DIY Strobe Connector |
As I stared building my rig, I discovered that the ikelite strobe connector was in the way of my left hand. Knowing that the strobe cord is a likely failure point on most underwater camera rigs, I wanted to find a better way to route this cable. I wanted to leave plenty of room to access the buttons but I also wanted more space for my hand. I studied the way that the connector was installed at the factory and determined that all that was necessary to change it's orientation was to drill a new blind hole for the locating pin.
I removed the camera tray to allow extra slack in the strobe connector cable. I then loosened the strobe connector, pushed it back to release the locating pin and rotated it to the angle that I thought would work best for me. I then marked the new pin location and verified it would work without interference from anything else. I observed that the previous original locating pin blind hole was much deeper than the length of the locating pin and I didn't understand the logic in this. So, after double and triple checking the location. I drilled the new blind hole, stopping and checking the depth several times. Then, I rotated the strobe connector to the new locator blind hole and dropped it into place. Next, I installed the retaining nut on the inside of the housing and routed the strobe connector cable in the wiring channel provided by ikelite. I then reinstalled the camera tray to the housing back. At this point I mounted the camera, connected the strobes, routed the wires and tested the unit. Everything worked so the only other test was to verify that the strobe connector o-ring was properly re-seated and the housing was still watertight. Although it may seem obvious that it should still be watertight, this is one of our primary concerns and no problems were found.
Here you can see the ikelite strobe connector angle on the left and my modified strobe connector angle on the right. Notice that my modification allows more room for your left hand and the strobe cable is naturally wanting to go to the strobe arm connecting point.
In the left picture you can see the depth of the ikelite strobe connector locating pin blind hole (blue), the depth of the new locating pin blind hole (green), and the length of the strobe connector locating pin (black).
In the right picture you can see the difference in the angle from the original location (blue), and the new location (green).
UnderWater Camera Stuff can do this modification for you, if you desire. The cost would be $50 USD.
Here is a suggestion from Carl-Johan Nilsson
Just removed the anti-rotation pin instead of drilling a new hole. At least on the D7000 housing pin is easy to remove. Loosened the locking nut and removed pin with a pair of pliers. Connector does not rotate without pin when nut is tightened.
My thought is you could also just relocate the anti-rotation pin in the connector by drilling a offset hole in the connector instead of drilling a offset hole in the housing. I think the anti-rotation pin may be necessary.
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