Need help with Ikelite strobes...

Hello there !

I am on a dive trip in carabbean waters and I really need some help with my strobe.

I have an ikelite rig (30D + DS51) and I had to change the strobe recently just before a trip. So the strobe is new, and the housing is 8 months old. I notice more and more problems with my strobe : sometimes, it works great and from one shot to the other, it will not fire at all, or fire and still I obtain a dark frame, as if it fired only the preflash (that's a guess...). I don't know what to do as it is really frustrating to have framed a subject and obtain a black or really underexposed picture. If I do Off-On sequence on the strobe, most of the time it will fire perfectly... until the next time it won't fire properly. Of course, I checked the "ready" light, and it is red before shooting. The camera works perfectly outside the housing.

The waiting between the shot can be more than 3 minutes, it doesn't help. I really cannot know when the strobe will be OK and when it won't work. That means I miss most of my shots !

I shoot in Manual mode, with the strobe on TTL mode. It used to happen since the begining (with the old strobe) but now, it is worse than before ! 3 shots out of 4 are black (at night) or badly underexposed. And the most frustrating thing is that it can perfectly work for the next shot.

What should I do ? Is there anything wrong that could be corrected ? How can I have a strobe that sometimes work, sometimes don't ?

Thank you very much for your attention

Anthony

Anthony,

While I can only speculate on this it's quite possible that there's an issue with the synch cord. If you have a tiny break or an alignment issue in the connector you could experience intermittent firing problems. With different angles and movement of the synch cord while shooting you could be getting partial connection between the strobe and the housing/camera body. If you can try a different cord that might eliminate one potential problem. On land you might find things work great since there is no water movement to flex the synch cord.

just a thought.

Regards

rinjani

Thanks Rinjani for the answer.

I will try ASAP to check for the connections on the cord. I gonna dive tonight.

Thanks again

Anthony

Hi again.

I'm back from my dive and nothing seems to be foreseeable. Sometimes it fires, sometimes it doesn't, whatever the sync cord.

I really don't know what to do...

I'll change (again) the batteries and check again the sync cord, but if anyone has an idea, I'll buy it !

Thanks

Anthony

I had an old cord that would only fire if it was bent a certain way, i used to have to dive with it wrapped around my wrist to get a connection.

Try moving the cord where it comes out of the housing bulkhead and see if that helps.

I'd buy a spare cord anyway, as it would be terrible to be on a trip and not be able to use your system because of a broken $50 accessory.

Do you have a multimeter ? you can measure the resistance between the pins and holes at one end. If the resistance is not >1 between each pin of hole, there is a short circuit. Also flex the cord during measuring. if you see variations, there is definately something broken there.

Anthony,

Sorry to hear that you still have problems. Most of my problems with strobes have been due to synch cord issues. If you are feeling confident that the issue might be something else then I would double check other possible problems. Your strobe uses AA batteries. So make sure that they are fully charged (use a battery tester rather than the charging unit lights to determine this), if you have a rechargable battery that is flaky the strobe might not be getting a proper charge. It's also possible that you have some batteries that don't fit the battery chamber correctly, don't make proper contact with the closing lid or are misaligned. Also make sure that the strobe connector to your camera is properly seated on the camera. The other problem I have seen, not mine luckily, is a broken pin in the Ikelite connector from improper attachment of the strobe - it took a while to find that (then they wanted to use my backup strobe! Sorry, that's my backup, not yours. B) )

Good luck

Rinjani

From our electronics engineer:

Unfortunately, it looks like a hardware problem in the strobe. It could be a cord problem, or the strobe.

 

Best remedy for the duration of the trip is to put the housing in manual, and if there are still malfunctions shoot with the strobe in manual and vary the power settings. It appears that the strobe is missing the quench signal and that is messing up the preflash. Those errors will not happen in the DS51 manual mode.

 

Roger

Please send the system in when you return from your trip so we can fix everything immediately and make sure it's ready for your next trip.

Jean

From our electronics engineer:

Please send the system in when you return from your trip so we can fix everything immediately and make sure it's ready for your next trip.

 

Jean

Thanks very very much to every one for your help. When it works, I have such wonderfull pictures, I am really frustrated when it doesn't fire ! I will try to shoot manual this afternoon anyway. But what puzzles me is that it did the same thing with my first strobe (DS 51 which was flooded just before my trip, so I bought a new one.)

Should I send you the housing + strobe ?

Thanks again.

Anthony