READ ME CAREFULLY
I guess you are here because you are wondering why Nikon ever made those cables for the SC-17, SC-28, SC-29 so long. The reasons I thought were obvious. Nikon still thinks these cables can and should be used for off camera "statue of liberty" shooting, handheld off camera for micro or on a separate light stand device. If you put them on a bracket, you have "Coilitus". Three feet of coiled cord. And it does not make a nice handle. In fact the stress from going against the coil will eventually rot it through.
The units, originally the SC-17 are micro soldered, formerly out of Japan. Thats good! The newer 28 and 29 series are stamped Nikon JAPAN, and you guessed it, re-stamped, look lower than the embossed JAPAN and you will see "parts and labor from China". This is breadboard and smaller work and if you have done this before you will admire the tiny work. The work is do-able though in very confined spaces, and one drop of solder can ruin your entire day, about seventy dollars worth.
The 17 series was much easier with only five wires and a removable strain relief but this is not the case with the 28 and the 29. I have removed the section on doing these yourself on the 17-28-29 because I was suggesting you try it yourself.
I MADE A MONSTER
It backfired, simply because I felt if I could solder, so could others. Wrong, I simply overestimated the capabilities of those folks who thought they could solder.
Soldering pipe joints, is not soldering 24 gauge wire with meltable coverings with a 1/4 inch tip.
The results were underwhelming. And I got deluged (that means a lot) of cables cut in the wrong places, missing screws, busted plastic keys and pinouts over-soldered.
Many I could save after hours of work, rebuilding cable structure and making new joints. Of course some prayer help from the local voodoo expert helped. The chicken sacrifice helped. The chicken was not happy about this and frankly he tasted like alligator.
Some unfortunately were DOA. There is no amount of money that justifies the time to fix one. Worse, no amount of rebuilding could fix this. Some were so badly messed with, we had to epoxy parts into permanent positions to save them and then epoxy the casing to keep it intact.
It worked but never can it be opened again and maybe, thats good. Most work on this level is 60-80 dollars per hour. Again, Nikon and Canon do not have parts for sale and neither Mouser nor others had these proprietary parts if they got messed up
If it fails do not come to me and ask how much? I will guesstimate it for you. It depends, I will only accept untouched product, for the prices I have shown on the price page. The SC-17, SC-28, SC-29 have nothing in common with each other and when the 28 and 29 get fouled up, its bad, really bad, about 75 dollars worth.
Also some of the SC-17s and 28's are getting old in the tooth and have started to fall apart. I mean fall apart. The rubber came off the cables. I stretched one out and it disintegrated into pieces from dry rot. I had to take a cutoff from another and redo both ends. My shop vacuum quickly dispatched the mess. I have seen this many times and it doesn't hurt to keep the cables clean and in a zip-loc when not being used. Stretching them kills them, heat and dryness accelerates the process.
TIPS and TOOLS
I use WELLER and UNGAR temp controlled solder guns 25-40 watts with needle tips usually at 25/30 watts. 3M 1:2 shrink tubing in 3/64 - 1/16 sizes. I prefer Kester solder #44 when available but have used Radio Shacks brand of clean soft 60/40 rosin solder when I ran out. I won't run out again, I found the RS stuff is smoking a lot even with reduced heat.
Thats not good! Good ventilation is essential and Adios Hack may of switched vendors. Not a joke, if it is lead solder and Chinese made, I will go back to Kester Solder, before I inhale too much and wind up a dead solder maven.
I also clean every joint with 96% or better ISOPROPYL (LKG 99% Brand Alcohol, I prefer, with Olives, shaken not stirred) For those who do not know, never ever use rubbing alcohol, it contains a lubricant and water and never good for anything except back rubs.
I use X-celite pliers and nippers for the tight stiff, a cut down GB aligned stripper for the 22-24 ga. wire, and a bunch of bench knives or X-actos. On my bench are several 000 forceps, and strong coffee, a magnifying hood, and specialized jigs that fit my bench vise. (see above)
BOTTOM LINE
Here is the first step that makes this process different on the SC-28 and SC-29. On the SC-17 the strain relief is a separate added component and held in place by a soluble glue and is reusable. On the 28 and 29 models, the harness is a molded one part component. This means blind cutting using a Dremel and side cutting drill bits to recut and reshape the part:
NOTE CAREFULLY: This shaping guarantees no two will ever be the same. "A" Modified strain relief, "B" Shortened length, "C" Removed strain relief parts. For your protection I will not only reset the strain relief I will coat it with a Teflon based clear coating to seal the part we modify to keep out moisture. The quality naturally has gone down since out friends on the mainland got involved so we added this step. The rubber-plastic compound is different on the ones from the mainland.
Basically the process is the same, you open the part, camera side, shorten the cable and re-solder, then put it all back together. Sounds simple enough...
BUT: You now have seven or eight wires to contend with splicing and soldering 24 gauge wire in a 7/8 inch work space.
The contacts are buried three layers deep and with pre wired cables easier to build, hard to modify. Small screws, small parts and springs, a disaster looking to happen if you don't lose all the parts, thats why they Loctite them in. The nightmare, getting a strain relief back on so it looks good. We tried using other strain reliefs, the donut style but not enough room to get a grip with. And the actual rubber is a composite now and doesn't take well to shaping as mentioned before and we will seal it.
This is not the place to experiment as I have had difficulty finding that part to replace. In fact I couldn't. I found similar, but not the same. The other solution is the rubber grommet but they are too thick to fit in without modifying the plastic case and that can lead to ruination.
THE LAST WARNING
• If this is beyond your scope, pass, and let me do it. You can easily make a sixty to eighty dollar cable into junk if this is not your forte.
• You may get it to the point where I cannot fix it or it becomes unreliable.
• The SC-17, I would call a four to five in difficulty on a ten scale for someone with skills. Nine+ out of ten for the SC-28 and the SC-29.
• Use the tools and solders I suggest. Silver solder is too hot and other solders may not be so pure.
• Turn around time is based on what else I have to do. There are more expensive ways to do this with a higher failure rate.
OTHER SOLUTIONS
Small dins, cutting the center out and more connections create a higher risk. I have already had to repair a few the geniuses already did. It was not pretty.
Some of them shorted out damaging the unit. This 24 gauge wire is too small for couple joints, too fragile. And as we said in grenade school, "Wrong tug, the grave is dug". And bear one little thought in mind, the positive and negative power to a strobe with a high synch rate can short to one of the squelching circuits which are only three volts in capacity.
I have seen them all, the computer internet cable fix, the phone connector and the mini-board. So far mine has worked. It's not the prettiest, it's made to work. If you are a "purist" and everything in your world has to be perfect and in alignment, please bother someone else
AL JACOBSON