Sekonic l-208 Twinmate battery problem

[froyd]

My Sekonic 208 has been working flawlessly for the past 8 years, but this week I noticed the needle did not budge when I pressed the button to take a light reading. I tested the battery and got no response from the needle, so I went and bought a pack of fresh CR2032s and put one in. I performed the battery check and the needle swung all the way to the right, indicating a full charge; took a couple of readings and everything seemed fine for a little while, but after the third reading, the meter went dead again. I put another fresh battery from my newly purchased pack and could not get the meter to work at all. I fiddled with the battery cap and made sure the +/- contacts faced the right way. Eventually, I noticed that I would occasionally see the needle spring to life while fussing with the battery and battery compartment, but it would very quickly revert to its dead-meter behavior.

The contacts in the battery compartment are not oxidized and the battery cover clicks securely into place.

Has anyone experienced this problem and can suggest a fix?

I contacted Sekonic and they will attempt a repair for $55, but I wanted to see if I should try something else before sending it in.

 

[nikon_sam]

For a fairly new meter it sounds like a intermittent short in your wiring...could be in the switch, since that moves the most, could be in the battery wiring.
Make sure the battery contacts are clean and actually making contact with the battery...if you're daring you can open it up and poke around inside...
Hopefully it's an easy fix...if you send it in for repair ask if will be recalibrating as part of this service...