FLASH ASSEMBLY

Warning! Handling this bare unit handed can shock you even after the battery has been removed. It is a NASTY bite, don't let the kids play with this one. Don't warn your buddies though ;-)

Made the modification as described. The unit didn't autoflash. Still is an excellent buy. It makes a fine firing box for model rockets, and perhaps can be made into a slave flash for photography.

I am not the only one that builds these contraptions. It looks like a dissected film camera.

Since I purchased several of these and modified them in a similar manner, the neon conduction point does not all ways provide enough sharply enough spike to fire the xenon lamp. To make this work in a reliable manner would require a DIAC type device. There is a reasonable variation over the layout and parts of these boards that all will not work as I suggested, but for a hobbyist the price for the tube, Capacitor and Transformer cannot be beaten. I was intending using these for night flights of HP rockets (with flashing strobes :-)

To make this unit auto flash unsolder (remove) the resistor next to the ready light (brown-black-green). Unsolder the brass trigger switch from the wire on the left (red in the picture). Solder this wire to the bottom lead (in the picture) of the resistor that was removed. The Flash rate will be about 1 flash every 8 seconds as long as the Charge Switch is closed.