How does one add a commutator to the UCLA miniscope cable? The UCLA miniscope is an open source alternative to the Inscopix system for calcium imaging in freely behaving animals.  One of the benefits of their system that they tout is the ability to have a commutator on the data cable. A commutator allows for a cable to rotate without twisting, a major problem when trying to record from freely moving animals. Other methods that I have heard of to allow rotation include a MMCX connector on the cable.

I haven't seen any specific recipes for solving this problem; the miniscope website has no instructions on including a commutator in the cable, only vague references to the possiblity.

Any solutions out there?
I'm one of the developers of the Miniscope. We have been very happy with #FL-2-C from dragonfly. This commutator is very low torque and we have never had an issue with sending power or data through it. The key is to minimize the length of non-coax cabling coming out of the top and bottom of the commutator. We trim the lead wires short and solder coax connectors to both ends of the commutator.

For a slightly cheaper option you can check out the commutators sold by MOOG. I should mention that we haven't tested these with the Miniscope system yet.