Dye M2: LED flashing red when switched off.

[~Solo~]

Hi all.

I have a Dye M2 Mosair which I use for walkons about once a month. Last month for no apparent reason it wouldn’t switch on without being plugged in. When I did it said the charge was about 30% and then When I got it up to charge it switched on and off fine.

However, when the marker was switched off the grip LED would flash red. Not the eyes error short flash but a long one second flash.

Today, I’ve pulled the marker out of the bag ready for tomorrow and it won’t switch on again. Same issue as last month, the battery is drained and now I’ve charged it it’s flashing red again when switched off.

The only google result for this I’ve found is a PBNation thread where it’s suggested that there is a problem with the board although Dye Service suggested it was the battery.

Any advice or help would be appreciated. I've reset the marker to factory and updated to the latest firmware but the red flash is still present.

Thanks.

 

[~Solo~]

@ShelleyHicky

Hi Shelley. Do you know if any Dye Tech's still visit the forum?

Thanks.

 

[James ECI]

@ShelleyHicky

Hi Shelley. Do you know if any Dye Tech's still visit the forum?

Thanks.

She no longer works for Dye.

Warped took over tech support in the UK

 

[~Solo~]

Cheers James

 

[~Solo~]

So it transpires that the flashing red light is the M2's way of telling you that its circuit board is smegged up and drowning in congealed paint.

After a full charge the night before and a top-up in the car on the way to the walkon, things deteriorated to the point where I had to hold the joystick down for about a minute to get it to switch-on. A lunchtime dismantle revealed a fair amount of paint on the board which I dabbed off with a paper towel and lightly scrubbed with a toothbrush. Not much improvement however for the rest of the day.

At home, more dabbing and brushing had little effect - it was now switching on okay but the blinking red and chronic battery drain when off was still present. It had even taken to randomly switching itself on a couple of times! Via the Dye FB page I managed to get hold of Sascha Papenfuss, the Tech and Warranty conatct in Germany. They confirmed that the blinking red was a short circut on the board caused most likely by water or paint.

So, in with the deep clean. I didn't have any rubbing alcohol, so beloved by American cleaning hack posts and was wary of any solvents so used a fair dose of vodka, a toothbrush and some paper towels. I took the board out completely, removed the joystick switch and the joystick cover. Sure enough there was still a fair amount of paint on the board and in the joystick area so gave it all a gentle scrub with the vodka and dabbed off.

I'm pleased to say that, having reassembled everything, there is no red LED flash any longer and the on/off is fine. Time will tell if there are any battery drain issues.

What this has highlighted is that it is fairly easy to get paint inside the grips of the M2 if you take a direct hit due to the fact that they split at the front. I wonder whether this has been recognised and addressed for the M3.

Hope this discovery helps anyone else that has the same issue.

 

[ApexEight]

Hey, did this solve the issue for good? I just bought an M2 MOSAir and the LED also slowly flashes red when turned off, but my board already looks pretty clean. Contacted Dye and the tech thinks that it's either the board or the software, but I'm already on the latest software.

 

[~Solo~]

Yes, it did solve the issue permanently. It may be that you have some paint or moisture in a hard to reach place that isn’t immediately obvious just by removing the grips. I would suggest you do as I did; remove the board and use a soft toothbrush and small amounts of rubbing / drinking alcohol or meths.

I thought that the board was ‘clean enough’ but it wasn’t until I removed it I found more paint smegged up in various places.

Even though that sorted the blinking red light it seemed that my board had a permanent battery controller issue. It struggled to properly recognise how much charge was in the battery and so would give readings all over the place, fail to reach 100% and occasionally only boot with the cable attached.

Eventually a board replacement was the only solution.