Sea frogs SF-L02 video light function

I purchased this light new and bought the LI 18650 batteries. The instructions suck and there is poor customer service. You turn on by hitting the button 5X under 3 seconds, but it will not work.

Is there some other code sequence? 

Tried searching for reviews of this, came up empty but did see the Amazon listing had disappeared as had an Ebay listing.  Apart from trying different batteries or trying the batteries in another device I can't offer much in the way of suggestions.

It's always possible the light is DOA (dead on arrival).  Maybe your best code might be an RMA code to return it if it won't work out of the box.  Hopefully the vendor will take returns.

I have this light also. Got if off Amazon for about half price and then saw the price increase the next day. Sometimes it comes on with the 5x pushes; sometimes not. Sometimes it comes on with second 5x try; sometimes not. Occasionally comes on 2nd or 3rd push on second or third try. Sometimes won't come on at all, like last week in Pompano Beach but then it came on when I got home. Appears to be hit or miss; very frequently miss. If you ever get it on,  it is bright and not spot which is what I bought it for. Unfortunately, haven't used it in water since it didn't come on in Pompano last week but I did take it to 95' and it didn't leak.

Note that I am using Eastshine batteries which may be a little longer than some other batteries but you can't buy them anymore. When I first got it and couldn't get it to turn on, I attempted to stretch the spring a little to make sure batteries were making contact. Two connected springs came out with little force and I then had to epoxy back in place after I stretched spring. Other item to be sure of is to make sure notch is lined up and in place before rotating to close since it will close without notch being lined up and then battery contacts aren't lined up.

If you get it to turn on (green light flashing), you have to push and hold for a few seconds to turn on the main light. Then you have to push and hold a few seconds each time you want to turn on or off. It took me a while to figure out to keep holding for a few seconds until the main light came on. Note that after it comes on, the light stays in standby with the green light flashing and the red numbered light lit until you unscrew the battery case (this is my experience anyway although I have not let it sit to see if it shuts down after some time). Unless you want to use the colored lights (I don't) then I recommend not turning off or clicking through the colors which is quite annoying. If the white bright light is on, you can rotate the number to 0 and it will go off. Then you can increase brightness by just rotating the numbers from 1 through 9 and not have to go through the 'hold' to turn on/off.

Good luck and let me know if you discover the secret to make it work routinely since it appears to be a nice light when it is on,

Rick

6 hours ago, rwe said:

When I first got it and couldn't get it to turn on, I attempted to stretch the spring a little to make sure batteries were making contact.

If your batteries are a bit short, small neodymium magnets work well as spacers.

In a fit of boredom, I took my SeaFrogs SF-L02 light off the shelf where it had been sitting for over a month to see if I could figure out if there was something that I could do which would make it turn on more reliability. And to my amazement, I got it to turn on 10 times in a row! I turned it off each time by unscrewing until it lost battery contact and the green flashing light went out. I now think there are two key things to make it turn on:

1. Make sure the batteries are aligned with the correct contacts on the light head using the alignment notch when starting to screw the light together after inserting the batteries. This can be easy to miss since the piece with the notch is free to turn and it will screw closed even if not aligned.
2. Most important: Make the 5 unlocking pushes very quickly. 3 seconds is not long. When I did the 5 button pushes in about 2 seconds or a little more (it is hard to time this), the green flashing light came on and a subsequent long push would then make the light come on and it would go through it colors by additional short pushes and brightness could be adjusted by turning the dial. If I took close to or more than 3 seconds for the 5 pushes, the light would not come on.

I will let it rest for a few days and try again to be sure this was not just a quirk.

Rick