The adapter you receive may look slightly different than the one above. This depends on our suppliers and what they can provide us with.

Overview

These instructions are for attaching a Flash-to-PC adapter--shown to the left--to the end of your trigger output cable. This will allow your trigger circuit to actuate the flash directly. One end of the flash adapter cord will be cut, and its wires wrapped tightly around the appropriate ones from the trigger output cable and soldered. The solder joints will then be covered with pieces of heat shrink tubing for electrical insulation.

Parts

The following parts are provided with the Flash-to-PC Adapter (FA) kit:

Flash-to-PC adapter

2-inch length heat shrink tubing (HST), 3/32-inch diameter

3-inch length heat shrink tubing, 3/16-inch diameter

 

You'll need to provide the 2-conductor gray cable that came with your trigger kit.

Tools

You'll need the following tools:

Wire stripper

15- or 30-watt soldering iron and solder

Wet sponge or towel

Lighter or matches to shrink HST

Soldering Tips Solder in a well-lit, well-ventilated, open area. Avoid contact with all metal surfaces on the iron. Keep the tip of the soldering iron clean by wiping it against a wet sponge or towel before and after each use. A clean tip should look shiny and silvery; any yellow or black material on the tip will get into the solder and may weaken your solder joint. Once the tip of your soldering iron is clean, touch a bit of solder to the tip just before use. This is called tinning, and helps the solder run more evenly. Heat the connection to be soldered by holding the soldering iron to it, until solder applied at the junction between the two melts and flows freely. This ensures the connection and the solder are both hot enough to yield a good solder joint. This should take no more than 10-15 seconds. After the connection is heated, try to get solder along the entire length of the connection by briskly moving the solder and iron along. Avoid touching only the solder to the connection, and then the soldering iron to the solder to melt it onto the connection. The connection will be cooler than the melted solder and won’t form a good solder joint. Let new solder joints cool for several seconds before examining them. There should be solder all the way around the connection, forming a rigid joint. When done, unplug your soldering iron and let it cool.

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Preparing the flash adapter cord

The Flash-to-PC adapter is shown to the left. With a pair of wire strippers, cut the cord about 3" (8 cm) from the plug end. Set the section with the plug aside in case you ever want to reconnect it. For the rest of these instructions, you'll be working with the end of the cord having the flash shoe.

Stripping the wires

Flash-to-PC Adapter: Strip back 1.5” (4 cm) of the outer black insulation being careful not to cut the inner conductors. This will reveal two conductors. Due to differences in the adapters that we receive from our suppliers, the two conductors may be red and white, red and black, or one of the conductors may be a copper sheath wrapped around an insulated wire. If you have the latter version, see Build 2 of these instructions.

Strip back about 1” (2.5 cm) of insulation from the wires.

Trigger Output Cable: If you have previously assembled a HiViz trigger or delay kit, you will have a 2-conductor cable already prepared, and you may skip the rest of this step. If not, follow these directions. Refer to the photo to the right. At one end of the cable, strip the outer gray insulation back by 2" (5 cm). This will reveal the red and black wires inside. Strip the individual wires back ¼" (¾ cm). This short length makes the multiple-stranded conductors easier to push into the breadboard.

The other end of the cable will be for connecting to the Flash-to-PC adapter cord. Strip the outer insulation back by 2" (5 cm), and the individual wires back 1" (2.5 cm). The output cable wires are stripped back farther to allow for easier wrapping over the flash adapter wires.

Applying heat shrink tubing and making connections

Cut the smaller diameter section of heat shrink tubing into two 1-inch lengths. Slip one length over each of the output cable wires as shown in the upper photo to the left.

Twist the red wire of the adapter cord together with the red wire of the output cord, and twist the white wire of the adapter cord together with the black wire of the output cord as shown in the lower photo to the left. Be sure that the total length of exposed conductor is shorter than the length of the the heat shrink tubing that will cover the splices.

Solder the twisted wires and clip off any stray wire strands. Keep the soldering iron well away from the heat-shrink tubing so that it won't shrink prematurely. The soldered splices are shown to the right.

Completing the electrical insulation

Slide the heat shrink tubing over each of the solder splices so that the wires are completely insulated from each other. Using a lighter or a match, move the flame smoothly back and forth along the entire length of the tubing, with the tip of the flame just beneath as shown to the left. If you hold the flame too long in one spot or too closely to the tubing, you will notice smoke. If this happens, lower your flame and continue moving it back and forth. The tubing will visibly shrink, and will be acceptably tight-fitting after only 10-15 seconds of heating. The result is shown to the right.

Finishing up

Slide the larger diameter piece of heat shrink tubing over the gray cable as shown in the upper photo to the left. Position the tubing so that it covers the entire spliced area of the wires and overlaps the gray insulation on one end and the black insulation on the other. Then shrink the tubing. The result is shown in the lower photo to the left.

The completed cable is shown to the right. Connect it to your trigger circuit according to this chart.