GoPro sync cable modifications

[Cal Glover]

So this is my first post here and I'm a senior in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. I working on a project to synchronize 40 GoPro Hero 3+'s together. Were using the GoPro's to create a 3D flight tracking array for bats and then robots and drones in the future. GoPro sells a 3D sync cable that will sync up two GoPros together very well, my task is to extend the sync to all 40 GoPros. Ive been working to reverse engineer how the cable interacts with the GoPros and how the cable works its self. Ive made some good progress on finding the function of most of the wires in the sync cable its self and Im about to start on wire tapping the connection between the sync cable and GoPro.

Here is a picture of the sync cable from go pro and how it connects the two cameras.

This is what the final product will look like, very roughly

Where I really need some help is figuring out how to extend the signals from one GoPro to another up to 20 feet away. The sync cable from GoPro only works over about a 5 inch range and when thats combined with multiple cameras there will be serious signal loss. What can I use to amplify this digital signal over a long distance and multiple cameras? There is likely two way communication so the signals would need to be amplified in each direction. I really don't know where to start on the signal amplification so if anyone has any recommendations it would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Gryd3]

http://chargeconverter.com/blog/?p=71
http://colin-ho.com/the-lifelogger-camera/

You can extend them past 5".
The bus on a GoPro is pretty simple.
If you have the means, you can do what you want with them.