I was a pro shooter for the nation's longest continuously running news paper and did a lot of research on photo strobes. Mind you this is over 25 years ago, but then the other factor was the duty cycle of the xenon bulb. They had a life cycle in the range of 10K cycles. They are called upon to give a consistent & bright flash. Speeding up the rate would decrease the life by quite a bit.
Another suggestion - go to the 1 hour photo lab and talk them into giving you a bag of the disposable cameras with flash. Use maybe a dozen of them per side and they can all run independent with their rated duty cycle. You'll have to make a small power supply ( 7805 regulator maybe ?) and change the circuit to auto fire, but the price is right ! erik.kl...@matrixdginc.com wrote: > The time to charge a capacitor is given by the RC time constant. It is > limited by the power rating of the resistor. The inductor is used to limit > the current to the flash tube and/or combined into an autotransformer for a > final voltage boost before the flash. Triggering is done differently on > different types of strobe circuits, but cameras I believe use an SCR or triac > that gets gated when you snap the picture. An automatic trigger would have to > be implemented. > > Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Gotschall <johng...@comcast.net> > > Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:52:25 > To: KRnet<kr...@mylist.net> > Subject: Re: KR> camera strobes > > > > Changing the flash rate may not be easy. often the flash rate is > simply the amount of time it takes to charge the capacitor. If you > reduce the capacitor size, it will speed up but then there is less > energy available for the flash. Changing the charge current (to charge > the existing capacitor faster) would require a redesign of the inductor > and it's switching circuit, kind of a big job (unless you like to spend > many hours winding transformers). > > Better to find another one with the correct flash rate already > available. > > jg > > > > > > > > > On Mon, 2008-10-27 at 12:24 +0000, joe.kr2s.buil...@juno.com wrote: > >> I remember hearing about the camera strobe a few years ago and I had done >> some testing of my own on another type of strobe. I had taken a fire alarm >> system out of a building and it had stand alone strobes that were wall >> mounted (simplex was the brand) they operated on 12 v and were self >> contained. I hooked one up in the garage and left it run steady for over a >> month and it never missed a beat. They are small and light and would only >> need the power source from the plane, the strobe pack would be at the wing >> tip and as far away from the radios as possible. The down side and the >> reason I did not us that was that they flashed on about a 5 second cycle, I >> thought that was to long and would have to use 2 on each tip to get the >> required flash time. I know that Steve Makish works in the industry and may >> have the knowledge to make something like this work. I have them laying >> aroound somewhere yet if anyone wants to persue it. Just fuel for thought >> for the experimenters out there. >> Joe Horton >> >> _____________________________________________________________ >> Find success and happiness with drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Click now. >> http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2121/fc/Ioyw6i3nCeL11Wc4dmI0ixb4Pk26hLPmdaZmgGPfipkYT6raAd6Rji/?count=1234567890 >> _______________________________________ >> Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp >> to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net >> please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html >> > > > _______________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp > to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html > _______________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp > to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html >
