Monday, August 16, 2010

Yongnuo YN-560 Zoom Repair

CAUTION: a flash can contain dangerous amounts of electricity.  You can die.  Do this at your own risk.

Feeling suicidal (ahem) "terribly disappointed" about our toddler's birthday photos, I attempted the dangerous task of repairing my Yongnuo YN-560 flash.  After all, my life insurance premiums were current... (no pun intended).

In all seriousness, I dropped my YN-560 by accident.  Although the flash still worked, the zoom ceased to function.  I attempted these repairs after being encouraged by a commenter (or two) who also provided a helpful link to instructions for repairing the zoom on a Nikon SB-600.  I'm not a handy person at all and I don't even know for sure how the repair below worked, but it worked.  Here's what I did.

Link to photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/creadvty/YongnuoYN560Repair#

Step 0: try to discharge the electricity in the capacitor.  I set the flash to full power, pressed the test button, then immediately opened the battery cover.  Then I waited several hours.

Step 1: remove the rubber covers on the sides of the flash head.  I used a small flathead screwdriver to pry the cover off, which was glued to the flash head.


Step 2: remove the metal clips near the hinge.  There are two metal clips on each side of the flash head.  I removed them by prying them off with a small flathead screwdriver.


Step 3: remove the screws on the bottom of the flash head.


Step 4: pull the flash head apart.  Mine seemed to have some sort of rubber glue holding it together.


When you pull the flash head apart, you'll find a piece of plastic that seems to be for holding the wires together and maybe protecting them from external elements (?).


Step 5: remove the 2 screws holding the flash head body to the top of the flash head cover (circled in red in the picture).


Step 6: you'll see that the top of the flash head body has a screw drive.  I did not find any damage on the screw drive on my flash, so I was at a loss as to what to do to fix it.  Not having anything better to do with it, I rolled the screw drive with my fingers (warning: it's oily) until the flash moved to the most zoomed position (with the flash bulb furthest away from the edge of the flash head) so that I could have the benefit of the high GN at a cost of decreased coverage.


When I put the flash back together, I noticed that the sound was a bit different, and I tested the zoom.  I was shocked that the zoom worked.
24mm:


105mm:

35 comments:

  1. Hello,

    Thanks for this illustration of fixing YN-560 zoom head. Very appreciate.

    A lot of my friends in China would like to see this fix, but this website is blocked by GFW (Chinese government filter firewall). I'd like to repost these photos and comments on a Chinese photo share website, and make very clear copyright claim and link back to here, if you agree.

    Is that OK?

    - Carlos

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  2. Hi Carlos. Thanks, that would be great.

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  3. Flickr thread (Strobist group) on this issue:
    http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157624620959271/

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  4. A lot of people are finding it useful already! :)

    I was surprised initially that you just commented on the DH review thread. Good to see that you've started a new thread for it.

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  5. Thanks again for your encouragement. I never would have imagined I could fix the flash :)

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  6. Here is the Chinese translation of this instruction.
    http://www.bababian.com/discuss.sl?path=detail&discussID=EA441BE5BEA0699D6070BEB46083BFC7DI&groupID=2B243BB15BCA4A8D95481C57507C03E8GP

    The picture set were upload to Chinese photo share website.
    http://www.bababian.com/set/3/C86F32590941CC05166FFFD08878E0B9DS

    ReplyDelete
  7. Xiexie ni Liuxiansheng. Wo suiran buhui du jianti keshi ni de fanyi haoxiang bucuo. Xiexie ni de bangmang :)

    Thanks Carlos. I can't read simplified chinese but it looks like your translation is spot on. Thanks for your help!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I can actually understand your english-mandarin.

    Thank you Mr. Liu. Although I can't read "Jianti" ... than's for your help.

    Were you born in the US ? Or did you just move there ?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I moved here. Until I graduated from high school, we studied Chinese everyday but didn't apply it outside of class, that's why my Chinese is very poor. :))

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  10. Let me have a guess...

    Since your not confident in your chinese that means your not singaporean.

    Since your picasa stream has "Guakong" that means your hokien.

    Since you did use the word "sir" a couple of times you might be filipino-chinese

    Since you can't read 'kan-sia' could mean you studied in CKSC.

    I'm just guessing.

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  11. Congratulations; you are the first one(or almost) fixing a YN560 at home
    Hope you won’t be the last one …if Newton decides to apply his law on my YN 560 I still have hope.
    BTW: where are the picture from the party?...I’m waiting them since Sunday. Post some of them

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  12. @anonymous - close, but no, I'm not from cksc.

    @Robert_Pat - I literally fell asleep while waiting for the raw to convert to jpeg :) They should be up in a couple of hours.

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  13. Very nice of you to post this, just ordered this flash,Altough I have'nt got it yet you never know this might come in handy.

    Albert

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  14. Thanks Albert. You may want to check out this thread for other fixes that worked (and one that didn't): http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157624620959271/?search=yn-560+repair

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  15. Just bought a second hand YN560 for cheap coz the zoom is not working.... This fix made it a really good deal... Many Thanks :)

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  16. That's awesome!!! Great to hear that buddy!

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  17. Hi Mic,

    I came by your blog after getting extremely frustrated with a faulty zoom motor on my YN560.

    I actually opened up the flash to have a look before coming over here. Fiddled a little with the zoom motor. My YN560 came with the plastic mount and not metal. However the zoom screwdrive was metal.

    I dismantled everything and isolated the zoom motor. However, it just makes a weird sound and refuse to budge, regardless whether I had already twisted it or not.

    Any suggestions?

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  18. Hi Fred. I see a couple of similarities between our flashes. Mine also had a sound while the zoom wasn't working (it was a buzzing noise). That's one similarity.

    Second, when I tried to move the screwdrive on my flash, it wouldn't budge at first either. It took quite a bit of effort before it finally moved.

    Based on those two similarities, I would guess that perhaps what happened to your flash is what happened to mine, and if so, maybe it's worth another try to twist the screwdrive. Other than that, you could try asking the friendly folks in the flickr thread on this issue http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157624620959271/

    Best regards,
    Mic

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  19. i just tried to do this on my flash.
    i didnt wait for the capacitor to discharge so got shocked twice lol

    my one was not zooming at all as everytime i pressed the button to zoom no noise from the motor.
    when i turn it on now it sounds like normal again but it wont zoom so im guessing the motor is stuffed in it.
    now when i press the mode button to zoom i can hear the motor but it sounds like its struggling to move it

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  20. Well Tomee I hope you at least got your hair permed for free :-j

    Sorry to hear your yn560 didnt get fixed! Pls check the Flickr Yongnuo discussion group. They may have other solutions.

    Best regards,
    Mic

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  21. Did somebody open it to change the capacitor.

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  22. Hi Frank Joan. I'm not aware of anyone trying to replace the capacitor.

    Best regards,
    Mic

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  23. Thank you! It worked fine for me. No idea how I managed it, though.

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  24. Thanks, that helped me a lot!

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  25. Mic great write up. Just saved me $70 US.

    My YN560-II had the same sticking zoom issue. I got a pair of flat nosed plyers to twist the screw drive. I was very careful that I did not bugger the threads on the screw drive and powered it up.

    It appears the flash does a travel limit check for top and bottom then goes to the predetermined zoom setting. My zoom was working before but I hit the plus zoom button during a zoom and the zoom became frozen. Now it's free and works great.

    Cheers

    -Chad

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    Replies
    1. That's awesome! Thanks Chad!

      Best regards,
      Mic

      Delete
  26. Hi,

    Thanks a lot for this tutorial. You just helped me repair my flash!

    Best regards,

    Luc

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  27. Thousands thanks Mic, I've also repaired my flash with your indications.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Alberto! I'm glad your flash is working again!

      Best regards,
      Mic

      Delete
  28. Just opened and fixed both of mine after reading this page. Many thanks!

    Mark

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Mark! Glad to help!! (and sorry for the delayed response)

      Best regards,
      Mic

      Delete
  29. Thanks for that I just got a 560 II brand new in the post with a non working zoom. I've not had it in my paws 9 hours and already I have had it apart and gave the plastic housing round the bulb a little jiggle and now its steaming back and forth like a good one.

    Be careful with the 2 lens they have 2 little lips which sit together it seems (dont think mine were correct as received). When the housing is correctly mated the clips should slip into place with no force needed (getting them off is a bit trickier as they are glued in place) The rubber strips on the sides stick back on nicely with a little bostik just ensure they fit into the recessed bits otherwise they will be falling off in no time.
    I had no noise from the motor at all. And after standing outside my backdoor shooting in the night and not seeing any difference in the flash beam i figured the motor was jammed. i also couldn't believe it could be that silent! I think its a shipping problem the bubble wrap in the box will do little to protect from shock and after getting thrown from china to the uk and then to ireland its no wonder the drive gets a bit upset. I wasn't about to send it to china for repair/ replacement unless it truely was fubar'd

    I also had read the review of the 560 and comments on the strobist about this issue. So I was prepared to have to fix this.

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