DS125 playing up ... HELP!

[Scuba_kiwi 0]

Hi all

I have just come back from a weeks diving in Vanuatu, very nice! but while I was over there my strobe didn't always work when I needed it to! I'm sure the problem is with the TTL cord as switching strobes didn't make a difference, but how do I test the Cord and what am I looking for in particular ... apart from the fact that it doesn't work! I've looked at the connections both ends and they look fine with no corrosion or anything. I have a Coolpix 5000 in a Ike housing with the Ike TTL cord.

just as an aside, when I came back from the trip I had to open the housing to show customs some shells stored inside it ( don't start on me it was my female buddies idea of safe keeping :roll: ) and the housing had pressurised tight shut! I had to unscrew the dome port a bit to break the vacuum, what surprised me the most about this was that it was in the cabin with me as carry on baggage, and I hadn't had the same problem going over the week earlier when I also had it closed up and with me, how do people carry there housings normally? O rings in or out :?:

[james 0]

Send the sync cord back to Ikelite. This just isn't something you can troubleshoot or fix without HUGE amounts of frustration.

 

RE the housing - they only pressurize the passenger cabin to 1/2 atmosphere. I usually fly with my housing closed up, but the port removed (slr housing). I don't think you damaged your housing, and think of it this way, when you came back down, your housing only had 1/2 an atmosphere of differential pressure on it - or = about 15 feet waterdepth...:-)

 

HTH

James

[ikelite 0]

Following URL shows the hot shoe and bulkhead wiring if you can test for continuity with an ohm meter:

http://www.ikelite.com/faq/faq_syncwiring.html The hot shoe does not always make good contact when you slide it into the camera.

[Scuba_kiwi 0]

Thanks Ike I'll Print it out and take it in to work with the back of my housing and the cord and let the electricians play with it, I removed the camera quite a few times from the housing during the holiday but the fault although intermittant was there for most of the time, i.e. it happened every dive so I don't think it would be a contact problem as I can't have stuffed up the hotshoe location EVERY dive! :| I'll let you know if I find anything

[ikelite 0]

If all else fails, you never need prior authorization to return anything for us to repair............

[Scuba_kiwi 0]

Well I took it to work and the Sparky put his magic meter thingy on it and we had one set of pins that came and went as you wiggled the cable, looks like a broken wire somewhere maybe Thanks for the help guys and ike I'll send you an email to sort out the best way to get this thing to you .... anyone want to sponsor me a trip from Aussie to USA? :?

[vlad 0]

Hey,

 

I have the same thing on my camera housing (not being able to open it when travel with it closed) and I came to the conclusion that it is temperature related not pressure related.

If you close the camera enclosure in warm temperature and you open it in cold temperature thatn the air inside will contract causing vacuum in your enclosure.

 

Solution?

Don't lock your camera box or cool it off although that will not work because the overhead bins are really cold usualy.

 

Solution for not carying shels in camera box

Feed female buddy to sharks

 

Vlad

[Blenny 0]

I have the same problem you describe. The Coolpix 5000, with DS 125 will not fire on TTL. Is there anyone who can explain what is happening?

[kdietz 0]

What housing are you using? sync cord? or digital sensor?

 

Karl

[Blenny 0]

Thanks for your response. I have a sync cord, Ikelite housing and DS 125.....works well on all manual settings. But, does not fire on TTL.??

[kdietz 0]

Not sure I can help with that one Blenny..........since the manual settings work, there's no reason that the TTL setting shouldn't work also........there's not any camera setting that would cause this.........must be something in the switch..........return it to Ikelite

 

Ike, what do you think?

 

Karl

[Simon K. 0]

Does the Coolpix support Stabdard TTL? I didn't read anything about a TTL Sensor.

 

So IMHO TTL is just not possible with the camera. But I may be wrong.

 

Simon

[Cybergoldfish 1]

Could be sync connections maybe?

[kdietz 0]

Simon, the cp5000 does support TTL via a sync cord straight from the camera.

 

Bob, you're right, sync cord could also be the problem. I don't know how to check it out without sending back to Ikelite. Anyone know any tricks?

 

Karl

[Cybergoldfish 1]

Clean up the pin connections with electronic cleaner/steel wool or contact brush, careful not to melt plastic, don't use nail polish remover. Do a continuity test of the cable using an ohm meter (locate pin-pin both ends) and check resistence - should be little or none.

[Blenny 0]

Thnaks for all the tips. I'm going to check the cord....I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Blenny 0]

I have checked out the cord and the flash head on a friends camera set-up (a coolpix 995 with ikelite housing.....). It works fine on his set up. Then I took his sync cord, flash and again, it did not work on mine. I conclude that the Nikon Coolpix 5000 programming has some sort of defect in it which will not recognize TTL input coming from the DS 125, and hence, when set to go, does not fire the flash. Can anyone give me input on this?

[kdietz 0]

Have you installed 1.7 firmware? If not, download from Nikon, maybe that will do something.

 

Karl

[Blenny 0]

I have the 1.7 firmware on board....? I'm confused, because i'm out of ideas.

[kdietz 0]

I would talk to Ikelite about sync cord and strobe switch before doing anything else.

 

There has to be a logical solution for this. I doubt it's the camera.

 

Ike where are you?

 

Karl

[ikelite 0]

Could be a broken wire where soldered to the bulkhead, but best guess is the hot shoe connector. Either it is not going completely into the camera shoe, or its contacts are stuck. See sketch at bottom of following URL:

http://www.ikelite.com/faq/faq_syncwiring.html

[Blenny 0]

I have been in contact with Ikelite, and we think we'vew narrowed down the problem to a short between the quench and trigger wires. Parts are on their way from Ikelite....stay tuned.

[Scuba_kiwi 0]

Just in case anyone was wondering, I ended up getting a replacement Cord sent over from Ikelite and I received it within 4 days of sorting it out with Ike, I was very happy with this! Now that I had a new cord I thought I may as well investigate the old cord so pulled it apart to discover two broken wires at the end of the metal fitting on the Cable Gland, my best guess is that I must have hit something with it or bent it too hard, unfortunately I didn't take note of which end was which before taking it off my housing so don't know wether it was the strobe or housing end.

[Blenny 0]

I too, received parts from Ikelite in record time. I have repaired the faulty bulkhead wiring harness, and all is working OK. Many thanks to "Ike" and Roger C., they gave me amazing warranty service. Thank you!