Straitening The Nikon SC-17 TTL Cord (FYI).

<u>Straitening The Nikon SC-17 TTL Cord.<br>

</u><br>

The Nikon SC-17 TTL Remote Cord has a length of 2.7m (9 feet).

The practical length as a coiled cord is about one half that or 1.4m

(4.6 feet). The SC-17 cord can be relaxed quite well though not

perfectly by dipping it in boiling water for a minute or two and

then pulling it tight. Care should be taken not to immerse the

ends in the water. Several iterations are required for best

results. The cord should be untwisted during each successive

treatment. A potholder is good for this. Due to the length it

takes two people to do the job or perhaps a helping refrigerator

door handle. Do not pull too hard on the fittings at the end,

pull on the cord itself if possible. After treatment the cord can

be laid on a kitchen floor with a pan at each end to keep it

straight as it cools further. YMMV<br>

<br>

Up to three SC-17 cords can be combined for a total length of 4.2m

coiled or 8.2m straight. I know there are more sophisticated ways

of controlling remote speedlights but on a tight budget the

discontinued SC-17 cord is an effective, low cost alternative.<br>

<br>

I use my straitened SC-17 cords with my Nikon D2H and SB-800. One

cord is kind of short and one could easily trip on it so I use

two, usually one straight and one coiled. I dont want to

trip and pull over a tripod.<br>

<br>

Currently I own only one SB-800 but later Ill use

additional SB-800(s) and Nikons CLS (Creative Lighting

System). The speedlight connected with the SC-17 TTL cords will

be the master (not necessarily the main or key light) and other

speedlights will be cordless slaves.<br>

<br>

I hope you find this helpful.<br>

<br>

Best,<br>

<br>

Dave Hartman.

Interesting David - thanks for sharing.

 

Maybe I can turn elbow macoroni into ziti now!

 

I always enjoy resourceful solutions to topics that some may wish to do. Interestingly enough I have been tempted to turn straight cords into coiled cords - SC-18/SC-19 - I'm curious as to whether your approach would work if wrapped around a dowell or mandrel & then chilled?

 

Regards

Dave, I need to shorten my SC-17. Kirk don't do it anymore. Would you call that a DIY job?

Very creative thanks.

See http://aljacobs.com/shorten%20sc-17.htm for instructions. I tried it and the procedure worked very well.

Lee,<br>

<br>

I dont know how the heat is applied but heat is how the SC-17

cords are curled. There is a lightly flattened surface inside the

coils where the cord lay against the mandrel as it was formed. I

dont know if boiling water is enough heat to do this. Id

try a 1/2" (12.5mm) aluminum rod as a mandrel. I would

secure the SC-18 or 19 cord gently, heat it and then chill it. If

you knew the right temperature you might heat the aluminum with a

heat gun, let it cool to proper temperature and equalize, then

apply the cord. This would require some kind of protection for

the hands. Im guessing the proper temperature is above 210

*F (100 *C) but not too much.<br>

<br>

The cable covering of the SC-17 and SC-18 cords look the same to

me. There are more wires in the SC-17 and its fatter but

otherwise I think they are the same material. I cant see

any reason why an SC-18 or 19 cord cant be coiled. My main

concern would be over heating the cable and melting it. The

second would be under heating it and not have a good coil with

good memory.<br>

<br>

Regards,<br>

<br>

Dave Hartman.

Arnab,<br>

<br>

I guess to give an honest answer I would have to actually do the

job so I did. If you are handy with a soldering iron its

kind of fiddley but not too bad. If you do this stuff often it

would be pretty darned easy.<br>

<br>

Its a little harder to uncoiling just a few coils but not

that bad. I dipped the middle of the SC-17 cord in boiling water

and straitened about eight coils. The trick is to heat just the

coils you want to straighten without heating your

fingers. I went through about a half dozen iterations then cut to

cable in half. I chose a length of 24 coils. The 18 coils used by

Kirkphoto seem a touch short for my purpose.<br>

<br>

I see Chris Leck posted a link to a good instruction page for

shortening the SC-17 TTL Cord. Instead of cutting the cable 1

on the outside I cut it on the inside hard against the gray outer

covering. This left about 1 of individual wire without the

gray covering inside. Then I dipped the black vinyl stress relief

thing in the hot water and it pulled off pretty easy. For one who

is dyslexic it is important to put the stress relief thing back

on right away and triple check that it is on in the correct

direction. I unsoldered the short wires one at a time replacing

them with the shortened cord as I went.<br>

<br>

Like Alan Jacobson I chose the camera end because the speedlight

end has more wires in it due to a couple of side connectors. It

would be a mess to stuff them all back in plus there would be

more soldering and Id think closer quarters. I may have

looked in the other end long ago but I didnt bother this

time. I just went with the camera end.<br>

<br>

I never heard the thing about hairspray before but it appeals to

me. Ill have to get some and spray the connection and slip

it back an forth a bit. Anyway I did pretty much the same thing

as Alan Jacobson and the warnings about melting the plastic and

all would be the same so just follow his instructions. To make

sure I didnt screw up I used a continuity tester to check

for short circuits. In other words I checked to see that those

pins that should not have continuity did not.<br>

<br>

If you dont want to do the job yourself Alan Jacobson wants

just $20.00 to do the job and that is pretty reasonable.<br>

<br>

The quality of the cable used by Nikon is great. The small wires

have nylon fiber inside for durability. The center hot wire is

sheilded and then the whole cable is sheilded. Ive never

had an SC-17 cord fail.<br>

<br>

I never shortened an SC-17 cord before because I only had three.

I'm a big believer in backups so I didn't want to shorten one.

Thursday I had a spot of good luck when I was given two SC-17

cords and a Nikon DE-3 prism, minty fresh. Anyway thats the

long, the short and the straight of it.<br>

<br>

Best,<br>

<br>

Dave Hartman.<div></div>

Here is a shot of the inside of the lower half of the camera end. Note that the wires are soldered on to very small pins. There was no cleanup of old solder needed. One wire came off and the other went on.<div></div>

Thanks, David. Yet another useful contribution from you.

 

Where the heck are those p net hero icons? I must ask.

Thanks Chris that is a good link for shortening the cord.

I also have an SC-28 - Is this wiring configured the same or are there more for the ittl?

We have gone thru this several times. The internal wiring for the SC-17 and SC-28 are completely identical. The SC-17 is fully compatible with iTTL and the SC-28 adds nothing new. In fact, the SC-29 is the same also as far as flash control goes, except that the SC-29 has additional wiring for switching on and off the AF-assist LED on the base unit that mounts on the hot shoe.

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=008mhJ

<em>I never shortened an SC-17 cord before because I

only had three. I'm a big believer in backups so I didn't want to

shorten one. --dhh<br>

</em><br>

That isnt too clear is it? What I meant was I felt I needed

3 coiled cords. Even though an SC-17 has never failed me I like

backups. Now with five total I feel comfortable with two long

coiled, one short coiled and two long straight.<br>

<br>

The price of the SC-17 (when new), SC-28 and SC-29 is kind of

steep but the quality is there so its not quite a bad as it

might appear.<br>

<br>

The SC-28 has a lever lock rather than a thumb wheel. Otherwise

as mentioned its electronically the same as the SC-17. The

SC-28 and SC-29 have the cable exit from the camera shoe on the

left where as the SC-17s cable exits at the front of the

shoe. Some SC-17(s) have the hole for the pin and lever lock

system and some do not. I like the newer lever lock as it never

binds like the thumb wheels do.<br>

<br>

The SC-29 has the ruby red focus assist but no sockets for

additional SC-18 and 19 cords. The SC-18 and 19 cords have been

replaced by the SC-26 and 27 cords. Im sure the SC-29 can

be daisy chained like the rest but the focus assist light will

only function if its holding an SB-800 or SB-600 speedlight.

This probably isnt important as most setups will likely use

some kind of modeling lights. <br>

<br>

Im using a 50 watt halogen semi-flood lamp but hope to

switch to LED(s) and battery power. Im thinking of hanging

a 6v gel cell battery near the bottom of a light stand to power

both the speedlight and modeling lamp. That will have to wait

unless I can find the stuff I need gratis. Id also like

about a half dozen more SB-800 and a couple of SB-600. That will

definitely have to wait.<br>

<br>

Im glad to see folks found this useful. Id like to

subscribe to PHOTO.NET but I just cant do it at this time.

The idea here is to add value to PHOTO.NET and helps those I

think of as friends.<br>

<br>

Best,<br>

<br>

Dave Hartman.

So would this proccedure apply to the newer SC-28/29 cords too? From what I see of the 17/18 cord, the outer covering seems to made from a harder rubber such as those found on telephones, whilst the rubber on the newer cords are more, for a lack of better words, rubbery and softer and also have a matte finish.

 

If this observation is correct, would these difference affect how one should straighten the newer cords?

 

I think not, but better safe than sorry!

Shing,<br>

<br>

Im sorry I didnt notice this question sooner. I cant

really say as Ive never held the new SC-28 and 29 cords in

my hand. They might require higher temperature to soften enough

to straiten. There could be silicone in the covering. Then again

they might be just as easy as the SC-17 cords to uncoil. You

could be first to try ;)<br>

<br>

Water is an easy medium to work with as the temperature is about

210*F until its all boiled away. The temperature of boiling

water depends one altitude. Various oils can be headed much

hotter making them much more dangerous both to skin and cable If

boiling water at about 1,200 feet or lower won't do it I'd give

up.<br>

<br>

Ive straitened two cords and I straitened one end on two

cords from the shortening project. As I recall the shortened SC-17

cords sold by Kirkphoto didnt have this touch.<br>

<br>

Best,<br>

<br>

Dave Hartman.<br>

<br>

I gotten a trifle braver since I wrote original posts. The last

time I did this I brought the water to a good rolling boil and

then turned off the heat just seconds before submerging the cable.

This might mean the cable is heated 5 perhaps 10*F more than

before. There is a danger of heating the cable too much and

melting it. When I did my first cable I was pretty sure boiling

water was not too hot.

I think I've already gleened the answer from the topics above...but could someone confirm that you can use more than one SC-17 strung together without causing damage to the flash gun. Also, if anyone has a surplus stretched one in perfect working order and the price ain't mega high, I could be interested in a purchase. I'm UK based and have a Paypal account. Kind regards, Nic. nicam@btinternet.com

www.nicrandall.com

Nic,<br>

<br>

Yes, these TTL cords can be strung together. What I read here at

PHOTO.NET is up to three may be used. Ive done this and it

works fine. Each cord add resistance so at some point daisy

chaining cords will cause errors or failure of the system. I do

not know of an official recommendation by Nikon. <br>

<br>

Ill attach a copy of the <u>Nikon Accessories for TTL

Multiple Flash Photography</u> instruction leaflet packed with

the SC-17 TTL Cord. This instruction manual covers discontinued

products. A manual for the new replacement products such as the

SC-28 and 29 is available at official Nikon sites world wide, e.g.

Nikon USA, and Nikon, UK. The new manuals are road map style and

include various languages. The one Im posting here is

English only.<br>

<br>

Best,<br>

<br>

Dave Hartman.<br>

<br>

PS: the attached file is not dialup friendly. It can be read in

most browsers. I recommend opening it in a new tab or window.