Dropped my SB600

Zoom Raider

Well, I came home less than an hour ago and I was talking to someone and the flash fell out of the camera bag and hit the floor.
Now, it will not come on at all. Not even a flinch of life in it. The lanoleum floor gives. It's not even near as hard as concrete or asphault,
and the flash was in its case, and the case kept it from cracking, but somehow even with all that, it still won't come on.

Plus, it fell about 35-40 inches from out of the bag. Now back to saving money to buy another one,`cos it may cost almost as much to
fix it than to buy a new one. Now I can't use the Lightsphere for a good while. Probably not all summer.:doh

What I can't figure out is, I (and many other people) drop things like this a lot in our life time, and they hit harder floors or pavements,
get cracked or even busted, and still work.
But this flash didn't bust or crack, there's not even a scratch on it. Guess with my luck, it busted inside. But I don't hear anything rattling.
It's sounds all tight inside.

gus

Zoom Raider wrote:

Plus, it fell about 35-40 inches from out of the bag. Now back to saving money to buy another one,`cos it may cost almost as much to
fix it than to buy a new one.

Have you asked at a repair shop ? If they dont want to try it then have a lash at it yourself...what do you have to lose ? a broken flash ? I would lay money on it being a small wire popped off or a solder joint busted..these things are easy to fix. IF its something more than this sort of a problem then so be it.

I am costantly pulling broken stuff apart to find its just something simple.

saurora

I agree with Gus. The hit probably jarred a wire loose. What do you have to lose? If you aren't very good at that kind of thing, maybe someone you know would try it? Maybe there's a Dgrinner nearby that likes to tinker with such stuff???? Sorry...that's a real bummer! Guess, I will be more careful with my stuff, I'm usually not too careful! (and very clutzy!) :uhoh

Zoom Raider

No, all repair shops were closed while I was still at the seminar.
I see these micro Phillip screws. I don't have any Phillips screw driver that tiny yet.
I use to, and I remember every tiny screw that I try to loosen... strips.
I dunno any Dgrinner techs that live anywhere near me. If WolfCamera would fix it, bet it would cost $180.
Plus, they'd have to ship it off to their shop and I wouldn't see it for weeks. May as well send it off to Nikon,
and see if I can get a new one from them faster than it would take me to spare another $269.
But I'll see if I can fool with it later. As a child, I took radios apart and made them work better.
I'm just afraid if Nikon sees I've been messing with this flash, the warranty will be voided.
But I still can't believe it though. From about 35 inches from the air, unto an unhard
lanoleum floor and it being inside its case... BAM! It broke or a wire got jarred lose.

Blurmore

As an assistant a roll of electrical tape, a leatherman's tool, and a Coleman cold solder gun were my best friends. IF I wasn't frankensteining a dropped Vivitar 283 back together, I was chimping a Q-flash into operable condition. Not coming on AT all, is probably a short or a loose connection plain and simple. The inside of a flash isn't so scary as long as the capacitor is fully discharged, if it holds power it can give you a nasty zap, and you'd be suprised how long they hold power. I'd check the negative spring terminals and positive terminals first. If they are fast and attached it is most likely inside. One other thing to try is hooking it up to a quantum battery (I'm not a nikonian but I think this flash has provision for an external battery source) if it lights then you know the goblin is inside the battery box, if not things are more dire. As complicated and computerized as dedicated flashes are today the actual power delivery and discharge systems are relatively straightforward and once you have it open (and have given up on getting it fixed) a loose connection or a short should be pretty obvious. If you don't feel comfortable (and you've given up on getting it professionally fixed) doing the work try your local pro camera store, most of the time they have someone who is electronically inclined enough to take a hack at fixing almost anything if you've already written it off. Sounds to me like a loose or broken termnial.

I may have stretched the definition of chimping a bit, but wearing a suit sitting in the corner of a ballroom with a flash and a blunt looking instrument between my legs I really did look like a monkey.


But if you don't know what chimping is, or just want to see a funny documentry about it....check this out.

http://www.sportsshooter.com/special_feature/chimping/index.html

Jeffro

That sucks. That's also where a rider on your homeowners would have come in handy....

leek

Try removing the batteries for about half an hour and then try again... I've known this to work...
I think that there is also an obscure combination of buttons that causes a hard reset of the unit... Consult the manual...

Zoom Raider

leek wrote:

Try removing the batteries for about half an hour and then try again... I've known this to work...
I think that there is also an obscure combination of buttons that causes a hard reset of the unit... Consult the manual...

I'm getting pretty sleepy here. Reading the manual and trying to find a tiny Phillips screw-driver.
All I see in the manual in the trouble-shoot section is that the batteries are dead if the power won't come on.
Well, I know that batteries aren't dead. I probably won't be able to mess with this until Sunday or Monday.
Especially Monday if I have to take it somewhere in town.
Have to see what I can get without the SB600 when I take pictures of the baptismal in the morning.

ziggy53

ZR,

Sorry for your loss.

In the meantime, go to your local "x"mart and buy a cheap hotshoe auto-flash. Be a little careful about trigger voltage over 8-9v (buy something with low trigger voltage.) Almost anything external is better than the built-in flash.

If you have to live with the built-in flash, try to diffuse it for any close stuff.

Best,

ziggy53

Zoom Raider

ziggy53 wrote:

ZR,

Sorry for your loss.

In the meantime, go to your local "x"mart and buy a cheap hotshoe auto-flash. Be a little careful about trigger voltage over 8-9v (buy something with low trigger voltage.) Almost anything external is better than the built-in flash.

If you have to live with the built-in flash, try to diffuse it for any close stuff.

Best,

ziggy53

Thanks, Ziggy!
Thanks everyone!

But I got lucky. I took it back to where I bought it from. They give ya 14 days to bring certain things back, 30 days for other things.
I bought the SB600 5½ weeks ago, but their shop told the guy that was about to box it up and ship it off to them that it was unrepairable.
So I got a new one, and it better not just die like the other one did so easily.

ziggy53

Zoom Raider wrote:

...I got lucky. ...

Whew! Nice store. :

Zoom Raider

ziggy53 wrote:

Whew! Nice store. :

Well, come to think of it, the saleman knew me from another place that he use to work at over a year ago.
But they're all nice at that store anyway.:):