Nexus HotShoe Connector

I flooded my housing recently, losing my D70 in the process (luckily the 10.5FE was spared a watery demise) and I thought I'd managed to clean out the housing. The strobes still worked so I considered myself relatively lucky.

Until today. I'm just preparing my gear for a trip in a couple of weeks time and found that the strobes didn't fire. I opened the hotshoe box on the cable to find that a little water must have crept in as the resistors showed signs of corrosion.

So, options - a replacement hotshoe connector costs way too much so the option is repair or try and find a 2nd hand one (although I think I need the luck of the whole Irish population for that).

Does anybody have experience in reparing these things - I guess it's just a matter of replacing the resistors(?) - everything else look absolutely fine. Does anybody know the specification of the resistors?

Any other suggestions?

Cheers,

Tim

Unless you can do a complete checkout of all components & circuits in the hotshoe adapter (anything besides the resistors - I'm not totally sure what's in the box) I'd suggest that you buy a new one. Did the bulkhead connectors also get wet? If so you might want to consider replacing them to be save. As you're finding out what looks ok & works today may not work tomorrow. Things may be ok for diving at home, but if you're going on a trip (especially an expensive one) I'd make sure that I wasn't taking chances with anything electronic. I also have a Nexus, & spares for everything just in case.

Gee, rotten luck Tim. I think jcclink is giving you good advice. You do did not say what caused the flood; if your camera was zapped, then it must have been extensive. The hot shoe connection is a Nikon part, but if your housing has any moisture (especially salt water) in it, you are due for more heart ache. I suggest you sent your housing to a Nexus/Anthis dealer who can service the unit.

Touch wood, I hope this never happens again, but if you get a flood, turn the unit port down and proceed with a safe ascent. “DON’T PANIC†as Douglas Adams would say. The water will collect in the port away from the camera and lens.

Speaking of the Irish, I have a modest proposal for you. You are using Inon strobe(s). Why not have the other strobe socket converted to optical cable? I am using optical connection my Nexus D80 with dual Z-240sand I am very pleased with the performance.

Hi,

Nexus is one of few housing manufacturer who sells parts directly to enduser & you can just replace it by yourself instead of paying service charge. I think you have NCC-V2 type connector on D70 housing & it has diods (to let electricity pass only one way) & you can replace it and/or you can directly connect wires without diods too. Nexus sells it as NCC or NCC-TM connector. In fact, you have to change/replace V2 to NCC if you want to use S&S ttl cnvtr on Nexus housing(or remove diods). Reef photo in US sells new connector at U$135.- & I carry a spare always.

For DIY repair, you need a very sharp soldering gun & thin lead & it may cost you some money and there is a risk you will melt connector while

using soldering gun.

Sam

Thanks for the info guys. Looks like a replacement for me then. As for what is actually in the hotshoe box, well, it really is a few wires, a resistor and, as Sam says, three diodes. When you consider the cost of the part - it really does seem fanastically excessive for what you get even for the standards of UW photography.

As well as buying a replacement, I'm going to see if I can find a good enough electrical engineer to try a repair job. I'd give it a myself but I haven't wielded a soldering iron for over 20 years.

As for the optical port suggestion, is this really possible with the D70? I see that the D80 and D200 Housings have the ports but not the D70.

Of course, now I also have a D200, maybe I should consider upgrading the housing. Anybody have one going cheap?

Cheers All,

Tim

In fact, this is all that inside of the box:

You can see where the corrosion has done its thing - doesn't take a lot does it?

Unless you're using a TTL converter or something, all you need is a single connection between the "fire" pin on the camera's hot-shoe (the center big contact) and the fire pin on the housing wiring.

I think all that other wiring inside the Nexus hot-shoe is to protect your camera against strobes w/ a high trigger voltage. You don't have to worry about that w/ the Inons.

So you can "custom" wire it yourself probably. Just make sure you have the center contact running through...

I could be totally wrong though - I haven't used Nexus before.

James

Hi Tim,

Firstly. I'll second getting a new hotshoe.

Secondly. The NCC v1 and NCC v2 is not being sold anymore. It has been replaced with the NCC v3 that has two wires that can be switched on/of by removing attaching pins inside the hotshoe. Thus it is compatible with manual and TTL. (Not at the same time). I can provide pictures if needed.

Because the diodes are attacked there is a very high risk that saltwater has penetrated into the isolation of the wires and will corrode them as time passes. Murphy will guarantie that they will fail at the exact wrong time. I'd replace the wires on the old hotshoe and keep it as a spare. I would not replace the diodes as you probably don't need them (depends on what strobes you use).

Hope this helps!

Espen

Thanks All, Looks like a replacement is on the cards.

Espen, I'd appreciate a few photos and guide on the pins.

I'm using Inon strobes so as a couple of people have now suggested that the diodes are superfluous then repairing the old one shouldn't be too difficult.

Thanks

Tim

Hi Espen,

As the owner of a Nexus housed D70S, I would certainly be interested in finding out more about Nexus' new hot shoe arrangement. I also use the S&S TTL converter and would like to know how the new plugs will affect the TTL's performance.

Thanks for taking the time,

Bruce

Hi Espen,

As the owner of a Nexus housed D70S, I would certainly be interested in finding out more about Nexus' new hot shoe arrangement. I also use the S&S TTL converter and would like to know how the new plugs will affect the TTL's performance.

Thanks for taking the time,

Bruce

Ok. Here it is (everything you want or don't want to know about the Nexus hotshoe versions):

Ncc v1: Made for Film cameras. Straight wired (main only). Main will work with TTL converter.

Ncc v2: Has a series of diodes. Works very well with housed Nikon land flashes. Screws up everything else that I have tried. Including TTL converter. Cut two wires (forget which ones) for manual operation.

Ncc v3: Has two removeable pins that allows for a full straight connection (without diodes) and a 3 pin (manual connection). This is great for those of you who use TTL converter for macro, but still use large non ttl strobes for wide angle. The conversion is quick, but requires a screwdriver. Perhaps the best is to have two hotshoes if you change type of strobe alot.

See pictures of the inner workings of the Ncc v3 attached.

My experience:

Before the airline lost my Ncc v1 and Ncc v2 (long story) I found that the Ncc v2 did NOT work with the TTL-converter. I needed the Ncc v1 and the converter connected to the main. The diodes screwes up the signals from/to the camera. I have tried the Ncc v3 with the Sea & Sea TTL converter v3, and this seems to work very well. I'll know how well in about a week when I have done some diving.

Bruce,

Providing you have a system that works now, this hotshoe will not have any effect on your system. A freind of mine had problems getting the TTL converter to work with the D70. There could be many reasons for that, but since he sold it and upgraded only days after he recieved the converter I don't know if there are compatibility issues with this combination.

Tim,

I'm using Inons also. They don't require the diodes. If you are going to use your Inons with the NCC v3 just remove the pins and use the strobes on manual. As above I don't have much experience with the D70 and TTL converter and thus I can't comment and their compatibility. With D2x and D200 and the converter you would leave the pins in, leaveing all 5 wires connected.

Hope this helps,

Espen

Hi Espen,

That's great, thats for you help.

Tim