D-Lite 2's not firing

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JennyGW

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Oh glorious day. My d-Lite 2's not firing on low power, below about 2.5-3.0 depending on how the feel.

It's not the triggers, tried manually firing, optically firing as well. Same for all methods.

Poking around on Google for answers it seems like the flash tubes are failing, but it seems really strange for both tubes to fail at the same time.

Can anyone confirm this please, or suggest anything I can try?

Tried a few Elinchrom dealers who are either closed on a Saturday per norm or have decided to celebrate Easter. Anyone know a dealership that might be open?

So p'd off.
 
Had a Bowens which had the same problem, worked just fine above 2 but would misfire 30% of the time below and the only resolution I found was a new tube.

I have read some people managed to fix it by firing the tube at full power 15+ times but I haven't had similar luck.
 
simonbarker said:
Had a Bowens which had the same problem, worked just fine above 2 but would misfire 30% of the time below and the only resolution I found was a new tube.

I have read some people managed to fix it by firing the tube at full power 15+ times but I haven't had similar luck.
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Thanks Simon, I'll give that a go.

Edit: Gave it a go ... oh well.
 
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Sorry, but it sounds exactly like tired flash tubes to me.
Flash tubes on modern, highly stressed mono heads can be realistically expected to flash 50K times before they start becoming unreliable.
The days of "everlasting" flash tubes, e.g. the very old Bowens 400 etc from the 70's, fitted to low performing, slow mono heads that took for ever to recycle and which had very long flash durations, are well and truly a thing of the past.

And the faster the recycling and the shorter the flash duration, the shorter the expected life. This applies only to 'convential' technology BTW, not to IGBT.
There is absolutely no way that firing shots at full power can help with this.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Sorry, but it sounds exactly like tired flash tubes to me.
Flash tubes on modern, highly stressed mono heads can be realistically expected to flash 50K times before they start becoming unreliable.
The days of "everlasting" flash tubes, e.g. the very old Bowens 400 etc from the 70's, fitted to low performing, slow mono heads that took for ever to recycle and which had very long flash durations, are well and truly a thing of the past.

And the faster the recycling and the shorter the flash duration, the shorter the expected life. This applies only to 'convential' technology BTW, not to IGBT.
There is absolutely no way that firing shots at full power can help with this.
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Thanks, Garry. Oh well, it's only money :)
 
Garry Edwards said:
And the faster the recycling and the shorter the flash duration, the shorter the expected life. This applies only to 'convential' technology BTW, not to IGBT.
There is absolutely no way that firing shots at full power can help with this.
Click to expand...

While I would agree someone managed to resolve this problem or a similar issue by trying what I described, maybe they were lying or mistaken but there's a chance it may have been the same thing.

What's the reason that flash tubes wear out? My understanding of it is they're simply glass tubes filled with a gas and a conductor wound around the tube, so what wears out?
 
I got the new flash tubes today. Problem still occurring. Taking strobes to TFC Brum tomorrow. A lot of shoots lined up. Today has not been a good day.
 
JennyGW said:
I got the new flash tubes today. Problem still occurring. Taking strobes to TFC Brum tomorrow. A lot of shoots lined up. Today has not been a good day.
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I posted exactly the same issue with one of my D Lite 2 's not firing every time. I eventualy swapped flash tubes with one of my other lights and it was exactly the same. Colda replied to me earlier today that he has had the same problem with several D Lite 2 's and that one of his wont flash below 3.6. Since I started checking and testing mine will no longer flash below 2.8. Colda has previously researched this and believes it may be caused by regular use at low power.
 
Nokin said:
I posted exactly the same issue with one of my D Lite 2 's not firing every time. I eventualy swapped flash tubes with one of my other lights and it was exactly the same. Colda replied to me earlier today that he has had the same problem with several D Lite 2 's and that one of his wont flash below 3.6. Since I started checking and testing mine will no longer flash below 2.8. Colda has previously researched this and believes it may be caused by regular use at low power.
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Wow. Thanks Nokin, good to know, kinda. It's a bit bloody annoying to spend extra money on a well known brand and then get problems like this. Perhaps I should have bought more reliable units from Shenzai. I am going to speak to TFC again next week, I would very much like your info for that call. Would you minding sending me a PM with as many details as you and Coda can put together, please?
 
Be interesting to see how this works out and if there's a common problem here, though IMHO it was always unlikely that two flash tubes would fail at the same time.

It made me think, I have a pair of D-Lite 2, from the very first shipment in 2006 I think. Never had a problem with them, but I don't actually use those two heads very much these days. In fact, I don't think they've been fired up for maybe six months, so thought I'd better check them over. All working perfectly (y)
 
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HoppyUK said:
Be interesting to see how this works out and if there's a common problem here, though IMHO it was always unlikely that two flash tubes would fail at the same time.

It made me think, I have a pair of D-Lite 2, from the very first shipment in 2006 I think. Never had a problem with them, but I don't actually use those two heads very much these days. In fact, I don't think they've been fired up for maybe six months, so thought I'd better check them over. All working perfectly (y)
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I'll post the results when they are repaired.
 
It would be interesting to see if those of you having problems with the D-lites all had a similar batch.
 
simonbarker said:
What's the reason that flash tubes wear out? My understanding of it is they're simply glass tubes filled with a gas and a conductor wound around the tube, so what wears out?
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There's a bit here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_flash_lamp#Lifetime), but I thought most problems would result in failure, not in odd behaviour.

Is it a capacitor problem, if it happens at a specific power? Are they still outputting the same amount of light at full-power?
 
Cistron said:
There's a bit here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_flash_lamp#Lifetime), but I thought most problems would result in failure, not in odd behaviour.

Is it a capacitor problem, if it happens at a specific power? Are they still outputting the same amount of light at full-power?
Click to expand...

I didn't measure the light, should have thought of that. TFC said it might be resistors, but didn't like to say for sure. Will see what Elinchrom find.
 
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