Fisheye battery problem?

I recently bought 2 Fisheye focus lights. Great lights, but there seems to be a problem with at least 2 of the spare batteries I bought. The batteries that came with the light work fine, but the extra ones dont seem to correctly work with the charger, causing it to not charge fully even though the leds claim its fully charged. Anyone seen anything like this?

Cor

There is known issue with the contacts on the chargers. The tabs in the charging cradle are easy to put out of alignment - causing improper charge's and false readings.

You would think for the money this unit cost's the manufacturers would get it right !

$400 light and a 50 cent charge cradle - must be made in China !

Whats weird is that I get consisent good behavior from my original 2 batteries (never seen any charging problem after a few dozen charges) and consistent bad behavior from 2 spare batteries I bought. The serial numbers on the 2 new batteries are significantly higher, maybe something minor was changed in the batteries so it makes the contact problem worse?

Cor

Hi Cor,

I've had my share of issues with the short bulb life & batteries as well. Usually, when the battery is inserted in the charger and the red light goes from flashing to a steady red, you've gotten a good connection.

But I've run into the same issue of a partial charge after all lights go green. This seems to be most common on L.A. boats. When I charge them at home, I've never had a problem.

My last trip to Lembeh, one of the batteries would show full green but when inserted in the light, would not work. Try another battery and it would light so I know it's the battery. Why it shows full charge but won't even give you a few minutes is a mystery to me.

The only other weird thing I've found is, if the Fixlight switch is in the 'On' position when you insert the battery, the light won't come on. Even if you turn the switch off and back on. You'll have to remove the battery, turn the switch off and re-insert. Then it'll work. Just bought a replacement battery...($120.00 but it did come with a small tube of vaseline )

Edit: Should have followed up on this when I got home Indonesia...

After posting the above, I charged the battery that was giving me problems in Lembeh. You guessed it, charged up fully and it's working fine...go figure

Rand

Hi Cor,

 

I've had my share of issues with the short bulb life & batteries as well. Usually, when the battery is inserted in the charger and the red light goes from flashing to a steady red, you've gotten a good connection.

Yup, works fine with 2 of the batteries. And it will also show if a remaining charge is available and light up some leds already.

My last trip to Lembeh, one of the batteries would show full green but when inserted in the light, would not work. Try another battery and it would light so I know it's the battery. Why it shows full charge but won't even give you a few minutes is a mystery to me.

This is exactly what im seeing. Enter battery, red light stops flashing and goes to steady red. After an hour or so all 4 leds are green, but the fisheye doesnt agree.

I emailed backscatter about it, and they mentioned something about a 'known problem with the first run equipment'. They told me to send it back.

Oh well, if I know more I'll post it here.

Cor

I've had this problem with my spare battery as well. Cor, was it just the battery that Backscatter told you to send back?

I bought 2 chargers, that came with 2 batteries. In the same order I bought 1 spare battery. Of that order, the spare battery didnt work, and 1 charger didnt work. The charger didnt do anything at all, and the spare battery didnt charge in the other charger. The 2 other batteries work fine in the remaining charger.

I then ordered a second spare battery (I misordered the first time), and that one also doesnt work in the remaining charger. So now im waiting for backscatter to tell me what to do, since I dont feel like ping ponging equipment

Cor

Hi Cor,

I posted several months ago that I was experiencing <10 hour bulb life with these lights...also, have experienced similar charging problems to those you and others are reporting...apparently the problem is widespread...hope all else is well!

I too have had the green lights on the charger, but one or no lights in the torch.

Thanks for the post, I'll be sending the it back and hopefully they'll replace the faulty charger or battery.

Thanks, damien

Hi,

My 2 battries had exact same problem during first dive trip with it & sent it back to my dealer in Japan. One batterry was repaired & the other was replaced at no charge. I did another trip so far & both batteries are working.

Sam

Is the manufacturer addressing this issue, or is it a crap shoot when you buy their product?

Joe

The charger and 2 batteries I sent in for repair just arrived. Now this charger works fine with those 2 batteries, but my other charger doesnt charge these 2 batteries, and my other 2 batteries dont work in this charger At least ive got 2 working sets now. Thats at least something

At this stage, even though the lights are very very nice, I wouldnt recommend them to anyone. It does seem to be a crapshoot if you get a working set, Once this stabalizes i'll probably change my mind.

Cor

We replace any battery or charger that so much as hiccups, no questions asked...

Most premature bulb failures come from leaving the light on in air. I've exchanged a couple of lights for customers that complain of short bulb life. After consistently getting 20-30 hours out of the bulbs using them personally and renting them to customers, I can't replicate their issues. Maybe bad bulbs?

We also stock the 100hr bulbs, which do sacrifice some intensity, but last forever...

Every battery and charger is now being tested by Fisheye before the lights ship to catch these out of the box failures, so I don't anticipate the issues with future orders.

Backscatter also checks them now, which is definately paying off as the last shipment all works. Im still a little angry (for the price if the lights I have the right to be angry) that my 2 fix lights plus batteries are now not interchangeable. Its like having 2 different lights.

About the bulbs. We recently tried out some 20W/12V pin base frosted halogen bulbs we bought in the local hardware store, and they seem to work just fine. Cost us like $3 a piece. For that price im not going to worry about bulb life and just bring a bunch.

Cor

Hi Cor

Please tell us the Make and model and manufasturer of these $3 bulbs.

Joe

Here is an $.88 bulb that probably isn't far from what Cor has found-

http://www.goodmart.com/products/171196.htm

12v lamps are far less intense than even the "long life" lamps we have... Just guessing, but maybe half the intensity of the stock 10.8v lamp. Certainly usable, and they'll last forever, but they are very yellow, and fairly weak.

The frosted globe shaped lamps like Fisheye and Light & Motion use are special order items from the manufacturer which I haven't found anywhere else, nor have I found alternatives in 10.8v or 11.1v

We had multiple failures out in Palau last week. A charger died, a battery died, and a switch failed, making it impossible to turn one light off.

I have two of them, which have both been working perfectly. I guess I'm lucky...

Hi all,

I got some 12v standard bulbs, like the $.88 bulbs that Eagle Ray mentioned as backup as my european dealer had no spares in stock before i went to Indonesia.

I used my Dremmel tool to just sand the bulb surface 1 minute per bulb and good backup.

The spec for the ligthbulb provided is 32 hours burntime. When asking I got this reply from Fisheye.

"Hi when I read about your FIX Light HG20DX the specification states ・20W frosted glass super bright halogen (32 hour life)・

It that really true that the bulb will last only 32 Hours?

Yes, it is true.

This is special bright bulb by the lamp company Welch Alleyn.

Almost 50 % brighter than simillar same wattage same voltage lamps.

This cause to shorter life time.

We also have longer life bulb- 100h type, but it show over 30% darker than 30h type."

"The bulb is a littel bit customized from original Welch Alleyn.

We make the bulbs frosted as being sand-brasted, and a little bit some point to sellect lamps from thousands of lamps.

And 100 hour virsion is our original, so it is impossible to get those in your place."

I continue to suffer the fate of others. Batteries and charger replaced by an Australian Distributor than appear to work for a couple of weeks then fail to charge even though the red light changing to all green lights appears normal. What appears to be a good light is getting expensive with all the postage and in six months I have still not had a working light when I have been able to dive.

The distributor will not take it back because I no longer have the original packing materials. Should I give up and find a new distributor or a new light?

I feel you pain, as I went through a similar ordeal with unit.

I have found that the cause of my charging issues was with the charger base unit. It seems one or more of the brass contact in the base get smashed in (very bad design), and don't seem to contact fully. I too was getting the charging LED coming on, yet it would just not charge.

Through trial and error, I found that by pulling the brass contacts back little that they would contact better and the unit would charge. More specifically I have noticed that when the unit is actually charging (as opposed to just indicating so), it emits a very soft high pitch noise from the base of the charger. I never walk away from it before checking for this faint high pitch noise these days.

hope that helps.

ps. who is the distributer? They deserve some persecution here in the forum because it sounds like they've not helped in the slightest with a product that has known issues.