Sea&Sea strobes don't turn on anymore

Hi - my two S&S YS-110 and YS D-1 worked perfectly last year. Now I try to switch them on... nothing happens. No charging sound, no red light, nothing. I cleaned the contacts, no result. Ideas, anyone? Thank you so much!

Hi topus

If they are both now not working I'd suspect battery issues. Any way you can change the batteries and recheck?

Sure Tim, and thanks for the tip. That's what I thought too for a starter. Changed batteries, cleaned contacts... But nope. BTW, the YS D-1 came back to life, not the 2 YS-110, though...

Hmmm, odd. Good that at least you have one back to life.

Have they been sitting for a long-time unused? Sometimes I find with my Inons if I haven't used them for a few months that they they can take a long time to charge when I first use - to the extent that I am convinced they have died. They do spring back to life - eventually - and often, it seems, after I have juggled batteries around. I think it'll be the capacitor being totally drained - or close to it . Once they are charging again they are back to their usual happy self.

Just seems odd that you have more than one giving problems. I'm assuming you are testing them out unconnected to the housing - so it's not a connectivity issue.

Did you bend out the contacts on the cap? Sometimes they get flattened out and lack tension. If your battery compartment has been previously flooded, even a little, you may have to install new contacts. Try the cap from your YS-D1 on the YS-110 first (they're the same). It'll cost about $150 to change the lower contacts and put a new cap on, but be forewarned that if that doesn't work the strobe is toast. They don't make the PC board for it anymore. I have two YS-110 paperweights in my cabinet, each of which I spent the $150 repairing three weeks before they quit for good. I was able to salvage the new $59 caps as spares for my YS-D1's.