Modifying the GS120 Remote
     The Panasonic GS120 comes with a handy-dandy, well-endowed remote but whoever put the receiver in front of the camera didn't do us any favors. There's a lot you can do with it, zoom, record, white balance, shutter speed, iris and manual focus but, I wanted these functions available where they should be, behind the camera. This is not a full DIY project, it's just some pictures to show how I went about it.
  

    
     I had originally though I would just attach a small mirror to the front of the tripod where it would reflect the light beam from the remote onto the photo-transistor receiver in the front of the cam. The flaw in that method is that visible light would also be reflected on to the white balance sensor.  I would have to separate the infrared LED (transmitter) from the remote and relocate it to where the remote receiver would see it.

     In the Photo above, A is the relocated LED, B is a headphone amp that serves as an adjustable platform for the remote. C is a small fishing light that I rigged to take power from the headphone amp's battery. If the LED and holder (A) is well secured to the tripod, the remote body can just hang from the cord and you can pick it up when you need it. This project shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.
 

     This is the modified remote. I removed the LED from inside the case and mounted it in in a small angled holder. Velcro mounts the LED carrier to the bottom front of the tripod pan/tilt head.
   
     Here is the inside of the remote (It prys apart). I cut the infared LED from the 2 connections shown in the right circle and mounted it in the angled carrier (above) that I found in my junkbox. A 10" length of dual conductor wire connects the remote to the LED carrier.


     One side of the infrared LED is flattened. The non flattened side (emitter) goes to the red +.
 

  
Although the headphone amp is not a part of the remote modification, I'll briefly describe why it's there and what it does


     Recording music groups is my primary video interest.  The built in headphone amp doesn't have enough level to overcome the room sound so I needed a booster amp. Since I wanted to mount it to the tripod I though I'd use it to hold the remote in a convenient position as a bonus.


     I often record an external camera mounted mic on one of the audio channels and a feed from the PA mixer onto the other so I need some monitor options. The 2 switches on the rear help accomplish this. One switch is stereo/mono select. In the mono mode only, the other switch sends the right or left channel to both sides of the headphones.


     There are 3 jacks (2 shown), the headphone output, stereo input from the camcorder and a feed from the 9V headphone amplifier battery to the white led work light.
 

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