Wiring it up

The next steps are pretty easy: make one or more wired switch assemblies. I used lightweight speaker wire because there's tons of the stuff laying around the house. It's a little stiff and the wire is a higher gauge than we need. If you are at the store look for something flexible and thinner. Glow-in-the-dark would be handy for astro-photography.

The "jack" for our wire is just another piece of the socket shown earlier. This will plug into the socket on the side of the Nikon ML-L3. Those sockets are like legos; you can stack them forever. After connecting the wire to the socket jack and the switch, I put a dollop of shoe goo between and over the wires. This helps keep them from shorting out, getting yanked out, or being exposed to the weather. Again, the switch is a momentary N/O (normally open).

My wire is long enough to go from the telescope on the deck to just inside the house. That lets me take photos without standing next to the telescope the whole time, or vibrating it by walking inside. The most difficult part you'll probably face is finding a good place to put the remote in front of your D70. Think Velcro.

The nice thing about having a jack in the remote is that you can make up a whole bunch of these remotes, in all manner of length and style. Maybe even rig it up to an egg timer or motion sensor! Please drop me a line with any tips or ideas you come up with.

BTW, all photos were taken using the D70 w/300mm lens and 5T attachment. More on the equipment and technique in the D70 Macro article.

«ML-L3 Modification

Page 4 of 4