Adapting SL961 to a different tray

[yetanotherdiver]

Hey! I'm new at UW photo and with this pandemic the dive centers are closed, so I hope someone here could answer me some beginner questions. I found a pair of SL961 strobes, but my camera case (a seafrog for sony) has two screws for the tray, and the SL961 comes with a tray that has only one and seems too small for my case.

The strobe ends, connecting to their arms, look like this:

So my very beginner question: is there someway to either use these strobes with another tray? Adapt to a spherical end? Anyone has been using them using a SeaFrog or a two-screw case to give me tips?
Thank you!

 

[bvanant]

You will need to get the correct tray for your housing, something like
Aluminium Tray for underwater camera housing
depending on your housing. You will have two ball arms at the top of the handles. Now you need to add a ball arm to the strobe which you can do with something like
Universal Adapters
I don't have the strobe nearby but if you call ULCS they should be able to help you out.
Bill

 

[Panther1880]

The standard arm from that strobe is made up from loc-line elements. You could simply use those. There are tons of people very happy with those. They screw down with a standard thick tripod screw (3/8 right?) which is sadly for me (I have a garage full of metric screws) a very common size in cameras.
I used a ball mount on such a strobe when I wanted to try something else and I used the black base part underneath the strobe to screw the ball mount into.

 

[kelemvor]

They screw down with a standard thick tripod screw (3/8 right?) which is sadly for me (I have a garage full of metric screws) a very common size in cameras.

To deal with stuff like that, I bought tap and die kits. Then you can go buy rods at the local home improvement store and thread them metric on one end and imperial on the other. Works perfectly to mate metric and imperial threaded devices.

 

[bvanant]

I am pretty sure that the standard SL961 arm is NOT locline but rather Something Proprietary from Sealife. Tripod screws are usually 1/4-20 (why not something metric) but I don't have a Sealife here to check the thread. I suspect from the OP's questions that there most likely isn't a tap/die set in his/her future.
Bill

 

[Chris Ross]

Is this your strobe:? SeaLife SL961 Underwater Digital Pro Strobe

It looks like it uses locline - you would need to check the tray underneath to see how the arm is connected - I assume there would be a screw or bolt of some type under there to hold the arm in place.

If this is the case you could buy one of the universal adapters linked above with the same thread as the arm you have now and screw this onto the base of the arm. You then have a ball on the end of the arm and if you buy a tray with two handles with balls on the end you then buy a standard clamp to join them. - this solution gives you longer arms and more positioning flexilbility.

Alternatively You say you have two SL961? does each have it's own tray? If this is the case try putting one on either side of the case you have - it already has two holes and see how stable that seems. You should be able to rotate the flash head on one of the arms 180° so they both face forward. Doing it this way be a little flimsy depending on how much overlap you have and may tend to twist off. If you can overlap the two half trays and thread at least one bolt through both of them it should be fine.