actually "did" the focus on the HV20 (yeah, fat chance!). Anybody want to give it a try?

And with that, gotta go. Will seriously attempt to get this sorted tomorrow - any requests etc just post.

Cheers,


Chris

I used a cheap TOSLink cable ($3) to pass through the IR signal from the remote to the front of the camera. It works very well. You also don't need to break anything. Here's the post

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=94890&highlight=cheap+solution+missing+lanc

well, first to respond to Taky:
I had no problems with your design, it just simply wouldn't work for me. I had to work with what was available here and would do what I wanted it to do. The Toslink's available here would in no way allow the range of movement required, hence the different approach. If you had read the start of the thread you would have picked up on that (I hope).

Gonna have to delay part 2 yet again as have been posting over on the "General HD/ HDV" forum on another favourite topic, but for anyone interested, here's a snippet:

The IR remote is held together by 6 protruding lugs (three each side) that stick out from the top plate and engage in suitably placed indentations in the bottom plate of the controller. If you remove the battery holder and use a bit of leverage (gently) at that end, you can gauge just where the first lug is on either side. The application of a slot screwdriver to that location to lever the bottom casing away from the lug will free it quite easily. Continue with the other 2 lugs on any one side and, hey presto, it just opens!

And that's it for tonight, sorry. Gotta go.

Cheers,


Chris

Well, this was to be accompanied by photos, but as one or other of the systems involved seems to be having a "hissy fit" I have no idea whether they're there or not. Gonna close this post and see if piccies appear as if by magic in it before posting any more.

Cheers,

Chris

Well, DVinfo won't allow me to upload the piccies for some reason, so for the moment that's the end of the tutorial (actually that's not strictly true, they have uploaded [in spades] it just won't let me attach them to this post, for reasons known only to the designer of the system).

When (if) this gets sorted, I will return.

Cheers,


Chris

Now, hopefully, we have vision....

1. Shows the lugs on the remote casing. Flat blade driver and a bit of patience and off they come.

2. Shows the external electrical connector, with the LED having the section of lead removed and the holes drilled into the bottom casing for the wires.

3. This shows the external connector cemented to the casing with the attachment wires trailing.

4. This is the attached wires onto the LED. There is, most definately, a gap between those two wires on the positive feed to the LED.

5. This is the finished, re - assembled remote. It sits nicely on the external connector. I'm still working on how, exactly, I'm going to attach it to whatever on the jib/ boom.

6. The sender IR led encased in "blue tack" stuck onto the IR sensor of the HV20. Further tests have indicated I need to cut that blue tack back upwards to give the remote a better view of the sensor in normal operating conditions.

7. Not easy to see as it's all black - the cable from the IR sender to the plug mounted on the top of the camera. NOT taping the tape drive door shut proved to be a bit of a worry but I got there. The plug is out of eye's way and shouldn't interfere with the operation of the "hot shoe" if it's being used.

OK. Now, I guess the best way to do this is to say - what do you need to know after seeing what you've seen?

It's so simple it's criminal (why Canon didn't think of it astounds) but hey, it does the job.

I could launch into all sorts of stuff with regard to details, but really can't see the point, as those that can do, will, those that can't, won't.

Let me know.


Cheers,


Chris

Interesting and tempting. For the camera end, couldn't you mount the LED on a thin, L-shaped piece with the tripod plate, holding the LED in a position right in front of the sensor? The wire would run along the bottom of the camera and the plug end could also be attached to the plate.

And depending on how the remotes are constructed, is there any reason this couldn't be implmented with other cameras?

Yep, you could and yep, you could (mount the led differently and do the same with just about any other remote). The reason for me mounting it how I did was to keep it out of the way of everything and thus not a bother in ordinary use. The only proviso with the latter would be the cost of replacing the remote in the even that there's a "whoops" type incident during the mod. However, as my second for the HV20 was practically peanuts maybe manufacturers have stopped gougeing customers for replacement remotes.

In case anyone has noticed the unused 2.5mm plug and socket I put in the parts list BTW, it is, of course, to make up the cable that connects the remote to the plug on the camera.

Cheers,


Chris

Chris, on one side of the remote's LED you have two wires tapped (is one ground?). Which wire goes to what side of the phono plug, or does the +/- matter? Do you have matching pictures of the phono plug to the "remote" LED?

I agree the piccies aren't exactly self explanatory - so here goes. Once you've got your remote apart, if you flip out the circuit board and turn it over to the non - track side, you have just the led and the battery terminals. Now, if you look at the board with the led up and the terminals down (at the bottom) the r/h lead of the led is the positive (+) feed, the l/h lead is ground (-).

I cut a (very) small chunk out of the r/h (+) lead to give me a (+) feed and (+) return. The l/h (-) wire goes to the "barrel" of the socket, which always connects to the shaft of the plug, which connects to the "barrel" of the in - line socket etc etc.

The (+) feed connects to the "tip" connector in the socket, which connects EITHER with the (+) return to the remote itself, OR the "tip" of the inserted plug and thus eventually the "on - camera" sender. Thus the (+) feed always connects to the "tip" all the way down the line.

In case you can't see what is connected to what in the socket, take the naked socket and a naked plug. Insert plug fully into socket and measure with a multimetre which connector on the socket is now connected to the tip of the plug. Whichever of the two possibles it is gets the (+) feed from the led, the other one is the (+) return and gets the second wire from the r/h led lead.

I don't actually have a piccie of the wiring on the remote sender led. However, if you check out the original remote led carefully, you will notice that internally the two leads that go into the resin are not identical. The ground (-) lead broadens out to quite a solid platform on which is mounted the led chip itself. The (+) lead is much smaller and has a very fine, almost invisible, "flying wire" from it's end to the chip. All led's are broadly identicle in this respect so identifying which way 'round to connect them is pretty simple.

Ergo, (+) = tip, (-) = shaft. Can't go wrong !

Hope that helps!

Cheers,


Chris

Who's gone and built one then? Somebody? Anybody?

Cheers,


Chris

I plan on doing something like this... I just need to look at a few of my
underwater housings and see about mounting the remote where I can use the buttons on the housing to address the remote.....

thanks for putting this out there... its good to be able to see other solutions
and methods

I think this might be better placed in the heads & sticks - lens controls forum. What do you think - it's relevant to anything that's doesn't have a dedicated Lanc type control. Maybe with a "place mat" to re - direct from the HV10/ 20 forum?

Cheers,


Chris

Hmm, can i make this trick on two HV10, so when making photos, i can get syncronized pictures with one press? Would be good!