USB connectivity to UW housing

Hi all,

I'm trying to finish a project of adding exterior usb connectivity to my uw housing, via the regular strobe connector.

My goal is to be able to connect the housing to a laptop in order to fully control the camera (D800) at a distance of 40 or 50 meters, via the Nikon Camera Control Pro 2.

I saw Matt Segal's article but it looks like is website (with the updated version of that article) is off line, for some reason. I'm interested to know how is his project running and tried to send him a PM but he is not in the list members of this forum :-(

So, my two main questions are:

1 - Anyone has Matt Segal's e-mail so I can contact him?

2 - Anyone has done a similar connectivity in the housing? How is it working?

Thanks!

All the best,

Wiring in the USB cable to a sync port should be relatively easy. Getting it all to fit into the confines of your housing might be a little tougher, but the big issue is that the USB specification limits cable length to ~3-5 meters due to latency. Trying to get it to work over 40-50m will be a problem. You might be able to find some sort of signal repeater, but I'd recommend trying to sort out the communication issues before trying to waterproof the whole set up.

Right now I already have it working for 15 m, although it's still not very waterproof. But I would like to extend the length further. I know there are some USB extensions with built-in signal amplifiers that allow distances of 20m plus.

I'm aware that USB have limits and thats why I would like to e-mail Matt Segal (or any other person that may have a similar project) to exchange some ideas.

Cheers,

If there is room in your housing, maybe you could use a USB-to-ethernet converter.

Then use a cable gland or a bucaneer connector.

http://www.adafruit.com/products/827#Description

http://bulgin.co.uk/Products/Buccaneer/Buccaneer_Ethernet.html

Hi FanchGadjo,

Thanks for your suggestion. I already use an USB-to-ethernet converter, but outside the housing. I don't have space inside (Subal housing) and, besides, I don't want to make one more hole in the housing and I don't want to replace one of the sync strobe connectors.

My goal is to use one standard sync cord bulkheads of the housing (without any modifications in it) to pass the usb signal to the outside.