Catastrophic dive housing failure

[JesperS]

First dive of our spring break road trip, devil's den. Turn it on pre-dive, it's strapped to my head, post dive when I check it the power is off. I try to turn it on, but nothing, that's when I see the case is flooded. I sigh. The latch is not compromised.

When we get back to the hotel, I check, and the o-ring looks perfectly fine.

I've got everything drying with rice right now, pulled the mem card. The two tiny videos I shot topside are fine, the dive video is 2 gigs and is corrupt.

Again, I sigh.

On previous dives, I've strapped rubber bands around the case, didn't think of it this time.

I don't suppose I have any recourse here? Regardless, I'm out a go pro for the remainder of the vacation, which is a bummer.....but it's going to be oh-so-nice not to be editing video for weeks

Edit: Forgot the picture



edit2: this is a gopro2 with the official dive housing, nothing after market.

 

[fbk]

So if the latch wasn't compromised how did it flood, through the lens port? I have heard of Hero2 latches becoming unlatched when the caseback is compressed...

Is Devils Den fresh water? You might be lucky if it didn't get too wet.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Try testing it without the camera. And then try testing it at depth without the camera. Maybe you'll figure out the cause.

 

[JesperS]

Yeah, I'm going to play around with it a bit, I just haven't had the stomach for it, shoved it away in the car somewhere as it is, water in the lens and all. Just not going to bother with it and let it ruin my vacation.

No idea where it leaked from, but I'm sure I should be able to discover it once I give it a good once over. There MUST be a cause.

 

[raftingtigger]

All it takes is a tiny hair or piece of lint on the o-ring seal. If you test it and find the case doesn't leak that is probably what happened. If the latch came undone and then flooded you probably would have noticed the loose latch. A latch can come loose from compression at depth but it wouldn't re-latch itself.

I hear your pain. Lost mine recently.

 

[yarik83]

I thing I always do is put my cameras into water bucket on the boat. If there is a leak to be found I want to address it at the surface. Sorry about the camera. Get a bunch of rice and take camera apart, take battery out, latch off and lens if you can unscrew. Put all of that into bowl of rice and give it a week. If there is any life left in it.. it may very well come back to life.

 

[RockyHeap]

One comment of mine on the "put it in a bucket or the camera water tank" on board the boat" thought.

is A: unless there is a gross error of o-ring compromised seal, a hair or grain of sand isn't most likely to leak at "0" depth. Take it down to 33 ft or 1 ATM another 14.7psi on the housing, that's where she'll start to leak.

also B: I never keep my camera rigs in the water tank headed out to a dive site, too much banging and clanking of different gear I've seen get busted or scratched up. I keep mine cool under a towel up forward undercover if I can, a quick rinse after the dive while operation control buttons to flush any salt accumulated on the shafts is also a good habit to get into..

 

[Dauntless]

I'll add a "That Sucks" too. I test my GoPro housing after mod by going down to Local Dive Shop where they have a pressure testing chamber. Put a couple of lead sinkers in the empty housing (wrapped in microfiber towel if possible - or lintless stuff) and close up tight. Put the assembled housing down, under a layer of water, seal the chamber and pump up to ~150 ft and the top of the chamber is plexiglass so watch for bubbles and leaks.

I see you have other video on your YouTube Kanal, were they taken with the same housing and camera? was this the first time?

 

[JesperS]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

We're back home and I've tested the camera after a week in rice, no go, it's dead. The video captured on the dive was corrupt.

Everything else looks a-ok, so I have to figure I missed something small on the o-ring. I put a new o-ring on the case and have it submerged in a bucket right now (which won't confirm much, but if there is a crack I'm missing, this should find it).

Dauntless, that pressure testing chamber is awesome...don't know of anything like that around here, but I'll ask my instructor.

This was not the first time with the dive housing, we did have it for the last keys trip, so it has been at depth before.

Ah well. I wrote GoPro customer service and pleaded my case, and asked them if there was anything they could do. I've had some great customer service experiences lately, I figured it can't hurt to try. With the GP3 out, they probably have tons of refurbed GP2's doing nothing. /cross fingers

 

[RockyHeap]

when in doubt of o-ring failure or myself with any new dive housing, I always do the first dive with no camera...............you can always weight the camera down, and put it sans camera on the end of 100 foot of fishing line sunk in a lake or the bay too for your own "pressure testing"