so /diy/,
i finally took my old flash gun apart since it broke 2 years? ago. the capacitor kicked the bucket, obviously. that wouldn't be a problem if it was some kind of widely available cap, but its a 1200uF 330V thing, 30mm across and 45 mm high. No luck on mouser or anywhere. The thing is that it needs to be in these dimensions, since it's housed literally in the hinge of the flash.
I could get a 250V replacement, but i'm pretty sure it'd get fried, i could go for a cap in larger dimensions but it'd need to be mounted somehow outside the flash, and that would make it very unwieldy and i'd never be using it.
i'm thinking i'll go for a 1000uF replacement. i mean the cap in the flash is basically just there to store energy. it's not filtering anything, or blocking DC... it'll just store a smaller charge, right?
anway, have some pics
lookit dat bulge
with part of the housing, a bit melted in some parts.
pretty sure 1000uF will do. caps lose capacity with age, so they probably design in some over-capacity.
it's also worth measuring the actual voltage produced across a smaller cap. the 300V rating may also be over-design. i've seen some small ones that work at 170Vdc.
>>956432
How much extra space is ther ein the area? I found some that a little over the specs you gave
>>956480
no more that a couple of millimeters, but i'm not really trusting the declared dimensions. what have you found?
>>956488
>that a couple of millimeters, but i'm not really trusting the declared dimension
40mm x 60mm
The 60 is the height. You could always cut a hole in the side of the hinge and fabricate a circle plastic protrusion and glue it all to gather so that its resealed.
>>956432
You might be in luck. If I recall correctly, if you wire capacitors in parallel you effectively make one higher capacitance capacitor at the same voltage rating.
Disposable camera flash caps (I used to make coilguns with dozens of them) happen to be around 120uf @ 330v.
You might get by with wiring ten of them in parallel if it would fit.
Otherwise, just get some off mouser that you can wire in parallel to get 1200uf.
I agree with the earlier replies though, you could probably go a little higher or lower than 1200uf.
>>956631
>so, if i had a couple .47u caps....like 1700 of them, i could do....something cool?
yes.
I dont know why you would buy that many of them though, 1000uf caps are cheap enough as is.
>>956513
60 mm wouldnt work, i'd have to cut up the hinge for that.
>>956520
Are they really small? I was thinking about wiring a couple smaller caps together, but i didn't think they'd fit. I'll go check some dimensions.
>>956664
Thats exactly what I said, cut a circle holw out of the side of the hinge and epoxy a bottle cap over the hole to have it all sealed up again.
whats the harm in altering the housing if it makes the device work again?
>>956685
nah man, look. it's like this on both sides.
it'd mess up the whole mechanism.
>>956782
fuck.
Ok,
>put the new capacitor in a pill bottle.
>Drill two holes in the lid, run wires through, seal with epoxy.
>Drill two holes somewhere on flash thing, seal with epoxy.
>spray paint pill bottle black
>epoxy to side of photo flash thing
>>956659
got them for free
so if i connect them in parallel,
math says i will get 799f or something idk what that means
.47*1700 =799f?
i will have a fatass discharge? of 799f?
>>957526
Make the taser from hell with it.
>>957526
.47 microfarads x 1700 =
0.000799 farads
47 microfarads x 1700 =
0.0799 farads
Either way that isnt quite a fat ass charge. Also you can buy 1kuf caps for less than a dollar
