YS-110a doesn't seem to like cold water ...

[MXGratefulDiver]

Intermittent problems are always tough to troubleshoot. This has been happening to me a lot lately ... but not on every dive. One of my two YS-110a strobes doesn't appear to like the cold water. It functions perfectly during pre-dive checks. I get in the water, turn everything on, the little red light says power is OK. But the strobe doesn't fire. I've checked all the settings ... and the optical cable connections. Everything appears normal.

Once the dive is over if I test fire the whole rig ... with everything exactly as it was during the dive ... it works just fine.

Looking for troubleshooting suggestions ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Mariozi]

I have dived in water temp below 10ºC (never below 0ºC though) and never had a problem with it, are you sure it isn't the batteries? They are the more prone to those problems...

 

[Larry C]

Only time I had a similar problem with my YS110's, it turned out to be one weak battery. Voltage was already a bit low, and when it got cold the ready light would go on, but the strobe would fire about every third time, then not at all later in the dive. Replaced the battery after load testing and never had another problem.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Thanks Larry ... that's what I had suspected also, as it always seemed to happen when I had a particular set of (older) batteries in the strobe.

However, this is a strobe I had previously flooded ... and although I had cleaned the contacts and the strobe was working just fine for the past few months, I decided to pull the contacts out and inspect them more thoroughly over the week-end. Now ... I can only get to the ones in the cap. But when I took it apart I realized there was quite a bit of rust and crud underneath that I wasn't seeing. I cleaned them using vinegar in the ultrasonic tank and put it back together. Seemed to work OK yesterday ... but with a different set of batteries and very limited action.

I think I will need to send this strobe in and have it serviced professionally, with replacement contacts. I'm going on a trip in early March where I will need it to be in top working order.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[sevac]

I serioussly doubt your problem is cold wather... as far as strobe is concerned. I am just leving with my 110a to adriatic, where wather temp. below 20m in this time oy year are 6-8 C. I ll report in case of any problems... good luck