
D2X Flash Issues
#21
Posted 10 December 2005 - 03:39 AM
I don't talk to Subal direct, but I passed this info back to my dealer at the beginning of March. And I know that Nat Geo had the same problem with their Subal/D2X systems in April.
Three pin connections seem to fine with many strobes, but two works with all.
As a word of encouragement, having made this very small modification I have never had this problem again and I have taken the odd pic with the D2X this year.
Alex
Alexander Mustard - www.amustard.com - www.magic-filters.com
Nikon D5 (Subal housing). Nikon D7200 (Subal housing). Olympus EPL-5 (Nauticam housing).
#22
Posted 10 December 2005 - 04:24 AM
One does slightly regret, Alex, that you never considered the military, so that we might be able to talk about "Col. Mustard, in the billiard room, with the D2N housing and the ULCS strobe arm....."
Meanwhile, I'm still considering writing a murder mystery that more or less follow those lines, involving a perplexing series of (creative, of course) homicides using odd bits of gear, perpetrated amongst the members of slighlty oddball community of underwater photography fanatics during their annual meeting. I'm going to call it "Death at DEMA."
Frogfish
#23
Posted 10 December 2005 - 04:34 AM
"Cutting the green wire" takes me right back to all those wonderful movies where someone is trying to disarm a bomb as the seconds on a digital clock tick down.
LOL!!


http://wetpixel.com/...indpost&p=53165
The only reason I didn't cut mine was because it works with my Ikelites. I did however switch from 5 to 3 pins. I add that it is very hard to pull the connector from the original 5 pin position.
Luiz
Luiz Rocha - www.luizrocha.com
Nikon D800, Aquatica AD800, Ikelite strobes.
#24
Posted 10 December 2005 - 06:39 AM
In the subal you can just cut the green wire (which is the wire for the ready light), so you only have the ground and trigger attached to the camera.
There is no need to cut any wires. Remove the three screws that retain the hot shoe connector cover and then the two screws that hold the hot shoe circuit board into the hot shoe connector. Lift out the circuit board (brass springs will stay attached to the board) and then turn over the hot shoe connector and the chrome contact pins will fall out. Replace only the center (trigger or X) contact pin and reassemble. Save the pins you removed for future use if you switch to an ITTL strobe.
This method is easily reversible and it does not matter which connector the bulkheads are plugged into.
Phone: 603-432-1997, Web: www.uwphoto.com
#25
Posted 10 December 2005 - 06:49 AM
There is no need to cut any wires. Remove the three screws that retain the hot shoe connector cover and then the two screws that hold the hot shoe circuit board into the hot shoe connector. Lift out the circuit board (brass springs will stay attached to the board) and then turn over the hot shoe connector and the chrome contact pins will fall out. Replace only the center (trigger or X) contact pin and reassemble. Save the pins you removed for future use if you switch to an ITTL strobe.
This method is easily reversible and it does not matter which connector the bulkheads are plugged into.
Obviously you have never seen me with any tool in my hands

"Easily" is a relative term

I am just gald that Ikelite DS125 with its sync cord are working fine with Subal housing from either 5 pins or 3 pins connector without me having to touch any tool!
#26
Posted 10 December 2005 - 10:33 AM
http://wetpixel.com/...ST&f=39&t=11063
Dave, thanks for the instructions!
Luiz
Luiz Rocha - www.luizrocha.com
Nikon D800, Aquatica AD800, Ikelite strobes.
#27
Posted 10 December 2005 - 10:47 AM
Phone: 603-432-1997, Web: www.uwphoto.com
#28
Posted 10 December 2005 - 11:34 AM
Hi Robert, I just found out that covering the pin indicated at the Ikelite site that I mentioned won't solve your problem. For the solution, check here:
http://wetpixel.com/...ST&f=39&t=11063
That's great work Dave and Luiz. Thanks for posting.
Col. Alex
Alexander Mustard - www.amustard.com - www.magic-filters.com
Nikon D5 (Subal housing). Nikon D7200 (Subal housing). Olympus EPL-5 (Nauticam housing).
#29
Posted 10 December 2005 - 06:19 PM
This is amazing. Yesterday I was stumped by the D2X-Subal-strobe wiring problem, and fairly sure (and I was correct in this) that I didn't really understand what was going on even after reading the posts on the topic to date. A few posts later, returning to check wetpixel after dinner, I knew I already had enough information to proceed and probably get it resolved. Then I wake up this morning and to find detailed color photos and instructions from Luis showing exactly what I must do and how to do it - and without having to cut the green wire. (The bystanders on the movie set are all relieved).
Reiterating what I posted in response to Luiz's instructions on the DIY thread: this
man is a gentleman and a scholar.
Just to sum up what I think I might now vaguely understand, what the Subal manual should have told us was that:
1. The two sets of internal strobe wiring can be switched from four-pin female connectors to the three-pin connectors.
2. For use with housed Nikon strobes (e.g, SB800), the strobe wires should be left in the 4-pin connectors;
3. Replacing the strobe wiring in the 3-pin connectors defeats the "monitor contact" pin and may be necessary (and sufficient?) for use with some strobes (i.e., Ikelite) in manual mode..
4. With other strobes (e.g., Sea&Sea, Inon, SubStrobe, ???) it is also necessary to defeat the "ready light" pin, which can be accomplished by removing the pin from the hotshoe or cutting the green wire.
Does this make sense?
Thanks again all - Alex, David, uwphoto tech, ssra30, and especially Luiz - for all the help.
Frogfish
#30
Posted 10 December 2005 - 06:36 PM
Luiz
Luiz Rocha - www.luizrocha.com
Nikon D800, Aquatica AD800, Ikelite strobes.
#31
Posted 10 December 2005 - 07:42 PM
Best of all, it works! Both the new Inon D2000w's and my Sea&Sea YS90DX's worked fine in manual mode. A friend will be carrying my SS200s back from the US next week, so I'll be able to test and hopefully use those as well.
(The Nikonos synch cords (single and double) for the new Inons are the same ones used by Sea&Sea, by the way, so anyone who is interested in these strobes who already has as much synch cord redundancy as they think they need, you won't need to buy new cables.)
At full dump, the new Inons didn't seem to have as much oomph as the YS90DX strobes, but I may not be setting the controls correctly. Just looking at the test shot images on the back of the camera, the color temperature of the Inons seems considerably cooler than the YS90DXs.
Thanks to all again. I hope to get the rig in the water for a few days around Xmas.
Frogfish
#32
Posted 11 December 2005 - 02:12 AM

Luckily my next strobe would be a DS200 so hopefully my subal will still requires no fidgeting on my part

#33
Posted 29 December 2005 - 05:50 PM

Ok, today arrived from Seacam the D2X housing, WITHOUT the pin n. 1 (see the photo below)

I connected my two Sea&Seea YS120, and they fired, BUT no photo on memory card!

The solution (adopted last summer with a Nikon D70 and Fantasea housing): replaced pin n. 1 and 4, then removed pin n. 3 (see the photo below)

The flashes fired and finally the photo was on memory card.
The comment? NO COMMENT!!!
#34
Posted 29 December 2005 - 06:16 PM
You pointed out something that I haven't noticed before. The recommendation on the Seacam page works for some but not all strobes, you correctly removed pin 3 which corresponds to the ready light pin. See this page with a recommendation identical to what you did (but using a Subal hotshoe):
http://wetpixel.com/...showtopic=11063
And here is more info on the Nikon hotshoe:
http://mir.com.my/rb...es/fe2/fe2f.htm
You should also remove pin number 1 and 4 if the Seacam has a 5 wire connection to the strobe. I will point this out to the Seacam people.
Thanks,
Luiz
Luiz Rocha - www.luizrocha.com
Nikon D800, Aquatica AD800, Ikelite strobes.
#35
Posted 29 December 2005 - 07:27 PM
Another fact: the same day, the identical housing was received by my friend. He uses the same flashes (two Sea&Sea 120), and with the pin n. 1 removed, all works right for him!
A good story for the X-Files, right?
Best regards
Marco
#36
Posted 30 December 2005 - 08:49 AM
Note #1 - The factory configuration with all pins is necessary for i-TTL utilizing Systemflash with Nikon speedlights and Seacam Seaflash 250.
Note #2 - IMPORTANT - When you add a second flash, we recommend you remove the pins in the 1 + 3 + 4 positions. You will, however, lose the ready light signal in the camera's viewfinder from the main flash. Images will write reliably to card this way though, so the tradeoff is reasonable.
Here is a link to the wetpixel article:
http://wetpixel.com/...ndrome-and-fix/
EDIT: There is a new article with detailed instructions from Seacam about this subject:
http://wetpixel.com/...-configuration/
Luiz Rocha - www.luizrocha.com
Nikon D800, Aquatica AD800, Ikelite strobes.
#37
Posted 07 February 2006 - 01:04 PM
Cor
website | tripreports/journal | facebook | wetpixel map | twitter
#38
Posted 07 February 2006 - 01:17 PM
Sea & Sea strobes
www.underthecaribbean.com
#39
Posted 04 March 2006 - 04:28 AM
Cor
website | tripreports/journal | facebook | wetpixel map | twitter
#40
Posted 04 March 2006 - 12:33 PM
I set up my new D2X in an Aquatica housing and was surprised to find out the the housing hot shoe connector only had two pins and the offset one didn't look like it was in the roght position for contact. I get no ready light information in the viewfinder, and I was wondering if this was done intentionally or a defect. Anybody have similar issues?
Steve Simonsen