I've just bought an Urbis Evolo 2 lantern with a 60W Philips CosmoWhite lamp in it, and for the most part I'm very pleased with it, the construction is solid (metal body and glass refractor) but the photocell that came with it (Zodion SS3) doesn't seem to be working. I've never had a lantern with a photocell already installed on it, so I don't have another unit to try.

The lantern works fine if I bypass the photocell, so it seems to be that which is at fault, any ideas..? The ballast has a couple of extra terminals on it marked "DA" which go to two extra connections on the NEMA socket, but no idea what they're for.

So disassemble the photocell and look inside, what is wrong there...

So disassemble the photocell and look inside, what is wrong there...

Easier said than done, there doesn't seem to be any way into it without destroying the housing, it looks to be heat-sealed. The only way in that I can see would be to cut around the circumference with something like a Dremel, but then it would never go back on 

If you don’t plan on using the cell, just chop it’s wires and leave it in, but a new mini cell from wholesale shouldn’t be too much?

Easier said than done, there doesn't seem to be any way into it without destroying the housing, it looks to be heat-sealed. The only way in that I can see would be to cut around the circumference with something like a Dremel, but then it would never go back on 

Then better to cur it from below (with some small router bit in the Dremel), in that way the top can still serve as a roof against water.
The black brick notebook power supplies use to be heat sealed on the perimerer, but by squeezing it (so stressing the weld by bending) I've always managed to crack the weld, so you may carefuly try something similar.
Anyway, the cell is dead, so either you manage it somehow or as worst case it will remain dead forever...
Just be careful not to hurt yourself... ;-)

Thanks, we'll probably try that. The seller of the lantern is sending me a known working photocell next week, so it will be possible to experiment with this one.