Has anyone experienced this problem with an Ikelite housing?

I have a Canon 20D, Ikelite housing, Ikelite DS 125 strobe.

On my last three dives the strobe has stopped working, about 10 minutes into the dive. First the strobe fails to respond to the camera when I take a picture. Then the `ready' light on the strobe flashes on & off. Then (2 dives out of 3) the strobe flashes & flickers chaotically a few times, even if the camera is off.

Does this sound like a flood of the strobe connector?

I immediately switch off the strobe and surface (breathing out Carefully opening the housing, I can't see any obvious flooding although with a magnifier I think there are a few tiny beads of moisture in the strobe connector terminal at the back of the housing.

An experienced u/w photographer suggests that there is some salt residue in the strobe connector, and a tiny amount of moisture getting in, which is enough to conduct electricity across the connector pins. He suggests that I should replace the O-rings, thoroughly clean the connectors with a small amount of distilled water and then with methylated spirit, and dry them thoroughly.

Anyone else had this problem, and what is the best advice?

I have never had an Ike strobe connector leak. But what you describe might be a problem I've had on occasion. In my case the strobe turns on at the surface and test firing works fine. But the strobe doesn't work at depth. I e-mailed Ike and he suggested that the battery pack pins were not making contact when the strobe was at depth. He recommended two things. First with needle nose plies gently bend in the contacts that the pins insert into. Just a little bit. Second when you connect the battery pack to the strobe after they are all the way connect give the battery pack a slight twist. This will bring the pins in contact with the metal of the connectors.

This has worked for me. Recently I had this problem and these things didn't work. Eventually I figured out it was one battery pack that was giving me problems and that it was just old and would no longer hold a charge.

I've been having problems with my sync cord this weekend. I have an Ikelite housed D70 and DS125. The connections all look good and dry and are all lined up but it just refuses to talk to the camera. The connection from the controller to the strobe is good, as I can use my girlfriends strobe to trigger the slave controller.

I've also connected the cord directly to the strobe bypassing the manual controller but the camera is still not triggering the strobe.

So it looks like there is a problem with the sync cord. Is it worth taking the cord apart or should I send it back to Ike for them to fix?

I have also experienced the strobe firing repeatedly at the surface - freaked me out the first time it happened and I was out the water stripping it down within minutes, but it does this every dive now, I've figured it must be something to do with the slave controller being triggered by the sunlight (If I cover the slave sensor it stops).

Any suggestions?

I have a D70 with Aquatica housing and twin DS 125 strobes. Since day one I have had problems with the right bulkhead connector and it has already been replaced once since I purchased the unit early this year. The Ikelite flash connectors will short out during a dive even though it appears you have a good connection with no moisture getting in. The problem is pretty similar to what you have described. Apparently the Ikelite cords are tooled differently than the Nikonos bulkheads and actually will leak in a microscopic manner. I have discussed this with several photo pros and dealers (names you would recognize) and this is a longstanding problem with Nikonos bulkheads and Ikelite cords. Ikelite has superb customer service people but they do not admit the problem exists. Interesting enough one of the times I was having this problem I was diving with a photo pro (well known in the industry) who had the identical problem with the same equipment at the same time.

Good luck.

DrFiscus

Slave Sensors are extremely sensitive and can certainly be triggered above water or near the surface by wave action. You do not have the new iTTL housing? I am more inclined to question the connector that slides into the camera hot shoe or the wires from it to the bulkhead. Check that the connector is sliding completely into the shoe, is making good contact, and remains there when sliding into the housing.

DrFiscus is referring to Nikonos connectors which are notorious for problems. One drop of water getting into the bulkhead will disable the retractable contacts which is why cords should be only be removed with bulkhead facing down. We see ridiculous variation in "Nikonos" bulkhead dimensions made by other housing and camera companies. Ikelite maintains exacting tolerances for their Nikonos connectors and each cord is water pressure tested before shipment. Sync cords remain the Achilles' heel of underwater photography............

I spec Ikelite bulkheads on every housing. They have never failed for me.

Which I can't say for the Nikonos bulkhead. Spawn of the devil actually seems more appropriate... nothing but trouble for me.

All the best, james

Ike,

Become the expert on sync cords.....we need some reliability and what would be nice is owner serviceability , durability, ease of engagement, simplicity, etc.
Now that would be a breakthrough.

Joe

I had a situation where the sych cord appeared to have either a tiny flood or a bad connection in one of the wires. It worked fine on the surface before diving but underwater the strobe worked intermitently or would randomly go off. The ready light kept blinking on and off. Replacing the cord fixed the issue. I always carry two cords now.

Thanks everyone. It is reassuring to know I am not the only short-circuit in the sea.

I tried the deluxe treatment. Washed the strobe connector plugs and sockets with drops of distilled water, added drops of methylated spirit, dried them completely. Inspected them all under a magnifier. Replaced the connector O-rings. Lightly greased the connector threads and screwed them up fairly tightly.

The strobe worked normally for two dives.
However one of the connectors was damp when I opened it up.

Thanks for the suggestion of buying another connector cord - good idea - I'll try that.

It seems this problem is all too common. I also had a brand new Ikelite o-ring split vertically when threading it in the Nikonos bulkhead in my Aquatica housing and I am aware of several situations where the identical thing happened. Do any of the industry folks out there have any semi-foolproof ideas to make the Ikelite cords and Nikonos bulkheads mesh better? One of my two flash bulkheads consistently does not want to let the cord thread smoothly. I love my Aquatica housing and Ikelite flashes but I would love them more if everything worked seemlessly all the time.

Smart ass answer for DrFiscus is for everyone to make their bulkhead identical to Nikonos specifications. I am not picking on any particular brand; we have seen wrong dimensions from many different companies. Worst feature on ikelite connector for Nikonos may be the softer insulator material which requires a little more care and/or finesse when inserting. Nikonos connector must be inserted straight into the socket. Inserting on an angle and tipping it up straight may extrude or cut the "O" ring. Following URL describes testing and warnings:

http://www.ikelite.com/faq/faq_syncwiring.html

Understand that a pin hole that develops anywhere on the cord will allow water to enter under pressure of a dive and "hose" down to the connectors, shorting the system. This is usual cause of a strobe auto-firing. Most dependable installation is replacing the Nikonos socket with an Ikelite bulkhead.............

Thanks a lot for the information everyone (especially in the last message from Ikelite).

I'm happy to find out that the DS 125 strobe ready light does blink under certain normal conditions
(namely when two of the pins are shorted under test conditions). There's nothing in the strobe manual about this.

Could I suggest that the FAQ on the Ikelite website could include something like:

Q: my strobe's ready light started blinking during a dive. What does this mean?

A: you probably have a short circuit in the sync cord. A short circuit across two pins
of the sync cord connector will cause the ready light to blink on and off regularly. See Testing Sync Cords
A short circuit can develop if water enters the connector or bulkhead. This may occur if the O-ring
is not fitted properly (etc etc). Also a pin hole that develops anywhere on the cord will allow water to enter under pressure of a dive and travel down to the connectors, shorting the system. This is the usual cause of a strobe auto-firing.

That would have saved me a lot of web time!

It's to bad that nikonos connector's are still around and that many manufactures use them.The whole nik connector is a bad dream from the spring loaded pins to the blind line up with notch. Ike connections have been good for me as if ttl is needed. For non ttl I have a had great luck with nelson and Eo connectors. Mark