Christopher Drye

Hi all, I’m new here (joined on Maria Munn’s recommendation) and hoping to tap into some collective experience! I have a pair of Sea & Sea YS-01 Solis strobes. One is fully functional; the other has developed a fault that I’m trying to understand before deciding what to do next. Observed behaviour on the faulty strobe: Powers up normally, LED red First TTL exposure: LED briefly goes green After that, the LED goes dark and stays off Strobe continues to fire reliably In manual, it fires consistently at all power levels In TTL, exposure is wildly inconsistent shot-to-shot (correct exposure → full dump → almost no output) I’ve confirmed this with controlled side-by-side tests against the good YS-01 using identical settings, distance, and subject. So I think what this means is: Flash tube / capacitor / triggering seem OK Manual output is fine TTL quench/control appears unstable or intermittent LED behaviour seems linked to the TTL state change Questions: Has anyone seen this specific YS-01 failure mode before? Is this a known TTL control / quench circuit issue on older YS-01s? Is repair realistically possible or economical, or is this effectively a “manual-only from now on” strobe? If repair is possible, is it typically board-level or full module replacement? The strobe hasn’t flooded, hasn’t been opened, and hasn’t been abused; this looks like a latent electronic fault rather than corrosion. I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth pursuing repair, or whether experience suggests that replacement is the only sensible option. Thanks in advance — any insight appreciated. My next diving trip is T minus 26 days (Maldives) so I am a bit gutted to have found this issue in pre-trip checks, but hopefully time to solve it one way or another! Chris

Hi, My name is Chris aka Chipstix. I'm new to the forum as I am getting back into underwater photography having dabbled in one form or another in the past. Hello! I live in the UK and I've been diving for about 25 years, and typically dive in tropical waters. Needless to say I love it and am at my happiest when bobbing around with the majesty of the underwater world. I used to have a Canon IXUS SD850IS in an Ikelite housing which I used in the Caribbean and Borneo having read Martin Edge's 3rd edition from cover to cover! Despite only using the internal flash and simple diffuser I was able to make many photos that I still treasure to this day. I've posted a link below to that trip's collection. That housing had to be retired eventually, and I went diving without a camera for several years before the urge overtook me again! So I recently bought a used rig consisting of TG-6, PT-059 housing and dual Sea & Sea YS-01 Solis strobes. This is for an upcoming liveaboard in the Maldives in early February. I am very excited about the trip, and in fact next week I have booked a 1 day 1:1 training course with Maria Munn down in Bournemouth. So this brings us to the question of why today to join the forum!?! Well, I was practicing and testing the kit I bought late last year and have sadly discovered an issue with one of the YS-01 strobes that I wanted to get some help and advice on. So I will head over to the relevant forum section to see if anyone can help me out! ImgBBUnderwater PortfolioBorneo 2010