My good old Sola 1200 Photo light is still working, but… my charger suddenly stopped working.

The green LED indicator light does not illuminate when I plug the charger into the power outlet, there is no DC currency at the golden contacts, the LEDs on the Sola lamp body do not flash.

I opened the body of the charger. No visible damage, but I cannot remove the board, maybe it is glued to the housing (with some reddish substance).

Seems to be impossible to buy a replacement charger, all out of stock.

Plan A:

If someone on this list is willing to sell his/her charger please contact me (I live in Germany).

Plan B:

I could buy a standard charger with 8.4V/2A output, cut the L&M plug from the original charger and connect it to the new charger.

BUT: Where is -, where is + ??? I cannot test on my broken charger... On the plug there are two golden contacts (#1 and #3 in the attached pic) and a silver pin (#2, which probably is only needed to prevent a wrong connection). Could anybody help me with the polarity? Would be too bad to say goodbye to my Sola just because the charger is broken.

Greetings,

Jock

I once charged a buddies Sola with another similar spec charger on a trip to Indonesia. To make contact i made a "connector" with paperclips, a wine cork, and rubber bands. 😃

Edited June 28Jun 28 by Dave_Hicks

If your light still has some charge you should be able to use a multi meter to work out which socket on the light is positive, that then tells you which pin is positive.

Hi,

have two Sola 2000 and checked charger polarity just now with multimeter.1 = plus, 3 = minus. Pin 2 is is only to prevent plugging in the wrong way round. Had the same problem with defect charger a couple years ago and found third party one at ebay. This charger is still working fine. Will try to find out which one I had bought back then.

Br Markus

@ all: Thanks for your answers!

@ Dave: yes, but my charger is broken... and I needed to know where + and - are.

@ Chris: There is a diode or something similar in the light, so that you do not short-circuit the beast when underwater. I could measure a very low voltage (< 0.1V), but was not sure if this measurement was "good enough)...

@ Muellema: That was the info I was looking for. Vielen lieben Dank!

Greetings,

Jock

2 hours ago, Jock said:

@ all: Thanks for your answers!

@ Dave: yes, but my charger is broken... and I needed to know where + and - are.

@ Chris: There is a diode or something similar in the light, so that you do not short-circuit the beast when underwater. I could measure a very low voltage (< 0.1V), but was not sure if this measurement was "good enough)...

@ Muellema: That was the info I was looking for. Vielen lieben Dank!

Greetings,

Jock

Hi,

no problem. I’ve replaced the batteries in my Solas units before, though it was a while ago. I couldn't remember the polarity, so I double-checked it.

Best regards,

Markus

If you need a charger ping me. I have one you could get pretty cheaply

Bill