martinwhybrow

Sorry, I should have got back and reported my findings. I pulled out the entire capacitor bank and tested every capacitor by slowly charging to the rated voltage via a series resistor. Many failed and wouldn't reform easily, so they were thrown away. I sourced replacement caps from a company that specialises in photoflash capacitors and xenon lamps, xenonflashtubes.com Price was reasonable and they seem to be very good quality. They are, of course, considerably smaller than the originals, so i had to make packers from cardboard tubes to make them fit with the remaining original capacitors.

I decided to open the generator pack up and noticed some of the links between caps had blown open, clearly some of the caps aren't happy; looks like it's going to need new caps! Before anyone tells me to be careful, I'm an electronic engineer and have experience of high energy systems with voltages of up to 10kV, so I know what precautions to take.

I'm an amateur on a tight budget so grabbed the opportunity to get a Bowens Quadmatic 3K with a single 3000Ws flash head for a very reasonable price; it came without any manual, but operation seems relatively obvious. I have noticed that when it's charging, the power pack makes clicking noises, like relays operating perhaps, and a soft pop sound, similar to the flash operating. Is this normal? I've had no luck tracking down a manual for this unit unfortunately. TIA, Martin