Leak indicator on a Subal -- HELP!

I'm in the Philippines right now.

3rd dive ever with a Subal D200. The leak indicator light started blinking half way during the dive.

The camera is ok. The housing looks ok. But I can't seem to get the leak indicator light to stop blinking.

I have removed the battery. Dried it both with compressed air as well as air dried. Put the battery back in, it still blinks! The circuit board looks ok. No brown stuff coming from it.

Do I need to replace the circuit? I normally would send it back, but this is the first day diving for a two wk trip.

Please Help! I could dive without the battery in, but then i lose the benefit of knowing when i have a leak.

I had pressure tested the housing yesterday with no camera. The 1st dive this AM was with the same setup with no leak. I didn't make any changes or adjustment before the 2nd dive. Luckily it was a slow leak, but still....

I have a friend who had a similar problem after flooding their Subal housing, the alarm would not stop flashing no matter what they did. I cured it by giving the circuit board a good soaking in methylated spirits (methanol) and dried it out thoroughly afterwards. Alarm stopped flashing and a test with a wet finger showed it still worked. That was a few months ago and the alarm is still working as it should.

hmmm....

how does that work?

the methanol displaces the water?

but it won't harm the circuit board?

i'm not sure if i can obtain methanol here

will isopropyl alcohol work?

there is plenty of ethanol here!

thanks.

I think that the alcohol absorbs the water and when the alcohol goes it takes the water with it. No obvious damage to the circuit board other than that the sticky stuff on the back which holds it in the housing went all soft and gooey and had to be removed. I stuck the circuit board back in the housing using some double sided tape. Isopropyl alcohol will probably work just as well. Ethanol in the form that is available to you will work best if taken internally

It's actually quite common to have the subal leak detector blink for no apparent reason. Whenever that happens to me I could usually trace it to a drop of water falling into the housing. Especially when you open it it's easy for a drop to fall from the backplate into the housing.

Sofar ive been able to fix it by thoroughly drying the sensor's prongs with a q tip.

Cor

Vodka ( neat ) should also be OK.

Paul C

I've owned 4 Subal housings. The leak detectors have never gone off without a drop of water somewheres. If you can find no drop anywhere then as mentioned above you probably got a drop on the electronics when you opened the housing. I wonder if high humidity could set one off?

I've never had one continue to blink. One thing I have used before with flooded electronics is a hairdryer. Set on low, make a "tent" out of a cardboard box and let the thing run for hours.

Its happened to me as well and I couldnt find any trace of water anywhere. No matter how I tried to dry the the inside of the housing and the detector sensor, the light would not stop blinking. Finally I just took the battery out and left a moisture muncher in the housing overnight. It was fine in the morning.

I managed to get the leak indicator to stop blinking. I left it out to dry for awhile, and it finally stopped.

Thanks to all for your help.