Changing a Nikonos-to-Sea&Sea sync cable to Ikelite?

I've got an Ikelite housing for my Canon 40D - it's got the TTL circuitry and the Ikelite bulkhead built in.

I've also got a YS120 TTL Duo along with it's sync cord, designed for Nikonos fitting at the housing end.

I know that if I use this housing/strobe combo then I'll lose TTL which is fine - what I want to know is whether I can mod my sync cable (ie, replace the bulkhead conector with an Ikelite one) to correctly trigger the strobe?

Is it as simple as finding an Ikelite conenctor, cutting the end off the old cable and soldering it together? I assume I only need the trigger and earth cables connected but I'm not sure which is which, also how watertight would the resulting cable be? Aren't the conenctors sealed to the cables?

Any advice is much appreciated! It's £80 for the proper sync cable so I'm hoping the connector itself is a bit cheaper!

you could do that if you had an old Ike cable around and then try to water proof the result but I think you would have better piece of mind buying the correct Ike to Sea and Sea cable...

Perhaps put a "want to buy" in the classifieds and see if anyone has a used one for sale?

Sync cables are a weak link that are responsible for many camera floods.

If the sync cable leaks it will flood your housing and your strobe.

Sync cables are a weak link that are responsible for many camera floods.

If the sync cable leaks it will flood your housing and your strobe.

Thanks, that's what I was worried about! Looks like I'll have a hunt for the real thing!

I've got an Ikelite housing for my Canon 40D...

I've also got a YS120 TTL Duo along with it's sync cord, designed for Nikonos fitting at the housing end...

 

Is it as simple as finding an Ikelite connector, cutting the end off the old cable and soldering it together? I assume I only need the trigger and earth cables connected but I'm not sure which is which, also how watertight would the resulting cable be? Aren't the connectors sealed to the cables? ...

This may be possible. Your strobe has a sealed bulkhead for attaching a cord, so there is no risk of leaks. I believe your Sea&Sea Nikonos cord could be modified for this purpose. Get hold of an Ikelite TTL cable with 5 pins and remove the Ikelite Connector for the housing end. You may find a resistor inside the Ikelite connector, connecting the SP line to something, discard it. You have 5 wires in your S&S cable, 4 off which connect directly to the corresponding pins in the Ikelite connector. You need Ground, X, and Ready as a minimum; Q is optional if you want manual only. Don't use the 5th wire, called SP, it's not what you need for the Ikelite. I'd try to find fresh O-rings for the connector to reseal it, but the old ones may suffice.

See the following site for information on the pinouts for Ikelite and Sea&Sea:

Strobe Connector Pinouts

It may be possible to supply the Power signal that the Ikelite housing needs for its TTL converter from the Ready line. That may allow you to use the Ikelite TTL converter's Manual control capabilities (the YS-120 is too slow for TTL). Try this by simply connecting the Ready signal also to the Power signal. I doubt there is enough voltage for it -- I have not done it. The proper way to do this is to modify the YS 120 internally to supply +6V on the former SP line. Then the TTL converter would be powered and may allow use of the manual modes, but not TTL.

By the way, this suggestion applies only to the Sea&Sea YS-120. I don't recommend trying something like this with the very old Ikelite strobes, since they have potentially destructive voltage levels on the X line which will destroy your TTL converter. I doubt Ikelite would be sympathetic, since they advise against it.

"Do not use TTL Sync Cords with very old Non-TTL Ikelite SubStrobes that have only four connectors (no center contact) in the bulkhead. Non-TTL sync cords MUST be used with these strobes. These strobes were made before TTL existed, and a TTL sync cord on these old strobes will apply 360 volts to a Nikonos V camera which fries it instantly."