Battery Problem with YS110a

[Searcaigh]

Yesterday's dives were a bit disappointing photographically due to some issues with my strobes.

Dive 1, right hand strobe died on me mid dive, I re-positioned the left hand one and carried on.

For the second dive one of my buddies had a spare set of Eneloops, which I installed and fired a test shot, all okay

Dive 2, right hand strobe refused to charge and the left hand strobe died on me well sort off, I switched it off then back on again and the light came on I was surprised as usually Ni-Cads when they die then they die 100%. This worked for around three shots and I had nothing and changed my role to spotter.

So convinced myself that my buddies batteries were dead, she confirmed that they were charged a few weeks ago, and my batteries were probably last charged a few weeks ago, but I had used different strobes last week, so not used in at least two weeks, I really must label them or keep a log of charging them.

We returned to the port with a plan for a night dive, so a mad dash to the petrol station next door to buy some Energizers and replace both strobes with them, and also my dive computer which was showing low battery warning (Petrel 2).

After reloading with fresh batteries the right hand strobe was firing perfectly, but the left hand one was not !!!

Well at least I had one strobe working for the night dive that in the end got cancelled as the UAE CG decided to stop all boats going out for security reasons

Before I hit the sack last night I put my Eneloops on charge and this morning both strobes charge and fire with no issues

All the Alkaline batteries I bought yesterday are reading 1.614V on my voltmeter.

 

[Larry C]

1)Try swapping the caps on your strobes and see what happens.
2)Try bending out the tangs on your caps.
3)Clean the lower contacts with a q-tip and some contact cleaner or alcohol.
If necessary, new caps are about $60 each. Changing the caps and lower contacts runs about $150. Even a drop or two of sea water from opening the caps with wet edges can cause enough corrosion on your contacts to limit the voltage to your capacitor, apparently.

 

[Searcaigh]

Thanks Larry, I'll do some maintenance this week.

 

[Larry C]

Footnote: I just had my second YS-110 in for new lower contacts and a cap. It quit during a dive and wouldn't respond to any of the above, and the light would light dimly and briefly as I crossed each on position. When the last one did that, I had the contacts changed and 3 weeks later, the strobe died. $158 invested in repair AND a paperweight for a strobe. Well, guess what. After the repair, I was testing this one tonight with my ttl adapter (that won't work with YS-110's or YS-D1's apparently) and the same thing occurred with it. I guess it's time for another YS-D1. I hate strobes. Maybe Backscatter will apply some of my repair investment toward the new strobe.