Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have a WL X1600 that I was given from a relative, so I have no idea of the age. I just started getting my first misfires ever from the strobe, and I finally took the flash tube out and one of the legs's contact appears to be blackened / charred a bit. I was able to take a pencil eraser and clean it up a bit, but you could tell it had physically changed a bit (shape-wise) as compared to the other contacts / leads. Not sure if it matters, but if you were looking at the strobe straight on, it would be the lead that goes into the left-most of the bottom two connections / sockets.

Is this indicative of anything, or is this normal wear? After cleaning pretty well it worked as usual, though I only used it for another 20-30 pops before putting it away. Before this the strobe had worked flawlessly.. The only thing that's changed recently is... I had taken the tube out a few days prior to see how difficult it was to do, perhaps I possibly mis-seated it when putting it back? I also used it with my VML for the first time over the weekend, and had just plugged it into a old WL RC-1 unit for testing which caused it to flash 10-12 times in a row before I pulled the phone cable out.

Thanks for the help, and sorry for the long-winded post. :)

The blackening is from the tube not being properly seated and the energy is arcing and burning the contacts. This may have come from your removal or it may have started prior to this. Either way, the head will have to come in for repair, as there is similar charring to the contacts inside the unit. If a new tube were to be inserted, it may work fine at first, but you would get the arcing in short order. If the unit is still within the warranty period, it will be covered; if it is outside the warranty period, typical repair cost is $50.

Thanks for letting me know!!