Help - DS160s not firing (7D and 20D in Ike)

Help. I have noticed in my several dives, my DS 160s have stopped firing if set to TTL (this is on Ike housing for Canon 20D). They would fire normally on -1 setting but not FULL.

I took my new 7D underwater for the first time today. Strobes worked at TTL for a few shots and then stopped firing completely at any setting.

I have tested out on dry land and the situation is:

on 7D Ike housing - no firing at all on any setting - but powering up and looking ready

on 20D Ike housing - no firing on TTL, fires on FULL but no image, fires on -1 and images ok

Can anyone help with what might be going on? The thought of sending all the kit back across the pond for servicing is not filling me with joy.

Here's hoping someone has experienced this and there might be any easy fix. Said more in hope than expectation.

Help. I have noticed in my several dives, my DS 160s have stopped firing if set to TTL (this is on Ike housing for Canon 20D). They would fire normally on -1 setting but not FULL.

 

I took my new 7D underwater for the first time today. Strobes worked at TTL for a few shots and then stopped firing completely at any setting.

 

I have tested out on dry land and the situation is:

 

on 7D Ike housing - no firing at all on any setting - but powering up and looking ready

on 20D Ike housing - no firing on TTL, fires on FULL but no image, fires on -1 and images ok

 

Can anyone help with what might be going on? The thought of sending all the kit back across the pond for servicing is not filling me with joy.

 

Here's hoping someone has experienced this and there might be any easy fix. Said more in hope than expectation.

Did you test them with both the housing and strobe in manual?

Bill

on 20D Ike housing - no firing on TTL, fires on FULL but no image, fires on -1 and images ok

 

Here's hoping someone has experienced this and there might be any easy fix. Said more in hope than expectation.

This sounds like what happened to me. The cable was not all the way in the hot shoe on the camera. The reason why you get a black image on FULL is because it dumps a full flash on the pre-flash (used in TTL), and then don't have the time to flash again when the normal flash should come.

To get an Ikelite to do proper manual, you need to press both <- and -> on the camera housing, so the diode under M lights up.

My advice would be to make sure the hot-shoe is all the way in, and stays that (I have a tendency to push the top of the camera against the inside of the housing, nudging the cable a bit out of the hotshoe).

/Björn

Thanks guys for this. Hotshoe definitely all the way in, Bjorn - have been burned like that before. Though at least the 7D has a firmer hotshoe than the 20D. And I did try in manual, too, Bill, but nothing. I tried a single strobe cable last night on the 7D on TTL and it fired perfectly. I will do a bit more testing today.

Pah, electronics! I will overcome!