Flooding in Ikelite sync cable... what happens?

[QBit]

I was looking for inforamation about what happens when your sync cable gets flooded aither at the strobe end or at the housing end?

does this damage the strobe, or the camera? Or is it just the cable that gets damages?

 

[Andyblue]

The cable you speak of sounds like a fiber optic cable. It can not be flooded. Neither can the camera housing or the strobe at the connecting points as their is no hole to let water in due to the cable sending light.

 

[scubaho]

Sometimes after drying out, the cord and everything can still work. The water can travel thru the connection, down the wire and actually reach the electronics on the other end if it was a bad flood. Can also damage strobe electronics and/ or housing electronics. Also, the damage will effect the resistance of the wire and intermittent problems can occur. It would be best to send in the strobe, cord and housing and have it fixed.
Karl
Ikelite Repair

 

[bvanant]

I don't think that most Ikelite users are going the fiber route, I think they are mostly still electrical sync.
Bill

 

[Allison Finch]

I just got back from a month of diving in the Philippines. On a rough crossing with 15 foot seas, the camera rocked enough in its bin to cause the sync connection to unscrew. I did not notice and on the next dive, towards the end of the dive, the sync connection to the housing flooded. The strobes failed to fire. I took the connections apart and there was a LOT of instant corrosion.

I thoroughly flushed both ends with fresh water a scrubbed all the gunk out. Once flushed, I soaked it in alcohol and dried it completely. When I put it all together, it worked fine for the rest of the trip. I do carry a spare, but tried with the original first.

Both the housing and the sync will be sent in for evaluation and repair.

However, two other issues I had I am not happy about. The new fitting just put on the top of the housing for my focus light almost IMMEDIATELY stripped out, making it useless.

And my newer DS 160 battery's latch broke sending the battery to the bottom. It was retrieved, but useless (luckily I carry a spare battery too). Seems Ikelite admits to having some faulty latches. It will be interesting to see how they plan to make that right.

Overall, I have been using Ikelite gear for 10 years and really love it. I don't plan on changing anytime soon. However, customer service is everything.

 

[txdano]

My focus light fitting stripped out on the first trip as well. I screwed the adapter back onto it with epoxy and so far so good for 3 trips. Metal threads would have been much better, but still a welcome improvement.