YS-D2 issue: Fixable or Not?

Hi! I've been shooting with a Sea&Sea YS-D2 off and on for the past 5 years. I only shoot when I'm in Bali (where we have a house), so the pattern is a few months of intense use followed by many months of no underwater photography at all. In July and August of 2021 (so a year ago), I started having slight issues with the strobe turning on. I have never fully flooded the strobe, although I once started to head underwater when I realized that the battery compartment O-ring was not properly seated; on that occasion I headed straight back to the surface and opened it up on dry land; there were about three droplets of sea water inside, which I dried out. Anyway, when the strobe started giving me issues last year, I found that if I bent the springy contacts on the inside of the battery cover back, and then pushed really hard on the cover, the strobe would turn on, and I would be able to use it as usual. The most time I ever spent on this process before a dive was about 2 minutes. Once the strobe absolutely would not turn on after changing batteries between dives, but I left it in the on position and suddenly, after 3 minutes or so, it magically turned on.

This was happening in the week or two before I left Bali, and I didn't really have a chance to get it seen to before I left Bali. I returned here a month ago and this time the strobe absolutely will not turn on, no matter what sort of ju-ju I try. The tricks that seemed to work last time have no effect, and leaving it on for an hour produces no signs of life. 

I guess I thought (hoped?) last year that it was a purely mechanical issue with the batteries making contact. I scraped surface corrosion off the bottom contacts in the battery compartment, bent the upper contacts in the cover and so (I thought) dealt with the problem. In retrospect, though, that one time that it didn't turn on at all and then came to life after a few minutes should have been a warning. I suspect that there is a loose contact or broken wire inside the strobe itself (ie, not in the battery compartment).

So my question is whether anyone has any words of wisdom or experience with this sort of issue. Is it a known issue? Is there anything that I can do myself? Is there anything that a dive shop (or a camera shop) could do to revive it? Is it worth trying to fix, or should I grit my teeth, break open the piggy bank and start shopping for a new strobe? Should I just be happy that I got 5 years (and many, many thousands of photos) from the strobe? Or should I be annoyed at it for dying before its time?

The history of a small water in the battery compartment suggests one or two things may have happened:
a) water got into the electronic compartment and has slowly damaging them, and/or
b) water got into the switch mechanism and has damaged it.

In either case, the only reasonable thing to do is have the strobe examined by a trained person, and I would prepare myself for bad news and a new strobe.

I was thinking that might be the case; I think the idea of it being the switch makes sense given the symptoms. Not sure where in Bali I can find an expert on strobes, but I will start looking both for an expert and a new strobe.

Sending the strobe back to Sea&Sea may be the best approach, as they have the parts and knowledge, and if they are feeling generous they might replace it with a working strobe. Here is the Sea&Sea info from the web:

4-8-11 Nagasaki, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-0051, JAPAN

Tel: +81-3-5926-9320
Fax: +81-3-5926-9321
Customer Service: +81-3-5926-9322

On 9/2/2022 at 5:20 PM, Graydon said:

This was happening in the week or two before I left Bali, and I didn't really have a chance to get it seen to before I left Bali. I returned here a month ago and this time the strobe absolutely will not turn on, no matter what sort of ju-ju I try. The tricks that seemed to work last time have no effect, and leaving it on for an hour produces no signs of life. 

I guess I thought (hoped?) last year that it was a purely mechanical issue with the batteries making contact. I scraped surface corrosion off the bottom contacts in the battery compartment, bent the upper contacts in the cover and so (I thought) dealt with the problem. In retrospect, though, that one time that it didn't turn on at all and then came to life after a few minutes should have been a warning. I suspect that there is a loose contact or broken wire inside the strobe itself (ie, not in the battery compartment).

 

 

There have been cases where the internal connection on the inside of the strobe to the battery compartment have come loose:  This thread shows a partial tear down of a YS-D1 which is similar: 

View archived post in: Sea & Sea Ys-d1 issue

That is about the only thing user fixable unless you are an electronics wiz.  However  you need to be aware the capacitors hold quite a bit of energy and can give a nasty shock -potentially fatal in the right circumstances so they need to be discharged before trying to work on the internals.  If you have to ask how to do that - you probably shouldn't be trying a DIY fix.  You need to disturb the o-ring seal and you have to re-assemble correctly to keep it water tight- probably should replace the o-ring if you disassemble it.

Thank you Chris and Kraken!