Anyone selling a YS-110 or YS-90

[racerfern]

I'm interested in buying a YS-110 and/or a YS-90 even if it's not working. I plan on dismantling and trying to figure out what is causing mine to act erratically. For that matter if anyone has disassembled either of these I would be curious as to what they found.

The problems are that my 110 red/ready light blinks bright/dim over and over and the focus light then goes bright/dim as if it had two levels. On the 90 the unit fires at about 90% of full power regardless of how where I turn the power dial, in manual mode of course.

It's frustrating that servicing these units is extremely expensive making it obvious that Sea and Sea just wants to sell new units. One distributor told me that he was not allowed to sell parts privately. I suppose that would be fine if a new unit was far and away better, but from what I read, new Sea and Sea strobes are as suspect as older units.

I've thought about switching to INON but that means new sync cords and possibly mounting hardware that drives the cost even further up. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

So back to my quest to fix my own unit or another unit with donor parts.

 

[KeithG]

I had a similar problem with my y110. Turns out the culprit was the batteries.

They charged fine and worked in all of my other gear with no visible problems, but randomly gave bad behavior in the strobe. Bought a new set of batteries and I have not had the problem since. Same charger, same strobe.

I believe that the batteries had just gotten to the end of their useful life.

 

[Larry C]

One of my two YS-110's died and will no longer turn on. According to the dealer, the main circuit is shot and Sea & Sea no longer produces it. Shame, because I spent $150 to have them put new battery contacts in it last year and had only used it maybe twice since. Due to minor floods, my battery contacts were corroded somewhat and they apparently need full voltage to charge the capacitor. I have had battery issues with the 110's previously. I had a battery that checked fine, but when I used it the strobe would fire erratically. I would suggest before you do anything drastic, follow giffenk's suggestion and try new batteries. It also couldn't hurt to polish the contacts a bit with a long rotary buffing tip. Make sure you don't leave any fuzz that can get on the o-ring or between the battery and contact, though. I've also had to replace a couple of battery caps. They get corroded or lose tension and don't make good contact. A new cap is about $50.

 

[bvanant]

One issue in trying to fix strobes (and other electronical gizmos) is that parts are often no longer available. When the EE wizards make a design, they NEVER (and I work with quite a few of these guys) worry about fixing it many years in the future so they use what they can get and when the guys who make the components stop making the old ones everyone has a problem. Why we would expect that parts for older gear should continually be available is a mystery, maybe we are spoiled by the car business where we can buy parts for 57 Chevys pretty easily.
Bill

 

[Larry C]

One issue in trying to fix strobes (and other electronical gizmos) is that parts are often no longer available. When the EE wizards make a design, they NEVER (and I work with quite a few of these guys) worry about fixing it many years in the future so they use what they can get and when the guys who make the components stop making the old ones everyone has a problem. Why we would expect that parts for older gear should continually be available is a mystery, maybe we are spoiled by the car business where we can buy parts for 57 Chevys pretty easily.
Bill

Apologies to OP, who is looking for a used or dead strobe. While they have made it possible to have amazing functions in a smaller cheaper package, printed circuit boards have made repairing things virtually impossible. Refrigerators that used to last 25 years are now good for 5-7, because when the PC board goes it either isn't available or costs more than the refrigerator is worth.
OTOH, the wired circuit board on an old VW Variant with fuel injection was about 12x18" and covered with a maze of spaghetti and individual components while you can get a bolt on fuel injection set-up that is self learning for any popular modern engine and the electronics would fit in your wallet.