Reforming capacitor - Balcar P4/PSU4

[dave_gustafson1]

<p>Hi all, <br>

I recently purchased a Balcar P4 power pack with 4 PSU light heads. This is not the P4 concept. Just the P4. I was testing it with one light head attached and after 20-30 minutes of work the light head made a pop and smoke started to come out of it. I have done some searching online and it looks like I need to reform the capacitor? Here's a link to a post I found on photo.net as well as the relevant section pasted below: <br>

http://www.photo.net/photography-lighting-equipment-techniques-forum/00ZPJ2</p>

<p>Directions from Leigh in that post:<br>

<em>To reform the caps: Turn the pack on for one minute, then turn it off. The next day repeat for two minutes, four minutes the next day, eight minutes the next, etc. In a week you'll be up to leaving it on for an hour. At that point the caps will be reformed if they can be.</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

<em>If you reach this point successfully, plug the heads in the next day, turn the pack on, and run a series of <a id="itxthook2" href="/photography-lighting-equipment-techniques-forum/00ZPJ2" rel="nofollow">test<img id="itxthook2icon" src="http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png" alt="" /></a> shots, one per minute for ten minutes, monitoring the output with a flash meter. Note the readings. You should see very uniform output for the entire sequence. If not, there's a problem.</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

<strong>BUT...the Balcars are different than other power packs in that the capacitors are in the PSU heads.</strong> So I'm assuming that I would have the 3 remaining heads all plugged into the pack? Then go through the exact same procedure? I haven't found anything specific to the Balcar P4 so was hoping someone had some experience with this particular set-up. </p>

<p>The previous owner took really good care of his equipment so these look great and I would love to get them working again. Any advice is appreciated.<br>

Thanks for all your help!<br>

Dave</p>

[howard_m]

<p>that 'pop and smoke' is highly indicative of the capacitor self-destructing and if so, it's well beyond 'reforming'.</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

I used to own a lot (about 20,000 watt-seconds worth of packs and monoblocs plus about a dozen heads for the packs) you just toasted the capacitor bank and it will need to be replaced.

[dave_gustafson1]

<p>Thanks for the responses! Yep, I was assuming the capacitor in that light head is toast. It's the other 3 that might still be salvageable? Each light head has it's own capacitor so just wondered if I should follow the above procedure to reform those capacitors. </p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>In most pack+head type strobes the pack contains the main storage capacitors and the head just holds the flash-tube and modelling lamp. There may be a small booster capacitor in the head to absorb some of the current surge during firing, but that's not the main storage cappy.</p>

<p>You really need to dismantle the head to see exactly what the cause of the pop and smoke was. Blown capacitors have a distinctive smell that's difficult to describe. Burning rotten garbage would be about my closest description.</p>