Panasonic makes a wired remote for the FZ20, however, it’s been hard to find. As the first part of a multipart project, I decided to make my own remote. The advantage of mine is that the length can be extended with any mini-stereo cable. Also, the patch cable can be used with other remote options like a wireless remote or a 555 timer circuit.

I found the schematic on a post at dpreview. The biggest issue is that the plug used by panasonic is a four conductor plug, even thought it only uses two of them. I found the plug at Mouser.

Here are pictures of the various stages of assembly. The pc board was cut with tin snips from an old scrap pc board from work.