How to repair a cooling fan of a Profoto D1 Flashlight
!!! Warning !!!
Flashlights use high voltage capacitors which can store a high current for a long time after the device disconnected from a power plug. Besides the risk of losing warranty, do not open your light unless you have extensive experience with this kind of work.
If you have the slightest doubt about what you do, send the flash back to the manufacturer for maintenance or repair.
The Video was recorded in German language
The history of this Project
About two years ago, in 2017, I decided I want to spend more time of my future with studio photography. However, oh boy, those flashlights can be expensive! $$
One sunny day, right around the birth of my daughter Mika, I saw an offer in the Chicago Photo Society Facebook group. One guy was selling two of the Profoto D1 500w as a set, including light stands and umbrellas. He also had the Profoto Air Remote TTL-C available – a required remote to trigger the flashes.
The deal was good but still above budget.
However, after several unsuccessful negotiation attempts, the guy came back to me and said that he is leaving Chicago the next day for good to start a new life in Florida. Therefore, he needed to sell the package now and accept my deal if I pick them up within 24h.
Coming home...
Of course, I quickly tested the functionality onsite before we closed the deal.
Coming back home, I cleaned everything and run a full test. Thereby I noticed that one of the internal cooling fans got quite noisy. This is a clear sign of a worn down bearing. Also, with that said, based on my experience, there is not a lot you can do to fix this issue.
So I opened the first D1 Flash to identify all critical components and to find the right size and performance for a replacement fan.
I can`t emphasize enough how dangerous and life-threatening it is, to open electronics and don`t know exactly what you are doing!
Well, I identified the pieces, ordered them online, and everything else is in the video above 🙂