2 hours ago, jjmochi said:

I spoke too soon. Non working strobe remains non working on dive 2.

I turned off wireless flash setting on Sony and was able to get it to fire during the surface interval. But once I got underwater it refused to fire. And the working strobe also refused to fire until I turned the wireless flash setting back on.

Back on the boat I have swapped the fiber optic cables, the batteries from working to non working strobe. Tried with and without the booster since it worked yesterday without the booster. Tried to put it in calibration mode and it shows CAL but the strobe does not fire. I am beginning to question whether it’s just user error or really dead at this point. There is no water or any visible damage to it.

What else can I try?

Send Oscar from Retra a message and ask him, there's probably a few things you can try and he's quite helpful. You can DM him from Waterpixels..

In the meantime have you looked at error section of the manual, the procedure for misfire might be worth trying if you haven't already.

Dive 3 of the day - went down with the one working strobe. Actually got pretty decent photos with only 1 strobe - but it stopped working 35min into the dive!!!

I'm at a loss for words. For sure it's not user error this time. Right strobe did not run empty yesterday, I changed no settings from the first 35min when it was working to when it suddenly decided to stop working. Was only using it at half power to one stop past half power...

It did not show any error messages. Turning it off and batt test again showed 3/4 bars. Did not overheat, did not get wet or flood, I can still hear the beep when I hit the shutter but it just doesn't fire. Exact same symptoms as the left strobe. Somehow I got it to fire ONCE after it decided to stop working but could not make it stayed dead after.

So one strobe is dead after 3 dives, the other dead after 5 dives. No floods, no moisture, no error messages, just not firing. And I'm day 2 into a 2.5 week trip with no strobes.

I have not heard of any reliability issues with the Retras and everything talks about them like they're the highest quality and it did not even occur to me to bring my old Inons as backup.

I sent Retra help an email but I'm not hopeful

7 hours ago, jjmochi said:

And I'm also noticing when I switch on the strobe to BATT/TEST, it will sometimes show CHG (despite full batteries), and if I turn it off again and turn on again it will show the battery icon with all 4 bars. Prob it's user error but I'm not sure why this would be. I'm using envelop pros - a few years old but was working fine on the Inons...

Perhaps a clue here?

I've also had some issues with unproperly charged or older eneloop batteries when I used my first gen Retras, years ago... Retra explained to me their strobes can be very sensitive to the batteries (be aware "It worked fine with Inons" is not a proof it does with Retras, since the circuits/softwares are different).

Lesson learnt, I now purchase new Eneloops every other year, I also changed for reliable battery chargers.

Would you have any other spare batteries set or can you borrow eneloops/chargers from your fellow divers, just to check?

I don't believe 2 Retras would stop working at the same time without a "user side problem" otherwise they'd probably have to call back the full batch of their new strobes. Fingers crossed, let's wait for Retra reply, problem is that it's Sunday and the support is off.

Edited yesterday at 07:26 AM1 day by Luko

I concur with Luko, this happened to me with older Eneloops.

By any chance, do you always do a Test shot at the surface and does it work there? Are the batteries inserted in the correct way? I tried once and had a battery upside down and the flash worked for a couple of shots until it didn't

Retra is replying to me which is good

I managed to fix the right one that stopped working on the afternoon dive. CAL twice did the trick.

Left one still waiting on them for more instructions. Repeated CAL 6-7x with no luck. CAL doesn’t do CAL. Batteries definitely inserted correctly, and I swapped the batteries between the right and left strobe so I don’t think it’s the batteries

59 minutes ago, Luko said:

I've also had some issues with unproperly charged or older eneloop batteries when I used my first gen Retras, years ago... Retra explained to me their strobes can be very sensitive to the batteries (be aware "It worked fine with Inons" is not a proof it does with Retras, since the circuits/softwares are different).

Same for me older Eneloop can bring mistake.. firing / not firing... buy normal AA bat to test.. or ask other divers if they have some AA

20 minutes ago, waterpixel said:

I tried once and had a battery upside down and the flash worked for a couple of shots until it didn't

Wouh... it happend to me to put one AA wrong.. but nothing happend no test flash nothing

15 minutes ago, jjmochi said:

Batteries definitely inserted correctly, and I swapped the batteries between the right and left strobe so I don’t think it’s the batteries

I hope you are wrong .... that will mean you'll solve the problem with some news AA

20 minutes ago, jjmochi said:

Retra is replying to me which is good

I managed to fix the right one that stopped working on the afternoon dive. CAL twice did the trick.

Left one still waiting on them for more instructions. Repeated CAL 6-7x with no luck. CAL doesn’t do CAL. Batteries definitely inserted correctly, and I swapped the batteries between the right and left strobe so I don’t think it’s the batteries

Sorry to hear this then.

Does that mean that at the surface, now; none of the strobes work?

If they do work at the surface, but not at depth, try unscrewing/rescrewing the PCBs of the battery cap/supercharger. I've had an issue a few years ago where one strobe worked at the surface but not in the dive. I ruled everything out and this was the remaining problematic item. It was a bad contact which i couldn't explain why it behaved as such only at depth.

Retra service is quite helpful, responsive on a sunday

I managed to solve the second strobe that stopped working with their instructions. CAL 2x and it works again. No issues on the 4th dive... hopefully stays that way

The first strobe that stopped working - I almost gave up. Tried every which way to CAL. It would not CAL. tick tick tick tick sounds but no flash. I tried with the booster, without the booster, and finally since everyone said batteries I took out the first 4 batteries on the bottom and inserted only the top 4 batteries, and it CAL'ed!! Did CAL 2x. It's working on land now but we'll have to see tomorrow once we go in the water. Fingers crossed!

I'm hoping it's just one bad battery amongst those 4... which would explain why it was working yesterday when I did not use the boosters and not working today. The batteries are all mixed up tho and I have no idea which 8 of the 16 I used yesterday. Also wondering if it's the chargers, I am using 2 4 bay chargers that came with the Retras and my old 8 bay charger (also EBL) that plugs directly into the outlet.

Those 4 bottom batteries are now quarantined and I will be ordering new ones when I get back.

If you get a set that works line them up and draw a line across them with a marking pen. I always keep my eneloops in sets of 4 from new - they come out of the strobe into the charger next to each other and are removed either back into a strobe or a carrying case. the second set can have two lines etc. That way they are all the same age. I use MAHA chargers for mine, seems to work well.

2 hours ago, jjmochi said:

I'm hoping it's just one bad battery amongst those 4... which would explain why it was working yesterday when I did not use the boosters and not working today. The batteries are all mixed up tho and I have no idea which 8 of the 16 I used yesterday. Also wondering if it's the chargers, I am using 2 4 bay chargers that came with the Retras and my old 8 bay charger (also EBL) that plugs directly into the outlet.

I mark allways my batterie 4 together and used always this 4 together and charge it together.
It is very usefull when you have some problems and you are not sure it is the batterie problem or not..