I was given an old Hanimex Amphibian 35mm with an Ikelite Substrobe M. I've been playing with it occasionally and using it as something of a backup to my digital setup. Unfortunately, on a recent dive the Substrobe M stopped firing. It didn't flood, but the charge light would never illuminate, and the batteries get really hot. It's an old setup that isn't worth a lot to me, so it surely isn't worth the cost to send it out for repair. However, in the interests of finding out what happened to it, I opened it up. I found that one of the wires had come loose from its soldered connection at one end. Chances seem small, but I don't suppose anybody has a circuit diagram for this strobe? Or a photo of the inside of one? Below is a URL for a picture showing the detached wire inside my strobe. It runs from the fifth pad from the right side of the board as pictured to... well, that is what I'd like to find out.
I was given an old Hanimex Amphibian 35mm with an Ikelite Substrobe M. I've been playing with it occasionally and using it as something of a backup to my digital setup. Unfortunately, on a recent dive the Substrobe M stopped firing. It didn't flood, but the charge light would never illuminate, and the batteries get really hot. It's an old setup that isn't worth a lot to me, so it surely isn't worth the cost to send it out for repair. However, in the interests of finding out what happened to it, I opened it up. I found that one of the wires had come loose from its soldered connection at one end. Chances seem small, but I don't suppose anybody has a circuit diagram for this strobe? Or a photo of the inside of one? Below is a URL for a picture showing the detached wire inside my strobe. It runs from the fifth pad from the right side of the board as pictured to... well, that is what I'd like to find out.
Ask and you never know your luck! I have an MV and a substrose S in bits on my bech at present. Neither look exactly like yours but I'm sure we can figure it out! There are also a number of circuit diagrams at Cameras Underwater. They have a variety of info on old strobes for your delight!
After 20 years of faithful use I'm thinking of retiring mine now - wires are breaking due to vibration, plastic is getting brittle and, frankly, the battery life is lousy compared to my new Inon! Robust engineering, but not exactly rocket science is probably the best way to describe these strobes - so I'm sure we can work out where your wire should go. I can't quite see it from your photo - board is different to both of mine. Heh! You were smart enough to figure out how to get into the damn thing in the first place so this should be a breeze!!!
Send me a PM and we can compare photos of the strobes and the circuits!
Ok, I give. How do you open the housing? I see that you unscrew the front via the four "prying" holes, but how did you fashion a tool to unscrew it with? I tried driving nails through a board, but they just bent.
The issue I am having is the strobe keeps charging back up about every 20 seconds so I assume it has some bad capacitors. The switch is going bad on it too as it won’t shut off once it builds up a charge.
Ok, I give. How do you open the housing? I see that you unscrew the front via the four "prying" holes, but how did you fashion a tool to unscrew it with? I tried driving nails through a board, but they just bent.
The issue I am having is the strobe keeps charging back up about every 20 seconds so I assume it has some bad capacitors. The switch is going bad on it too as it won’t shut off once it builds up a charge.
Well you have the basic idea - but obviously you are using nails that aren't strong enough! I used a pair of long nosed pliers. You need to unscrew about a tenth of a turn, anti clockwise. If the strobe is old then the O-ring is probably dry and making the whole thing very stiff. The challenge is then to pull the whole frontal assembly forwards, without having anything to grip with and not using anything down the side which would damage the o-ring sealing surface. I used a suction pad to help and a lot of patience!!
Good luck
I hear they blow air in from the back, probably after removing the center battery post. Or send the strobe to Ikelite for repair. They do that sort of thing. Keeps them off the street and out of the pool halls..............
