RC-1 Remote Hack

I am feverishly getting all my equipment sorted before I fly out for the World Cup next week. The CPM Cage is finished, the swing away matte box is finished and the LCDVF mount is also finished. Whilst all these parts are away at my foam cutting guy to get custom foam cut for my new Pelican case (I will finally be able to carry everything including the cage fully assembled in one Pelican case) I thought I would have a go at a small mod that has been sitting on my desk waiting for well over three months. 

One of the things that I have been missing on my rig compared to a standard video camera is an easy way to start and stop the camera. On any Canon or Panny for that matter, you can get little Lanc cables that will allow you to roll the camera from either the tripod pan handle or if the rig is on your shoulder from the front of the camera. With a DSLR you have to press record on the back of the cameras body, which is just not something I am use to. Now in reading the 7D Manual (its a first for me) I noticed that you can use their RC-1 infra-red remote to start and stop recording in video mode. So I went ahead an ordered one on eBay. Its a great little unit, only big problem is, it is VERY line of sight. Which means you cant mount it on the tripods pan arm, and even on a rig mount it isn't any good. So I decided to gut the thing and get the IR sensor out of the case and on a cable so I could then point it wherever I want. Below is a video of the process. All in all I am very happy with it, I have actually ordered another RC-1 to try another approach, this time purely for mounting on my RedRock handle bars, rather than wire up an extension I am going to just cut a small recess out of the RC-1 case to allow me to bend the IR transmitter 90 degrees which should line it up perfectly when mounted on the handlebar. In the meantime, here's the vid. Oh and for those wondering, I will have a full rundown of my new rig very soon. There has been an amazing amount of interest in the last rundown I did. The rig is soooooo much better now, and there are quite a few little mods (all fairly simple) that I have done based on using it, all in the aim of making a DSLR act as I would expect a standard ENG video camera to.