Improvised 1.5V Strobe Version

Overview

The project pertains to the modification of the flash circuit that comes with a cheap Kodak Max disposable Camera so that a low frequency strobe may be used.

Explanation

The type of cameras to be chosen is the disposable ones which will be thrown away by the photoprocessing labs after the extraction of the film. This can save money from buying totally functional flash circuit for the project. There are times that the cameras being disposed still contains a 1.5V alkaline battery inside. The flash circuit is very useful in a variety of low power applications.

In opening the camera, it is essential to take note of metallic shutter contacts and battery polarity. The flash will be triggered by the closing of the contacts during the exposition. When the x and y terminals are short-circuited, the shutter contacts trigger the flash. The trigger coil is an HV trigger used to ignite FL while the neon lamp acts as the flash charge indicator light that turns ON when the electrolytic capacitor C2 is charged.

The modifications on the strobe use an SCR and a neon lamp. Different type of neon lamps will give different triggering voltages.