Housing Buttons?

[naimis]

A while back, I contacted Ikelite to find out how much they sell their housing buttons for, in the hopes that I could use them for my own camera housing (as one still does not yet exist for the Panasonic SDT750). Unfortunately, while Ikelite does sell the larger dial-type controls, they do not sell the push-buttons.

So, I'm starting to consider my options again. One option would be to fabricate my own buttons. This would be time consuming, obviously. Another option is to find another source of such controls (anyone know of any?) A third option is to build a new controller that uses hall effect sensors or something similar.

The third option is certainly doable but implies a long lead time as I have to ramp up on IR control and microcontroller design/use. There was at least one post in the epic diy camcorder thread implying that Panasonic used LANC, but everything else I've read suggests that Panasonic devices use RC5. Maybe some Panasonic devices used LANC, but this camcorder definitely does not have a LANC connector. There were also mentions of buttons, all of which linked off-site to a registration required microsoft thing (boo).

Any comments or suggestions?

 

[haibeis]

matey - you could use the dial controls to push some buttons - just mount them at right angles and attach levers inside and out....

Seatec housings from australia used to do this.

advantages are that the controls are not going to be triggered by excess depth...

disadvantage is that you can't really do it for all controls - probably just the shutter and on/off switch and maybe a few critical others...

 

[akdeepdiver]

You can get replacements from the Sealife company. Check on the sealife forum for the website

 

[herman]

Are you looking for the entire gland assembly? It would be fairly easy to do if you have a lathe. Delrin body with SS or marine brass shafts. Off hand guess, you could make them for less than $1 each not including your time. Once you get the sequence down, I would think you could make them in 10-15 minutes each. I recently was working on a project that involved making a simiar part.

 

[diversteve]

How many buttons do you need?

Ikelite does (almost?) all of their control functions for their camcorder video housings using their control rods/levers - custom bent and/or shortened to the right length. The ones I've seen don't have any "buttons" at all - mostly Sony models. Everything pictured in this shot appears to be a control rod. http://www.ikelite.com/web_two/uxbighc1back.html

which they sell here in various lengths: Camera Control Parts

Since video cameras put most functions on the touch screen a neat implementation I've seen on some housings, L&M and others, is a bent control rod that travels in a prescribed arc to hit two different "buttons" on the touch screen. You use it to scroll through the camera functions and press as needed. An Ikelite control rod/gland could possibly be made to work this way. I think they just use two side by side.

Probably the main function you'll do u/w besides stop/start tele/wide and focus is going to be MWB. If your camera is like most others that's an assignable touch screen function - often you can promote it through the menu structure to a single top menu button. So all you need to MWB is a control gland that can depress it for a few seconds.

I doubt you could even hit most camera buttons or the LCD screen with the Ikelite buttons unless you lengthen them, they're pretty short - designed for hitting buttons on the flat back of a P&S.

Another option would be to watch eBay for an old housing. I've seen better deals than this one but it might be all you need as far as buttons - and a few control glands/rods.
Ikelite Underwater Camera Housing Parts or Repair Used - eBay (item 330525162146 end time Feb-06-11 06:42:09 PST)

Another option for buttons might be to watch here and eBay for a used Flip, Picsio etc. housing. They're $260 new so you might get one reasonably somewhere. The Flip housing has 7 buttons. http://www.ikelite.com/videocompact/flip_ultra3/back.html

Equinox used to advertise that they could house anything - you might have to send it to them for measurements, fitting etc. They have a monitor back also but afaik MWB isn't an option - you might check. http://www.equinoxhousings.com/categories/High%2dDefinition-Video-Housings/

 

[naimis]

The touch screen seemed .. untenable as a control mechanism. The plan was to insert the remote control into the housing and use push-buttons to drive it. I'd probably need ~8 buttons (power, record, menu navigation). The problem with using the Ikelite controls that they *do* sell to the public is that the menu navigation controls are arranged in the current fashion of a circle of up/down/left/right with the "ok" button in the center. It probably wouldn't be difficult to use the ike controls for the arrows, but to get the okay button as well would be tricky at best.

The camera in question is the Panasonic SDT750, which is the 3D camcorder. Most of the buttons available externally (not on the touch screen or under it) do not function while recording 3D. I think the record button is the only exception. To use the functions that *are* available while recording in 3D, I have to use the touch screen or the remote. To complicate matters further, the power button is under the viewscreen/touchscreen.

Given all of that, I thought the remote would be perhaps even necessary to get the job done.

I'm also starting to look at microcontrollers, the idea being that I could wire up the emitter however I wanted and use hall effect sensors to actuate the functions. I could even make macros, where I hit a switch and it goes through all the steps to set white balance.

 

[mishko]

I have some spare Nimar buttons, but they are not that cheap (12€ each)