Powering a Honeywell Strobonar 780s

[sarah_fox]

I'm not sure where to post this inquiry, whether here or in lighting. I figure

since my 780s is a pretty old flash, the vintage camera crowd might know more

about it.

 

So if I'm not mistaken, those look like four NiCd cells in the head? Yes? If

so, that would indicate the thing operates off of 4.8VDC.

 

Now looking at the wall transformer, I see a 14VAC 0.3A output and a 360VDC

0.05A output. Perhaps the 14VAC goes to a charging circuit and the 360VDC

feeds the main cap directly?

 

Anyway, to the point, what can I do to get rid of the dead cells in the head

(not my own, but the flash's), if I only plan to use the thing on wall

current? Do I need to replace them with NiCd cells? Can I perhaps substitute

some large-ish capacitors to buffer out voltage transients from the power

supply? ARE there any voltage transients from the power supply?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Peace,

Sarah Fox

[russ_britt3]

I bought one of those brand new in 1974..(it was made special to work with a spotmatic lla)...they are great units but have a very high trip voltage and will possibly damage your camera. I don`t remember but I think it has to have batteries to work. I bet regular c cell nicads will work. But that thing eats sync cords, I had to buy a couple at a time.

I went to a Metz 402in about 1978, it still works fine. That would be a lot better unit and more power.

[john_shriver]

The Strobonar I got from a yard sale works fine on line power without batteries.

 

Seconding Russ, consider the very high trigger voltage...

[ronald_moravec1]

Wein safe sync is for units with high trigger voltage.

[Mike Gammill]

Do the dead nicads look like c cells but smaller with tabs connecting them? If so, they are sub-c nicads which may still be available. Just find four of them and solder them together and you have a new battery pack. Of course, with a unit this old the capacitor may be bad so you may have to replace it to.

[paul_noble]

I replaced the dead NiCads in a Strobonar 770. They were sub-c size. I got the replacements at Radio Shack. I don't have the RS part number any more. They had to be soldered in, which is not hard, if you're at all handy with a soldering iron.

 

I'm not familiar with the 780, but a few of the Strobonars were made to work with high-voltage battery packs. I had a very old 65D that has no internal batteries. It just uses an EverReady 497, 510 volt battery. This gave almost instantaneous recycle times. Perhaps yours is similarly equipped and the power supply is set up for that.

 

I don't think that ordinary c-cells will fit in the battery tray. The sub-c cells a just a little bit shorter than a standard c-cell.

 

Paul Noble

[walter_degroot]

quite often the "c" cells sold were really sub-c cells with a think cardboard sleeve. the way to tell, if you can only find "c" cells is to check the capacity.

that will tell you what the cell really is, they "played" the same trick with d cells, some were really sub c or regular c in a cardboard tube.

ne ni-cads should be charged completely the first time they are used.

that may mean a day or so.

http://www.zbattery.com/NiCad-C-Cell-3000mAh-1-2V-Battery-with-solder-tabs

these folks sell them for $3.00 each but check the physical size first.

[sarah_fox]

Thanks for the info! All things considered, I don't really have need for the batteries. I just need a whopping powerful flash, and the fact that I already own it means the price is exactly right. (I'm the original owner, BTW. ;-) Anyway, I'll just remove the batteries and run the thing off of the transformer. I was a bit afraid to try it without hearing from someone else who did it.

 

As far as I can tell, the main cap is fine. The flash will charge and fire, even dragging the dead NiCd batteries. Would there be a falloff in power with a bad cap, or would it just stop working?

 

I figured the trigger voltage was quite high. I have some cheap optical slave triggers I'll try for triggering the thing. If one gets fried, it's no big loss.

 

Russ, what's the GN of the Metz 402? I figure the GN of the 780s at about 180, according to the dial on the back of the head. Unfortunately I haven't a clue where the manual is.

[chuck_foreman1]

Sarah,

 

I've got the 770?? I think?? and it worked fine off the wall circuit.

I've spent a bit of money trying to find one that works with batteries. Back in 1998 or so when my unit started backfiring when charging, I bought nicads c-cells with tabs and soldered them together. Well it seemed they didn't charge so..I assumed the charging unit bad? I packed it away. I recently spent too much and bought a "new" one on EBAY and it worked for two days and me "idiot" left it on and now it won't charge at all!

What I need to do is probably de-solder the 10 year old cells and try to charge them in a home charger, then see if they fit in this "new" unit. Thanks Sarah for asking..I learned more too!!

[phil_sutcliffe]

I gave up looking for suitable cells for mine, thanks for the info Walter ! I have both 772 and 780 strobes, both need re-celling and I only have one charger (for 772) the socket on the 780 is slightly different to that on the 772, can anyone tell me what the voltage differences might be between the two units ? Also the cell carrier for the 780 fits both strobes but the 772 carrier only fits the 772, anyone with further info. on interchangeability ? Also, can the 772 be used with the Spotmatic lla ? Finally, I need a mount bracket for the strobes, are all Honeywell brackets compatible ?

[sarah_fox]

Phil, I used my 780s with both a Spotmatic F and an H-1. No problems. Of course the flash trigger was mechanical, not electronic. I'll add that I never had a problem with my 780s eating sync cords.

 

It's been fun pulling out my 780s. I had forgotten what impressive power the unit has. Our flashes and lenses are so much more advanced nowadays, but the bright lights and fast lenses of the 70's were impressive indeed! :-)

[phil_sutcliffe]

Sarah, I am hoping I might be able to charge up some cells in the 780 and then transfer the carrier fully charged to the 772 but not too sure if I might cause damage, both would appear to be 4.8v but as the duff cells have been removed from the 772 carrier I can not be sure if the polarities are the same, looking at the info on your charger it seems the voltage for the main cap on the 772 (475v) is appreciably higher than that of the 780 with the 360v your charger is rated for, that is of course assuming the 770 & 772 have the same rating.

[peter.lutz]

I just got one of these pups on ebay, dead cells and no AC power cord. I'm not planning on using it outside the studio, so where can I find a replacement power cord? Mine is a three-round-prong attachment.

 

thanks!

Pete

[douglasboyd]

I am reading this thread in May 2023.  Nowadays we buy everything through Amazon with 1 day delivery.  Amazon has a full page of different sub C batteries that look like they will work, including NiCd sub C.  I'm going to order some and see if the GN of 180 is real.  180 should work well outdoors in the sun.

==Doug

[chuck_foreman1]

I contributed back in 2008 to the thread but haven't done anythging more.. do reply if you get batteries that might work.  The originals were slightly undersized ni-cad C cells wrapped in paper and soldered with metal tabs  in series.  I considered buying batteries and trying to solder them together. I still have hope to get one of the four to work!! LEt me know how you make out!