Trying to find longer version of this cable

[Mighty]

I have an oddball application. I want to take a teeny R/C drone camera and mount it on my hockey helmet.

I have everything I need, except that the cable between the camera, a Caddx Turtle V2, and its controller board is too short. It won't reach from where I mount the camera to the gap in the padding of my helmet where I can stash the controller board. I could try to solder extensions, but by the time I solder and wrap 20 wires, it'll be too bulky to fit through the creases in the padding to get to the gap. (Unless someone knows of a technique to keep that from happening?)

The seller/manufacturer of the camera won't tell me what connector they're using, nor tell me where I might find a longer example. I've tried to search, but I can't come up with a search phrase that doesn't show me The World of connectors. I'm hoping someone here can tell me what it is. Possible sources would be welcome, also, but if I know the part number or specific-enough description to search for, then maybe I can track it down myself.

Attached is a picture of the connector, the board, and a ruler.

Now, to get into my constraints, which rule out some suggestions for alternatives.

I can't use a GoPro, because the refs will not let me mount a camera on the outside of my helmet. I'm in a non-checking league, but there's still bumping.

Up until now, I've been using inexpensive SQ12 cameras, which are a little smaller than 1"x1"x1" which lets it fits between the bars of my face cage. Most refs are okay with it there, because I'm not endangering anyone else. (A few make me take it off, even there.) But, the SQ12 is only 720 resolution, and it has a really lousy lens. Worst of all, the sound is out of sync on every clip after the first. Getting that synced back up adds 20 minutes of drudge work during editing. Thus, my desire to move on to something with better quality.

Even the smallest GoPro, and its knock offs, are too big to fit inside my cage. Below the brow of the helmet, it would cut off too much of my field of view. The little SQ12 is high enough, and I'm looking down for most of the action, so I usually don't notice the camera in the heat of the action.

And, I'm not allowed to cut my helmet to mount it somewhere else. Where the current one sits now, I am not modifying the helmet in any way. I'm just taking advantage of the gaps that are built into it.

Also, I am aware that a hockey helmet is a 100% humidity environment. I seal up my current cameras with duck tape all around, and I hot glue the USB cable into the camera, to seal out any moisture. For this Caddx, I'll probably slather it with silicone sealant to protect the electronics.

I hope someone can help me with this. I just find it to be a little extra geeky enjoyment of my games.

Thanks,
Drake

 

[rjenkinsgb]

It looks to be a 1mm pitch connector? That's the closest I can work out between the ruler and PCB part.

I cannot find anything like that at 1mm pitch. If I've mis-measured it and its actually 0.8mm, it may be a Samtec type as they do some that look very much like those.

Or, how about a Mobius camera? They are 1080p, very good for the price - and you can buy purpose-made cables for those to mount the camera itself separate from the body.

Amazon.com : Black Box Mobius Pro Mini Action Camera - 820mAh Battery - 1080P Full HD Mini Sports Action Dash Cam - DVR Video Recorder with WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) Large FOV, Motion Detection & Time Lapse : Camera & Photo

Amazon.com : Black Box Mobius Pro Mini Action Camera - 820mAh Battery - 1080P Full HD Mini Sports Action Dash Cam - DVR Video Recorder with WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) Large FOV, Motion Detection & Time Lapse : Camera & Photo

www.amazon.com

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Mighty]

I actually use two of those Mobius cameras to record the action from the bench. I also have one in my car as a dash cam.

I had seen a mention of being able to move the sensor, but never made the connection that it could act as my helmetcam. Doh! The one issue is that those connectors look pretty bulky and awkward. I don't have a lot of space below the brow of my helmet to deal with that. But, there might be enough slack in the camera cable to make it work.

I was even about to swap those bench cameras out for a different camera that isn't quite as wide angle. So, I already have a couple to play with.

And, I already know they can be set to start recording as soon as power is applied, which makes them dirt simple to operate when I'm in a hurry getting ready.

Good suggestion. Thanks.

I've clicked around the Samtec site, a little. I'll measure it more precisely, to see if it's 0.8mm. Hard to tell from just eyeballing it, but the Ultra Micro ERM8 might be what I have here. The one advantage of the Cadxx camera is that it's capable of 60 fps, which my new bench cameras can do. There is the occasional action sequence where that can make a difference. OTOH, that's a lot more storage, for such rare instances.

I forgot to include a link to examples of what I have now, if anyone is interested. The game starts here

and the first on-ice helmetcam is at 11:39. This example, I was using two more of the SQ12s from the bench, before I had gotten the Mobius cameras to put there. The Mobius has a far better lens than the SQ12.

 

[Mighty]

That's the metric side of my ruler, which came out at about 0.8 cm. I also measured it with calipers and got the same answer. So it's about 0.4 mm pitch.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Doh.. I zoomed in to measure the connector and though I was looking at inches on the ruler, not centimeters
No wonder I could not find anything like it, at that it seemed to be 1mm pitch......

These look as if they could be the appropriate thing; they even have the same notched ends on the mounting tags:

CABLINE®-SS | I-PEX

CABLINE®-SS is 5.4 Gbps/lane transfer, W-point contact design, vertical mate, max power delivery (AWG#34), 0.4 mm pitch connector with autoclavable option.

www.i-pex.com

 

[Mighty]

Yeah, I should have made that clear in my original post. Sorry.

I really appreciate the pointer. I agree, that looks like it.

I'll probably buy cables for both devices. The ease of use of the Mobius is probably going to be the killer feature for me. But, I would like to try a couple of games at high FPS, to see if it's a noticeable difference. And, I still haven't actually fired up the Caddx, to see how easy that would be on the nights I'm running tight on time. With other cameras I've used in the past, about 1/3 of the time I've made a mistake in the button gymnastics and ended up with no video.

Thanks again. You've been a big help.

 

[Mighty]

Now, the hard part is finding someone who can build the cables for me. I don't think I have the tools and skills to buy connectors and put those cables together myself. I don't even know where I could find those parts for individual sale. I did a search on the part number, but everything I saw was for manufacturing runs, not individual parts or cables.

 

[Mighty]

I got a reply from I-PEX, and they got me in touch with a company in Austin that would build the cable. Unfortunately, they're geared for prototyping for large runs, so they wanted $300 to make one cable for me. Obviously, way outside my price range in a just-for-fun project. I understand why they have to price it the way they do, but it's just not going to work for me.

Even if I could get the parts individually, there's no way I can solder pins 4 mm apart with a regular soldering iron. Is there some technique that would work in a home environment? Or, does anyone know of someone with the equipment to put something like that together who isn't that kind of price?

 

[rfranzk]

I have had these guys https://digitheadinc.com/ make custom cables a couple of times. Customer service was good. A bit pricey but not terrible.

 

[Mighty]

Thanks for the pointer. I'll give them a shout

 

[Mighty]

I finally got around to writing digithreadinc. They responded promptly, and asked their factory, but said that single digit numbers like I need is outside their wheelhouse.

Anyone else have any ideas? I'm in the middle of searching, but everything I'm seeing is for large runs.

I would also consider purchasing a few of the connectors and see if I can figure out a way to solder those teeny things by hand. So, if anyone can think of a source, I'd appreciate if you could point me at them.

It finally occurred to me (facepalm) to ask the helmet manufacturers if they have something that might work. Maybe an old ref's helmet lying around from several years ago, when I last remember seeing a helmetcam during a broadcast. CCM got back to me and said no. I asked them to consider designing a new product to hold a GoPro Hero4 Session and a battery. I think there might be enough of a market to support that.

Any other ideas appreciated