Super Urgent Help Needed - LMI FX1 Bluefin won't power up!

Checking out the gear before the big trip, and after working perfectly in the recent past, now my Bluefin won't power up.

Pressing the 'Power ON and Mode Button' on the back plate with the camera loaded (off) now just gets the LED Status Indicator flashing green and red for a couple of secs (this is normal - 'alarm will beep and flash indicating a diagnostic check') but then nothing. Usually the camera will power up at this stage.

Powering on the cam manually will allow me to use only the REC, WIDE and TELE controls on the arms - no focus controls at all, and no control over on and off. Controls mounted on the side of the housing (e.g. WB) seem ok.

As the arm controls including the vital 'Mom.Af' don't work, I thought that maybe the 'diagnostics' routine had picked up dead batteries in the two arms. However, I've replaced all four batteries now (after a l-o-n-g trip trying to find these rare little 3V babies), but unfortunately that has done nothing to improve the situation.

Has any FX1/Z1 Bluefin owner come across this before? I am spending a fortune on traveling to South Africa for the Sardine Run in just three days.

I'm hoping I've done something silly in the FX1 menu and it's not a PCB issue. If my LMI won't power up it will rather mess the trip up! hmmmm

Help guys!

Not good to hear Nick

Wiggle any wires or PCB boards, maybe a bad connection.

Good luck.

Sorry to barge in unannounced, but I have had a similar problem. Wags is right, it turned out to be the Lanc cable connection. I believe all your symptoms to be the same as mine. I suggest you disconnect and then reconnect your Lanc cable (just pressing down on the connector to ensure a good connection didn't resolve my problem)

Hope you can solve the problem, if so, let us know how you did it. I'm still new to electronic housings having used Gates for the last 15 years and I want to be prepared. At the worst, perhaps you can rent a housing from a dive shop there.

Steve B)

So we did solve the problem - at least shawnh and David Cheung at ScubaCam worked overtime to help me sort it out - you guys rock!

After various configurations and testing the mounting plate, the camera, and the back plate, it turns out that the circuit board on the back plate was faulty - or at least had become faulty somehow. We looked very hard for signs of salt or water damage on the PCB, but when we took it out it was as clean as a whistle <_< S**t happens!

David has recently become an LMI dealer in Singapore and happened to have an HD Bluefin in stock. He came in to his shop today, Sunday to help me try all the various options, and by a process of elimination we narrowed it down to the back plate. David then swapped out the PCB from his new housing and fixed it into mine and Voila! I’m now in business again *phew*

David of course now has an unusable Bluefin in stock. Hopefully LMI will support him well as a new dealer with an outstanding sense of customer service, and FedEx him a new board ASAP. They could do with a good service centre here in Asia....

Nick, great news that you have your housing fixed in time for the trip. It was excellent of David to do what he did to help you out. Please keep us posted as to what happened to that board, to make it go bad. At least you're "back in business" for the trip. Watched a shark program that showed the South African Sardine run on National Geographic HD last night. Very cool footage, hope you'll post some clips when you return.

Dan

So we did solve the problem - at least shawnh and David Cheung at ScubaCam worked overtime to help me sort it out - you guys rock!

 

David has recently become an LMI dealer in Singapore and happened to have an HD Bluefin in stock. He came in to his shop today, Sunday to help me try all the various options, and by a process of elimination we narrowed it down to the back plate. David then swapped out the PCB from his new housing and fixed it into mine and Voila! I’m now in business again *phew*

Great Job shawnh and David - high fives and to both of you, always rekindles my faith in people when I hear things like that

Nick glad it all worked out okay.

Great to hear Nick.

I wish we got service like that with our new little Olympus we brought

Have a nice trip and we look forward to seeing some footage from your adventure.

Thanks for the comments guys - I certainly feel part of a global community of helpful enthusiasts, amateur and professional alike, and one is not alone facing these little challenges. Makes a huge difference.

Dan - I think I saw that footage last night too! Was it David Attenborough narrating the adventures of "Robo-Shark"? The sardine run footage was pretty inspiring wasn't it? If we catch just a fraction of those schools of hunting Bronze Whalers I will be blown away.

I'm taking two HDV cams, the FX1 in the Bluefin for the bait balls, and my little Sony A1 in basically a plastic bag (Aquapac's SLR bag) for topside. My feelings on the A1 as an underwater cam are well known (v poor low light capabilities) but topside on the semi-rigid it should capture some interesting stuff if the sun is out. I'm hoping for dive-bombing gannets and humpbacks breaching over the inflatable etc - we'll see

I'm also taking two digital still cams (Nikon D50 and Olympus m5) so I should have a few opportunities to capture material if the beasties come out to play.

Re the PCB, we'll send that back to LMI for analysis in due course. It would be useful to know why the damned thing suddenly decided to pack up. It's little (huge ) things like this that really put an unwanted edge on what is already an expensive 'edge' activity (well for us amateurs anyhow)

Meanwhile I'm off hunting sardines. I'll report back on both the adventure and the PCB in due course. Cheers guys ...

(edited - because this forum needs a spell checker )

kudos to David @ Scubacam... really good to hear a positive customer support story like that out here in Asia...

2 vidcam + 2digicams? Got a camera sherpa? Hate to see how much Singapore Air dings you with overweight charges...

Best of luck on your trip... Can't wait to see the Sardine Run footage!

Glad you got this sorted Nick and I hope the sardine run is going well.

When I got my Bluefin I also got their full service kit which includes the PCBs and batteries etc.. It's a few hundered dollars but might be worth considering for the future to prevent last-minute disasters. I keep my service kit sealed in a plastic bag with large silica gel sachets.

I suspect a lot of problems like this are humidity-related. Here in Thailand I keep as much electronics equipment as possible in a sealed Pelican case with large sachets of silica gel and a digital humidity meter to tell me when the sachets need changing. We got a big box of silica gel sachets from a wholesaler. Even better than the Pelican case would be an old fridge, when we get our hands on one. Even ones that don't work anymore often have a good seal and make a good cabinet.

So we did solve the problem - at least shawnh and David Cheung at ScubaCam worked overtime to help me sort it out - you guys rock!

 

...

I experienced a very similar problem on the Mako housing with PC-350

Sometimes it would power up, sometimes not.

Sometims would just shut off.

3 times into the store.

2 times back to L&M. Finally they deduced the circuit board was hosed (again no sign of water) and replaced it free.

has worked fine ever since (although I dont use it anymore and am considering selling it off)

Thought I should follow up this post with a summary ...

1) ScubaCam in Singapore diagnosed and replaced the faulty PCB at very short notice on a Sunday - exemplary support. Lucky for me that David had another Bluefin in stock though!

2) LMI shipped out a new PCB and replaced the failed PCB fast - no hassle or awkward questions. V good and much appreciated service.

3) LMI now have a good dealer with a comprehensive workshop in Singapore - looks like LMI are supporting ScubaCam well and vice versa.

4) The Bluefin and enclosed FX1 took a huge and continuous pounding for 16 days on a semi-rigid inflatable off S Africa last month - I just returned over the w/e, and both performed faultlessly both above and below the water despite the harsh conditions and sometimes violent treatment handed out. I'm frankly amazed that this type of equipment stands up to such 'abuse', but I have no complaints at all about how it performed (... the video captured and the poor viz on the other hand ...)

5) We really have no idea why the PCB failed - it looked clean when dismantled, and had been working perfectly for 8 months, but now fails diagnostics. I guess some components on these complex circuits just fail earlier that their MTBF specs. Mean Time Between Failure is after all a mean/average calculation based on empirical data.

Therefore - all's well that ends well, until the next crisis. Which is what service centers and credit cards are for right ?

BTW I paid no charges at all for this support