Argus 215 MP HELP

[medusa]

I am looking to wire an ac adapter to my Argus flash. The 2 AA battery terminals are both facing one direction. This makes me unsure of where to wire what. Pics are attached to help. Please assist.

[blackchisel97]

Hi Medusa,

I attached your picture with couple questions -

[medusa]

I soldered the green wire ( formerly thinner and black) and yes the two metal items are the battery terminals. I clipped them to make them more solder ready.

Hi Medusa,

I attached your picture with couple questions - [ATTACH=CONFIG]2568[/ATTACH]

[blackchisel97]

Can you also tell if black wire coming from the capacitor connects on circuit board to the left battery terminal? I cannot see clearly on the pic.
Capacitor wires are color coded; red is positive and black negative and it is possible that negative is common for the entire circuit so it will also indicate negative battery terminal (if it is connected to it).

[medusa]

The two black wires that come from capacitor.....1 goes to bulb..the other feeds through the board and seems to be connected next to a resistor.

Can you also tell if black wire coming from the capacitor connects on circuit board to the left battery terminal? I cannot see clearly on the pic.
Capacitor wires are color coded; red is positive and black negative and it is possible that negative is common for the entire circuit so it will also indicate negative battery terminal (if it is connected to it).

[blackchisel97]

It looks like the left terminal (when looking at your picture) should be the negative. You'll not damage anything by reversing battery polarity. It just won't work. Turn main switch on and connect either two AA's in series or your 3V adapter as I told you. You should hear raising high pitch sound meaning that the oscillator works and the capacitor is charging. Be careful around the capacitor terminals. You can temporarily short wires going out for your coil and press the discharge button, once orange light comes on. This way you'll discharge the capacitor and know for sure that everything works before putting back inside.

Hope this helps
V

[medusa]

I tried it connecting both pos and neg from adapter to each of the terminals and no go. I switched them and still no go. I looked at the case again and it seems that both of the battery negatives were again the springs terminals not facing alternatively. I think this was batteries wired in parallel. If that is the case I'd have to connect the negative adapter wire to one of the terminals and solder a jumper wire to the other terminal...but then where would the positive wire from adapter go to?? Am I way off track with this train of thought?

[blackchisel97]

I tried it connecting both pos and neg from adapter to each of the terminals and no go. I switched them and still no go. I looked at the case again and it seems that both of the battery negatives were again the springs terminals not facing alternatively. I think this was batteries wired in parallel. If that is the case I'd have to connect the negative adapter wire to one of the terminals and solder a jumper wire to the other terminal...but then where would the positive wire from adapter go to?? Am I way off track with this train of thought?

Regardless how batteries were connected, there is no third terminal or wire which would provide another pole to the circuit. Following this, it seems that both trimmed terminals are for negative and positive coming from the battery compartment. I can't find any manual or picture showing open compartment. There had to be a common metal strip in the compartment before (opposing side of terminals) where serial connection between batteries was made.
Let's go over again;
Both, green and black wires were originally soldered to the same side of bulb. All you did was to replace the black with a thicker one and no other changes were done. It seems weird that two wires are going from the board to the bulb when could be connected on the board and only one wire used.
You did unsolder the red wire from the bulb so it can be connected to the coil and other wire from coil will go back to the bulb. Nothing else has been changed.
I just want to make sure you didn't change anything else and flash was working before.
When you turn flash on and connect 3V to the terminals (both ways) nothing happens.
Something is not connected here.
I'll go over your pictures again after supper and try to draw the circuit in my head.

Be back
V

Just one more question: How do you know that flash was working before?

[medusa]

I connected the red wire ( formerly black) as I assumed it came loose from the bulb connection. There seemed to be no other place it could have come loose from and each side of the bulb would have initially had two connections as witnessed through the original red wires. The flash was working years ago when I was treating myself but the unit got so hot it stopped working. I had assumed the capacitor burned out. I had not started my self education about electronics back then. As I look at the kit again this morning I still am of the opinion that the 2 batteries are in parallel. As visible in my original pics posted I also wondered about the semi circled springy item that sits above the red "ready" light. When in the case it would act as a circuit closure. It's presence there offers no other service I can think of. Perhaps can this be the elusive negative terminal with the other two being positive and in parallel as I suspect? If true that means I would have to solder the 2 terminals together and then join the spring clip and the post together to close the circuit. Yes?

[blackchisel97]

I connected the red wire ( formerly black) as I assumed it came loose from the bulb connection. There seemed to be no other place it could have come loose from and each side of the bulb would have initially had two connections as witnessed through the original red wires. The flash was working years ago when I was treating myself but the unit got so hot it stopped working. I had assumed the capacitor burned out. I had not started my self education about electronics back then. As I look at the kit again this morning I still am of the opinion that the 2 batteries are in parallel. As visible in my original pics posted I also wondered about the semi circled springy item that sits above the red "ready" light. When in the case it would act as a circuit closure. It's presence there offers no other service I can think of. Perhaps can this be the elusive negative terminal with the other two being positive and in parallel as I suspect? If true that means I would have to solder the 2 terminals together and then join the spring clip and the post together to close the circuit. Yes?

I highlighted part of your post above which indicates a problem. This is manually triggered flash and relatively low power so it should not get hot. Yes, the capacitor could be a problem which caused an additional issue within a circuit. If would be me I'll look around for another flash, make sure it works first and save myself a headache unless, getting another unit isn't possible for some reason.
That spring clip should be behind a trigger button,when assembled and it allows to activate flash manually.

V

[medusa]

I may just get another flash unit for backup if nothing else. I'd like to see if I can figure this puzzle out as part of my initiation into electronics. I don't think the springy thing is for a trigger as there is no button position near that on the case. Well the worst that can happen is a capacitor blows up right As far as getting hot it is my understanding that all magnetic pulsers get hot..which is why they they give warnings in their instructions. Well I pushed the envelope and pffffut.....no more flasher.
Although the cap test esr good I'll give it a once over and report back if I am successful. Thanks for your help.

[blackchisel97]

I may just get another flash unit for backup if nothing else. I'd like to see if I can figure this puzzle out as part of my initiation into electronics. I don't think the springy thing is for a trigger as there is no button position near that on the case. Well the worst that can happen is a capacitor blows up right As far as getting hot it is my understanding that all magnetic pulsers get hot..which is why they they give warnings in their instructions. Well I pushed the envelope and pffffut.....no more flasher.
Although the cap test esr good I'll give it a once over and report back if I am successful. Thanks for your help.

I agree, this is the best way to learn but it makes it more challenging if there are few unknowns in the equation. That's the reason I always try to change one thing at the time so it is easier to track any problem.
So, you're saying that the only way it can be triggered is by the foot mount from camera? No other button on the case? There is a hot, HOT and really HOT, LOL. Although, these flashes are not very powerful. Due to the small battery it takes a few seconds to charge capacitor, so it can "relax" between pulses. Professional lamps have big storage and can fire couple pulses in very short time. I suspect that your flash cannot fire more frequent than once per 7 seconds.
Now, I'm puzzled with this spring contact on the board. Is there anything in the case what could push it towards the pin? Could you follow copper traces and see where they go?
You can't really blow the cap in this, even when you short with a screwdriver. The only way to do this would be by exceeding its voltage rating.
The safest way of testing would be with current controlled power supply or with two AA batteries and connect them the way so you can quickly remove one lead, if something goes wrong (unlikely).
Also, can you tell if any of the wires from the capacitor is connected to one of the battery terminals? It should and it would be the opposite polarity to the battery.
If this flash can only be triggered by camera, then it would be done by shorting blue and yellow wires going to the foot but what would be the purpose of this spring contact?
Can you short this spring with pin and try connecting battery (switch in ON position) both ways to see if it starts?
Once we know more we may be able to solve this puzzle.

V

[medusa]

Argus wiring

Actually the flash did fire about every 5-7 seconds. It was great...very little wait time. As for the spring I observed since there is no button as you guessed it was the wall of the case itself that would allow the spring to make contact with the pin and yes the camera mount does have the yellow and blue wire you mentioned. If you google the argus 215 you'll see a couple of sellers with pics that show just how simple the case is and there is no activation button. Only a spring ball at the very bottom of the camera mount. Actually it mount be good to remount that on the case itself for easy of use as an MP. On the back board view you'll see the straight pin connection on upper right of board with the semi circle spring immediately to the left with the larger solder. And yes the cap has both wires going to the board . Remember the green wire was originally black. And if I am right does that mean applying 3 volts only would that still allow it to function albeit weakly or would it show nothing at all??

[blackchisel97]

Ok, so we know one thing, that the spring has to be connected with pin in order for flash to work and blue/yellow wires are for the trigger in the foot (mount). I suspect that this flash operates from 3V (2 AA'a in series) despite both terminals looking the same. What you can try is to short spring contact with pin with an alligator clip or piece of wire and try to connect 3V from AA's in both directions. You should hear the oscillator working, assuming that everything in the circuits is ok. If that works and capacitors starts to charge, red LED should come on after 7seconds. Shorting blue and yellow wires should discharge capacitor by flask bulb.
See if this will work.

[medusa]

I am going to get another flash for immediate use but I am using this as a learning experience. I know now that I have a couple of things wrong...besides what may likely be a burned resistor. I will transfer the guts of this unit to a larger project box and rebuild. I found a decent site that explains how a flash works and it helped point out some things I did wrong ( like getting rid of the trigger plate - I though it was merely a deflector.). Hopefully this will help other newbies like myself.
HowStuffWorks "How Camera Flashes Work".