Seafrogs Salted A6xxx housing too tall for normal trigger arm-levers? Solved!

[DivingAroundAsia]

I just picked up a Salted A6xxx housing for my A6300, and the housing is HUGE. So much bigger than expected. Ikelite sized. Problem is, it's too tall for the normal shutter triggers you buy off ebay or your FLDS.

A friendly soul made up a duplicate for me, suitable for 3D printing.

Normal size is 4.5cm long.

6.0cm long version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qJCkQ0ibatv-Ts3agJrMeFb_7U5n1kfi
7.5cm long version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AVDRbMWp-6QhoP9suMN3OF9pM7VQ2MqD

 

[Matteo z]

I didn't know nothing about that kind of lever for the housing! Thanks for sharing That info, can you please tell me the name of the lever for the salted line housing? I searched on ebay and I found many of that, thanks

 

[Barmaglot]

Neat. I've been using this one for over a year now, and I ran into the same problem when I received it, but I went at it another way, adding a metal block with screw holes drilled through it between tray base and right handle, raising the handle so that the trigger extension would reach the lever on the housing.

 

[DivingAroundAsia]

Barmaglot: Wow, that's about twice what I paid for mine, but it does look nice And - nice solution! I might consider something similar; I've found the 7cm arm a bit too long, and so I don't "use" all of it, so part of it is a bit lower than the screw/bolt/attachment point - which gets in the way of the door latch.

 

[stuartv]

Interesting. I did not know such triggers existed. Had I seen this before, I might have gotten one for my Meikon housing.

But, it looks like it would make it where you could no longer (easily) use back-button focus? I guess with a trigger like this, you always have to use a half-press of the trigger to acquire focus? And with this kind of trigger, making and holding a half-press is easy and reliable?

With my Meikon housing and my Oly E-M10, I could never reliably do a half-press, so I use back-button focus, instead. Fortunately, with that housing, it has pretty good ergonomics to hold the housing with my right hand, thumb to press for back button focus, and 1 finger to press the shutter release. I simply do not hold onto the right hand grip of the tray at all. It is only there to attach a strobe to.

 

[Barmaglot]

But, it looks like it would make it where you could no longer (easily) use back-button focus? I guess with a trigger like this, you always have to use a half-press of the trigger to acquire focus? And with this kind of trigger, making and holding a half-press is easy and reliable?

That's what I do - hold both tray handles, half-pull to focus. The trigger ends up with a fairly long pull, so a half-pull is easy to do.

 

[mtoyama]

I just picked up a Salted A6xxx housing for my A6300, and the housing is HUGE. So much bigger than expected. Ikelite sized. Problem is, it's too tall for the normal shutter triggers you buy off ebay or your FLDS.

A friendly soul made up a duplicate for me, suitable for 3D printing.

View attachment 527839

Normal size is 4.5cm long.

6.0cm long version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qJCkQ0ibatv-Ts3agJrMeFb_7U5n1kfi
7.5cm long version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AVDRbMWp-6QhoP9suMN3OF9pM7VQ2MqD

This is awesome, thank you.

What material did you use to print this? Which printing service?

Struggling to choose material because of the many requirements of that piece (thread for metal bolt, rigid, salt water / uv, etc)

 

[DivingAroundAsia]

This is awesome, thank you.

You're welcome! I mean, I did it for me, but I'm glad it could help someone else!

What material did you use to print this?

Normal PLA! It seems to be fine for this. Plenty strong. Very cheap.

Which printing service?

A random local guy. You an I are not near each other

Struggling to choose material because of the many requirements of that piece (thread for metal bolt, rigid, salt water / uv, etc)

Nah, you're overthinking it. Plastic is perfect for saltwater. Thread is fine. It's not flexible at all.

Strength is more about the density of the print, which is easy for the printer to "turn up". (Normal 3D printing isn't like a solid block, but more like a hatched pattern. Increase the density, slow down the printing time, use more material, increase the strength.)

There is ONE problem with this model, I've forgotten to mention! I stuffed up the depth/thickness for the long-part and I had to file/grind/dremel it down to actually fit. Oops.

Also, the 6cm one is better than the 7.5cm version. While 7.5cm gives you more flexibility in positioning, it can partially block the latch to open the housing. Makes it a bit tricky (you can still do it! Just a bit fiddly). The 6cm version does not have this problem.

 

[mtoyama]

Normal PLA! It seems to be fine for this. Plenty strong. Very cheap.

OK fantastic, yes I was overthinking it. For some reason I didn't think plastic <> metal interface w/ threads would work.

A random local guy. You an I are not near each other

For sure. I was thinking of online services. I ended up printing 2x of them with Shapeways at $10 a piece. Chose PA12 as the meterial. Shipping was kinda $.

Actually I'm dumb and realized I have a friend that could do the printing, but we'll see how the quality is with these commercial printers.

There is ONE problem with this model, I've forgotten to mention! I stuffed up the depth/thickness for the long-part and I had to file/grind/dremel it down to actually fit. Oops.

Can you explain? What do I need to cut? I don't have a dremel, but other tools.

 

[DivingAroundAsia]

Can you explain? What do I need to cut? I don't have a dremel, but other tools.

You'll see when you get it. My first one (7.5cm) I just used a hobby/x-acto knife and a hand file. I wish I'd remembered about this earlier. I've reinstalled my computer, but haven't installed Blender or anything to edit the file yet.

It's not IDEAL but it will be fine.

oh, and ~$10 was what I paid too... though my second one (6cm) was done by a friend, which only costs a few cents of material