Dakota Camera - Custom Cable Interface

Ahhh, now this is sweet. No messing with the guts of the camera. Grabbing some connectors from this site and a spare USB cable led to interface Nirvana. Note: The site is in Hong Kong. Shipping took about 10 days to the Eastern US.



The materials. The Palm V on the left, the two Palm III connectors on the right. The rest of the pics document the use of the Palm III connector.




The Palm III connector as it comes shipped.




The connector separated.




The part of the connector that will actually seat on the camera.




Here are the connectors labelled. They may look upside-down, but once assembled the gold fingers would point into the page making contact with the camera PCB.




The connector laying facedown next to the camera. Note the drawing that labels the connections.




Here the unused connector pins are bent up and the USB cable has been threaded through the little rubber piece.




The unused pins removed via the fabled 'wiggle' technique.




Some nice tiny gauge wire soldered to the connector. These in turn get soldered to the USB cable.




We'll need to cut the top back off of the connector sleeve so it fits into the camera.




Here's a side view of the part to cut...




The connector innards placed in the housing... The chunk on the left is the cut piece. Leave the metal 'springs' on the sides of the connector. They fit perfectly into the camera.




A side view of the same... A dab of hot glue filled the space where the housing hood was.




The finished cable. A bit short, but useable.




To ensure good contact, the connector should sit at an angle to the camera when downloading. If I put it on the top of my case face down, it holds this angle just fine.




The camera attached to the PC...




A better view of the above.





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