'Hack' a slide dissolve unit?

[neil_parker]

I picked up an old Kodak slide dissolve unit (EC-K) cheap and I am wondering if there is

some way I can rig this to control it with a laptop. It can be used manually, it has a variable

timer and dissolve rate controller pot. Like many of these old dissolve units, it could be

used in conjunction with a tape recorder, and you could 'program' or synchronize a 2-

projector slide show by first running through it manually, recording the inaudible sounds

on tape, then switching the cable to output and the tape would operate the dissolve unit. (I

think that's how it works).

 

I am thinking that if I could find or make the right cable I could do something similar by

recording the actions into a sound program on the laptop (I have audacity and protools

LE), then play it back, if it works I could create the show program by copying and pasting

sound waveforms.

 

So...is this a nutty idea, are there any suggestions on its possibility? Or at least does

anyone know a source for the connectors, which are the same 5-prong connector that a

kodak remote uses? I suppose I can just try to find a junk remote and wire it up to some

RCA jacks, could it be that simple? If this works, it might be worth my trying to find a more

sophisticated dissolve unit for fancier effects.