johnspierce 25 Posted November 28, 2009 Ikelite has a new retrofit for their housings which adds two more port locks (4 total) and a wide body port lock to keep it from rotating. http://ikelite.com/faq/faq_4portlock.html I've never had any issues with my 8 inch dome on the wide body port, but this is a welcome bit of insurance. JP Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
subpilotpaul 0 Posted December 3, 2009 I believe he was using the 8" dome. It is also the acrylic housing. I don't really know what happened but he was on the surface and a large wave crashed over him and the housing. Next time I looked over to him the housing was in two pieces and he was struggling to keep the half with the camera out of the water. The housing was for the Olympus E-410 which I think may be an older camera but the housing is fairly new. I believe the clips either broke or just released. I do find it odd that when the housing is together the dome spins freely on the housing but I'm told that's just how they are and it needs water pressure to really lock it on to the housing so swimming with it on the surface in bad conditions is less then ideal for this design. I have been working with manned subs and ROV's for 20 years and I have never seen a seal like that. Because it took some time to get back to the boat and get the battery out the camera is toast. The 8mm fisheye is still out for repair. I will dig through my emails looking for the brand of silicone but I do remember it was only available in Canada. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blibecap 29 Posted December 3, 2009 Hi Paul Thanks for the update. I am sure that everyone appreciates hearing the details. Sorry for your friends loss or losses but thats mother nature. Sounds like the extra port locks could have possibly helped in this situation and the vacuum check would have definitely helped. In this situation the dome could have rotated and just become dislodged also and here some simple anti-spin locks would have helped. I understand what your saying about the ikelite locks but that is what some of us have to work with. The 8" dome is massive and presents a large surface area for the watter to gain some leverage or force to cause a mishap. As I have stated I am also working on a stainless steal connector that would have really helped in tis situation. The delay is that my housing was just upgraded to the 4 port lock system and now my port is being upgraded. I will post information here when I have a update. We are working on the electronics for the vacuum check system and it is coming along just fine. Again thanks for your update. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
subpilotpaul 0 Posted December 3, 2009 I like the idea of a vacuum check for housings. We use a vacuum pump on the electronics pods on the ROV's I have worked with to ensure we have a seal. A small fitting with a small hand pump would be ideal for a camera housing. Paul Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blibecap 29 Posted March 8, 2010 Hi Everyone Well it's been a while since I have posted a update. I have been busy skiing and shoveling snow but I did find some time to work on the project. I have assembled the prototype and needed to make some changes to the original schematic. After the modifications it works great. I now have to run those modifications past the EE who is working with me on the project and then we will go on to the next step of making it small and using surface mount chips. This section is a area inviting comments and feedback. Without getting too much into the details of how things work I will attempt to describe the circuit as well as it's functions. One of the concerns when designing the project was power consumption as well as space required as we already have the connection to the housing solved. We have a power saving feature installed that will really extend the length of the battery life. My minimum requirements were to be able to run on one battery for 12 hours a day for at least 7 days on a single coin cell. After all coin cells are not that expensive. The circuit also contains a moisture sensor. With a good battery, anytime there is water in the housing you will get a red flashing alarm regardless if you are in power-saving mode or not. The unit will automatically come out of power-saver mode as we didn't want any manual switches etc. If you have less than 2" of vacuum in the housing then you will be in power saving mode. If you have from 2" to 8" of vacuum in the housing then you will see a rapid flashing red alarm. If you have from 8" to 10" of vacuum in the housing then you will see a slow flashing red alarm. If you have from 10" to 12" of vacuum in the housing then you will see a solid green safe light. The way I figure it if you have a lose of vacuum you have a problem !!!!! I am open to ideas and suggestions in this area. More updates to follow. Also see threads http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...=33256&st=0 and http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32883 Bill Libecap Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
