I have a need to trigger my Olympus E-1 (originally this mod was used with my Olympus E-10) from a distance, and not always with a direct line of site, thus eliminating the wireless remote that comes with the camera. I don't need to be wireless to trigger the camera, so I purchased the Olympus RM-CB1 remote cable release. At a length of 3 feet or so, it still wasn't long enough for some of my needs.

Olympus apparently doesn't make an extension cable (even though I thought I saw one at one time), so I decided to research making my own. In my search, I did find references in the dpreview.com Olympus forums of others splicing in standard mini-headphone jacks and using a standard headphone extension cable. But I never found someone that did this and reported the results. I did find a product called SpinScape-1 which incorporates a modified RM-CB1 as part of its system. They have a clear photo showing the modified remote, but no instructions on how to do it. I figure it must work if they are selling it!

I decided to make this extension myself with the limited information I had found online. I knew I needed mini-headphone jacks and that's about all the information I had to go on. So, a trip to Radio Shack was in order, I got what I needed, did the modification and it was a success. Here is my FAQ for others that may want to do this same modification on their own RM-CB1.

Warning: You do this modification at your own risk. I accept no responsibility of any possible damage you may do to your RM-CB1 cable or your camera. If you're not comfortable soldering small wires to small terminals, I would not recommend doing this.

What you'll need:

• Olympus RM-CB1 remote cable. Cost $50 or so.
• Male 1/8" Phone jack. Radio Shack #274-284 (2-pack). Cost $3.99
• Female 1/8" Phone jack. Radio Shack #274-274 (2-pack). Cost $3.99
• Audio extension cable. I bought the Radio Shack 16ft cable #42-2493 - $10.99 (you could probably make one cheaper with the extra male & female connectors and some 3 conductor wire)

Tools:

• Soldering iron, plus supplies (solder, flux, etc.)
• Wire cutters
• Xacto knife
• Small clamps for holding the end of the wire & connectors while soldering

Other helpful items:

• Beer

Sept. 20, 2005 Update: There is now a way to create a wireless trigger with a Pocket Wizard or similar device utilizing parts of this FAQ. Click Here to go to the FAQ for creating a wireless trigger. I'm planning on trying a cheap unit from eBay to see if it works and will post my results when done. 

 

Fig. 1 The unmodified RM-CB1. The spring clip is for clipping the cable to my camera to relieve pressure from the connector going into the camera.

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Step 1:
One of the hardest parts of this process is at the very beginning. Take your wire cutters and cut the cord of your $50 RM-CB1 in half. See Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 Drinking the beer before doing this makes it easier.

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Step 2:
Taking your Xacto knife, cut a 1-inch slit down the cord and remove the three wires inside. Cut off the excess black sheathing. The red & brown wires will be wrapped in white paper - cut this off to expose the red and brown wires. Cut off about 1/8-inch of the sheathing off of the red & brown wires (fyi, they are probably too small for most wire strippers, I carefully used my Xacto knife). The third wire is already exposed, I just twisted this tight at the end. See Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 I have about a 1/4 inch of bare red & brown wire exposed in this photo, I would recommend exposing only about 1/8 inch.

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Step 3:
Unscrew the black housing from the male or female connector (Fig. 4). Then, this is VERY IMPORTANT, put the cord through the black housing you just unscrewed. You don't want to finish soldering only to realize you forgot to put the housing on the cord (go ahead, ask me how I know this).

Fig. 4 The male & female connectors unscrewed from their black housings.

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Step 4:
Solder the silver wire to the center post of the terminal. Using flux will make this easier.
Solder the red wire to the left terminal.
Solder the brown wire to the right terminal.

After done soldering, your connection should look like Fig. 5.

Note: I do not know if it makes a difference if the red & brown wires are reversed on the connectors. But I do know that they need to be on the same side on both connectors (see Step 6 for more details).

Fig. 5 Male connector with wires soldered on.

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Step 5:
Screw the black housing back onto the connector and your done with that side. (Fig. 6)

Fig. 6 Fished first half of the cable.

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Step 6:
Repeat steps 2-5 on the 2nd half of your cord - see Note below before starting. (Fig 7, Fig. 8)

Fig. 7 The female connector with wires soldered on.

Fig. 8 Fished second half of the cable. Adding a shadow of your hand to the photograph shows that you're a real professional.

Note: You will need to keep the red & brown wires on the same sides they were in the first connector you did (Fig. 9). I.E. if the red was on the left terminal on the first one, it needs to be on the left terminal of the 2nd one as well. If they are reversed on one connector, you will lose your half-press shutter button functions and the camera will fire with only a half-press of the button and not pre-focus, etc. Fortunately for me, I had forgot to put the black housing on the cable, so I had to unsolder it anyway...

Fig. 9 Make sure you have the red & brown wires connected to the proper terminals.

Updated (6/16/05): I've been told that the above information isn't exactly true, although it hasn't been properly explained to me why it isn't true - so I can't provide details. My electrical knowledge is pretty limited, so I can't even fake a proper explaination. So, if you follow my directions, it is possible you may experience the problem of the remote firing on a half-press of the shutter button. If this happens, swap the red/brown wires on one of the terminals and it should work.

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Step 7:
Connect the two cable halves, plug it into the camera and do a few test shots to make sure everything is working properly. Then, try your extension cable as well. You may want to unplug the cable from the camera first before you do this, but I don't know if it matters or not. If it's working, you now have the means to put any size extension cord on your RM-CB1.

Fig. 10 Required cheesy shot of myself testing the extension cable.

Note: You can see in my photos I have a spring clip attached to the end of my cable. This is to take the pressure off of the cable connector going into the camera, which is infamous for breaking off. This is highly recommended even without this modification, but is pretty much required after due to the extra weight that the extension cable ads.

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Troubleshooting
The only problem I experienced during this modification is detailed in Step 6 - having the red & brown wires reversed on one of the cables (also see my updated note from June 16, 2005).

If you experience problems even though the red & brown wires are connected to the proper terminals, check all the usual suspects: make sure the camera is on, the solder points are good, no exposed wire touching another wire, etc. If those don't work, try replacing the male and/or female connector with the 2nd one that came in your package. If that doesn't work, try splicing the cable back together with no connectors to see if that works.

Additional Samples Pics
I use my E-10 (now a Olympus E-1) for automotive photography and have been experimenting with mounting the camera on the car for external shots while the car is in motion. Since a lot of times I am shooting these by myself, I needed a way to drive the car and fire the camera at the same time, which is where the need for the extension cable came from. These two shots are test shots I did shortly after creating the RM-CB1 extension cable. They are a little rough, but show that my extension cable is going to work perfectly for my needs.

Update 6/16/05: You can also visit the Photo Gallery on this site for additional camera-rig shots that wouldn't be possible without this extention cable modification.

Also - if anybody out there has information on how to build a wireless radio transmitter to fire the E-1, I would love to hear from you.

Lastly, about 9 months after doing this modification, I decided that the "normal" length of the cable was too long, so I ended up cutting out about 12 inches to make it a more managable length.

Shutter priority 1/60 sec. Camera is mounted to the front bumper looking at front wheel and down side of car, could have been framed better with more of the car. Olympus E-10 w/ WCON-08B wide extension lens, SHQ quality 2240x1680 (resized for web), RM-CB1 remote cable release w/ custom extension cord. Minor color correction and sharpening in Photoshop.

 

2 sec, F11. ND filter used to get long exposure time. No color correction, minor touch-up of dust spots on lens. Olympus E-10 w/ WCON-08B wide extension lens, SHQ quality 2240x1680 (resized for web), RM-CB1 remote cable release w/ custom extension cord.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.