3 pin stereo plug connector at the camera (2.5 mm jack used)
25 pin D-SUB male connector at the computer
Sony LANC (Local Application Control Bus System), also known as Control-L, is a proprietary open-collector bi-directional serial bus introduced by Sony in 1986 for synchronised remote control of camcorders and VCRs. It operates at 9600 baud in 8-byte packets timed to the video frame rate. The physical connector on compact Sony camcorders — including 8mm and Hi8 Handycam models — is a ø 2.5 mm stereo mini-minijack (tip = power/signal, ring = LANC data bus, sleeve = ground). This page documents a non-standard DIY cable that routes the LANC jack to a PC parallel port (DB25-M) via an N-channel MOSFET circuit, enabling firmware dump, DV-in unlock, and register modification on compatible Sony camcorders.
The 2.5 mm stereo jack at the camcorder connects to a male LPT 25-pin (DB25-M) parallel port connector on the PC via approximately 3 feet of shielded cable. The MOSFET used in the circuit is an N-channel type rated at 60 V, such as the BS170. This cable requires the parallel port to be set to EPP or ECP mode; SPP (Normal) mode is not supported. Some laptop parallel ports may not supply sufficient current for the interface to operate correctly.
Programs compatible with this cable include RM95 (firmware dump), DVin Lite (register modification), and LANCTERM.
Notes
- The LANC bus is a proprietary open-collector TTL serial bus and is not electrically or logically compatible with RS-232.
- The ø 2.5 mm stereo mini-minijack connector is confirmed across multiple Sony camcorder families, including the CCD-TRV and CCD-TR (Hi8) series.
- On some Sony models the same connector is labelled CONTROL L or REMOTE.
- Parallel port must be configured for EPP or ECP mode in BIOS; SPP mode will not work.