Inon Z240 problems

Diving at the weekend I had a problem with one of my Inon Z240 strobes - which was intermittently firing on full power. Not had this problem before despite considerable usage.

Photos of me trying to figure it out underwater - the difference between the two shots is fairly obvious:

Anyone had similar problems? Any ideas on the cause of problem gratefully received.

Alex

I do have problems as well, but they are not the same.

one of my two type III is making very randomly crazy actions.

first he started to only work as "preflash" instead of normal. then I figured out he worked if I reversed the positions (meaning I know have the two strobe doing the same thing, but one with the button down, the other with the button up).

Then, 2 dives ago, the same strobe started to do random flash after a photo. I was doing the photo normally, and then 5 flash happened after every photos. then it stoped at some point. then started again. then stoped.

the last dive was ok, but still reverse button position (if I put pre-flash, it don't, if I don't, it do.)

it's just weird.

Alex, check for cracks underneath the rubber ring on the front. I had a small crack which slowly allowed water in which slowly fried the board over months. First the spot light was stuck. Then it wouldn't fire at requested f stop (yes it became a request vs a setting after awhile) and finally it just stopped working. Took 3 months.

I like the Inons but they sometimes feel like plastic toys. Once you flood it, you throw it away because while there is a replacement for the internals, it's about 70% the cost of a new one and is limited to certain malfunctions only. My last one flooded just last month (loaned to a friend who didn't check o-rings).

Like a japanese resto with disposal utensils, the Inon to me feel the same way.

Hello all,

i had similar problems,

it has because a very short water leak, if you can not find it, change all o'rings, dry very well all the plugs wiht hair dryer, replace the electrical cables if possible, check the plugs in the housing...

thats what i did, and solve the problem...

regards

Hi guys,

Yesterday I was looking how much money I need in order to get a new Z240 type 4.

But now I see this thread!!!

Do you think that this is something to worry about?

Or just taking care of the o-rings is enough to avoid this kind of problems with the Z240?

At the beginning I was looking the S&S YS-250 PRO, but now I was almost convinced that the Z240 is a better choice, less expensive, smaller, easy to get replaceable batteries.

But now I'm back to the confusion again.

Regards,

Andres.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Yesterday I was looking how much money I need in order to get a new Z240 type 4.

But now I see this thread!!!

I wouldn't worry too much, Andres. I have found my Inons very reliable as have the majority of users. The thing about internet land is that you will always find someone who has had a problem with every bit of kit out there. Which is good if you have a problem to solve.

Alex

The only problem I have had with my Inons was that sometimes they continued to flash on and on, like a strobe light after I took a photo. To stop this I had to turn my camera off and then back on. I corrected this by replacing the blue Sea & Sea o-rings on the 5 pin Nikono's cables. I think some moisture was occasionally shorting out the 5 pins that are close together in the bulkhead connection.

My Inons (knock on wood) have been very reliable otherwise.

Elmer

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

 

 

I wouldn't worry too much, Andres. I have found my Inons very reliable as have the majority of users. The thing about internet land is that you will always find someone who has had a problem with every bit of kit out there. Which is good if you have a problem to solve.

 

Alex

Thanks Alex, I was just checking.

This will be a big investment for me and want to be sure that I'm doing it right.

Regards,

Andres.

I've been using the s-ttl and optical connections for a couple years with no issues at all. I'm going to guess this has something to do with the electrical connection or, as described above, a partial flood.

Alex,

It might a pain but could you describe your settings on the strobes and the type of connection?

You might just unhook the electrical cable and do a test dive using that strobe with the optical trigger and the strobe set to s-ttl to see what happens.

I had a similar thing but it was the port on my subal that had flooded (the one I wasnt connecting too) and the lead was shorting inside the housing. Had to replace the side port

Thanks for all the advice. Water in the system seems the most likely problem, then.

I was running the strobes with electrical connections - but I could try them with my optical cables if the problem persists.

Alex

Two weeks of shooting for the INONs (on Eleonora's camera) in the Red Sea and no reoccurrence of the problem. Just typical INON fault free operation. Suspect that it was a dodgy strobe connection on the day.

Alex

Maybe it was a dodgy operator Alex :-)

Glad they are back to working as advertised. I love that photo you posted of Ele w/ her rig - she AND the housing/strobes both look small :-)

Cheers

James

She looks even smaller here, next to the Giannis D wreck last week:

Alex

Hi Alex,

I only use my two Inon 240s (type 4) with optical connection. I used manual for WA (also setting the Nikon on-camera pop-up flash to manual so it didn't fire a pre-flash), and controlled the output by the dial. Sometimes I found that the strobes fired more power than the dial set. And later on found that might be a matter of the position of the ACC button (the button with the 1>2 sign).

Keeping the ACC button at the downward position (turn ACC off) seemed to solve this problem. The reason could be that the ACC always fire flashes with a high initial intensity while trying to saving camera power.

According to what I understand, when ACC is On during S-ttl mode (with the camera firing pre-flash), the Inon Z240 fires a high intensity pre-flash which mimics the pre-flash of the camera. The camera reads a brighter reflection from the object throught the lens, and cut the pre-flash and actual flash much earlier hence saving the camera battery energy. Occasionally I found that even in manual operation sometimes this ACC circuit interfere with the flash output.

Hope my 2 cents help.

Edward

While working in near-darkness, I have accidentally reset the the lower right hand knob during a dive and on non-dives (in-stream work), which caused the manual setting to be overridden. I am beginning to wish that they stayed with the screws as used in the Z220 series, at least for the right-side knob.

I don't have the Inon manual with me but I think I remember reading that if you put it in STTL mode, the ACC is automatically off, no?

She looks even smaller here, next to the Giannis D wreck last week:

Even at that size, she's still better looking than you. Is that a dust spot or very black fish in the center?

I don't have the Inon manual with me but I think I remember reading that if you put it in STTL mode, the ACC is automatically off, no?

<never mind... found the solution to my problem in another post. duh on me!>