How to make the Olympus E-330 camera strobe fire in the PT-E02 housing

I like to use the Ikelite Manual EV strobe controllers, and so I set out to get the Olympus E-330 camera to fire its pop-up strobe in the housing. The strobe normally only fires when the strobe is fully deployed, and to fire in the housing, it needs to fire when open only a few millimeters.

This could cause heat problems, we'll see. (update: half a dozen dives, so far so good).

The sensor that detects the pop-up strobe position is in the strobe's well, at the front, on the left side as you face the camera. It's at the hinge point of the strobe in that corner. You can see the sensor switch in one of the images below.

I started by jamming the switch with a nail, a short but thick brad. Don't do this, don't use metal or anything conductive. There must be more contacts or pins in there, my camera began to act erratically. I went on to use a piece of a chopstick, as in the photos below. A wooden match would probably work as well. You may have to sharpen the tip a bit to get the shim to slip in properly.

You need to use a hard chopstick, a bamboo chopstick. The soft wood chopsticks won't work, the shim isn't stiff enough to jam the switch.

Once you get the shim in, the display on the back of the camera will indicate that the strobe is enable by going from gray to black lettering for strobe status.

Once the shim is in properly, tape the strobe down.

Added info: I have only used this to drive the Ikelite manual EV slave controllers. I have never tried to use it with a fiber (though I think it would work) or with a TTL system. The TTL may use longer or full power flashes, there could be a heat problem. If you try it, let me know.