The ONE piece of equipment I did not check before I left for my dive trip, and, as luck would have it, it's dead as a doornail!

No light output, no signal lights on. I left it plugged in overnight (the light on the charger brick does go on) and no change!

The light was last used 2 months ago without any difficulties, I cleaned it gently with fresh water after the last use and into the carrying case it went.

Any suggestions other than sending it back to Reef Photo when I get home?

Try this:

Plug charger in without the light attached. Touch the two main prongs of the charger to the sockets where they go (ignore the smaller prong), repeating quickly, i.e. tap, tap tap. Do this 5 or 6 times until you get a light. Plug in. If you get a green light unplug and plug in again to get a red light. Then let charge over night. Worked for me.

Cheers,
Cp

Cp -

Awesome! I just tried your technique and after 2 "touches" the indicator lights came on and now the light appears to be charging!
Thank you!

Russ

Hey Chris
I have to know. How in the world did you come up with this fix?

Cheers,
Steve

Credit for this one actually goes to Pedro Dorta, who fixes broken electronic stuff in the Reef Photo service department.

He says that this isn't uncommon for microprocessor controlled electronics to go to sleep, and that a pulse of current will wake them. The tappity-tap-tap trick replicates that pulse.

Hi Steve,

From Ryan, who as he mentioned got it from Pedro. I think that between the two of them, Pedro and Shen can fix anything. The twin towers of u/w photo gear repair.

Cheers,
Cp

Stumbled upon this thread, and I think it's a great tip to have! My friends and I have quite a few sola 600s between us so we'll keep an eye out for this.

Thanks!

Just received my new sola 600 and ......

same problem with the charger. Thanks for the tip, it works.

Be careful with the charger - mine died on my first day in the Philippines, probably because of power cuts & etc, despite being plugged into a surge protected board. Luckily Light & Motion UK were very cool and FedEx'd a new pair (redundancy!!) out to me immediately. I now unplug the charger when not in use, just in case.

The red light option really works not to scare fish, it's an amazing light.

Pfffff,

today made 3 charges and discharges at full power with the white leds and .... maximum 40' burn time instead off the 80' in the manual.

Beautiful! I had the same problem with my Sola 600 and this trick seems to work! Thanks for the tip.

-Gina

I got a Sola 800 for Christmas, they actually have this fix in their manual now....must be a common problem....

I plugged mine in for the first time this morning...it was charging when I left it and 30 mins later when I checked up on it, the charger was dead....I think the power here in Oz is pretty steady, so the chargers must be a bit iffy...sent Light and Motion an email to see if they can send me a new one as they kindly did to yourself and also asking Backscatter for help....

Hi John,
Sorry to hear of the issue with your charger.
Give me a call and I'll get replacement unit organised for you.
Peter
info@scubapix.com
07 40317655

Cheers Peter...thanks for the chat and quick response, I have sent you an email.

Every time I get close to buying a Sola light I see another report of a charger problem. I know they are good about repairing/replacing, but I would rather have a $500 light that works reliably than one that will get repaired promptly when I return from a dive trip.

Light & Motion told me recently that almost all the problems come from the light sitting for a couple months and completely self-discharging, but as I understand it this was new light, is that right?

If you figure out what went wrong, please post.

I suppose I wont know what has gone wrong as I am mailing the broken one to the dealer in Cairns and he has already mailed me a new one.

I would probably also stick my hand up and say that I bought it from a US dealer with a US charger before moving to Aus, so I dont know if the difference in power broke it. Scubapix in Cairns is going to send me an Aussie spec charger.

I imagine if it keeps on happening I would get annoyed however I must say it was a joy using it this weekend, the red light is awesome. In addition I think it is pretty unique how quick the issue was resolved.

You'll always hear about the failures of products from upset users but will rarely if ever hear about the units that haven't skipped a beat. As an owner
of two Sola lights the failures do give me a tiny amount of trepidation but from what I've read here of their customer support I am confident that any
issue that might potentially crop up would be addressed swiftly. The two units I have, a Sola 600 and a Sola 600 Photo, have been brilliant and have been
used on many dives. I was so impressed with the first one that I got a 2nd to replace it as the focus light and now use the original with the Sola hand mount
as my main light for night or deep dives. Really like their small size and weight plus the burn times.

I am also in Australia and use the US chargers with mine through an adapter. Peter at Scubapix did promise to send me an Aussie charger for my first light
when they came in but neither of us have followed it up.

Cheers,
Jim.

I think you are absolutely right about negative reports and about the reputation of L&M for prompt service. I suppose if I buy one and give it a couple of full charge and discharge cycles in a bath or pool then I will probably be OK. I have no real opportunity to dive where I live. My suspicion is that there is a quality control problem where the units are made (China I imagine) and therefore some batteries, circuit boards, etc. are not to spec from time to time.

The Solas also seem quite popular now, so I suppose one would expect to hear more reports of problems because so many are being used.

Still, I do worry a bit, especially since my diving consists of periodic dive trips. If the light failed on a trip I would have to use a small backup for the duration of the trip.

Hi Peter,

Thanks I got the new charger in the post and able to dive Australia Day....pending management approval!!!

I don't mean to derail this since it is about the Sola 600 and for that I apologize. As an update and because I've been curious... I've burned tested the 4000's about 2 times each on the following settings ( was told it would take a few cycles to get up to capacity.?.?) anyways... Pretty close to taking 160 min for a full charge from when they go out. Tests on Full power (setting 7) got me 52 min before they go out, Tests on setting 6, I got 54 min, testing on setting 5 got me 90min... just as an fyi...hope that helps those that are weighing burn times

My Sola 600 Just went out at the end of a dive and I can't seem to revive it. I have tried the tapping method and it gets three flashing red lights for about 4 seconds and then nothing. I have maybe used it on 30 dives and it has never been dropped or abused. The charger is fine, it's the light unit itself that has not come on since my dive. Any help?

Still dead..... the red lights flash for about a minute after tapping now, but it never takes a charge. Occasionally when tapping the lights flash green for a little while before turning back to red. I bought this used ("barely used") so I can't just send it back. Please, any info would be appreciated.

Well if it is still unwarranty, I can't see why you can't return it? Even if it isn't, it might be worth your while to check with L&M.

I checked with L&M and they said to return it to the dealer that I bought it from, but I bought it from a Wetpixel member.

You can either send it back to L&M themselves through any dealer (it doesn't need to be the dealer where you bought it) or you can take it apart by unscrewing the front end and replace the battery pack yourself with 2 new batteries. This can be a bit fiddly to put back together so if you are uncomfortable with that kind of thing then send it back.
Bill

Thanks Bill, I will try taking it to the local dealer.