I was taking apart a disposable camera, to see how it worked, and I was curious to see if i could seperate the flash from the circuit board with wires and still get it to fire. I didn't have much luck with that. I just cut/desoldered the two connections where the bulb attached, and ran wires to the board and to the leads of the bulb. I don't see why it shouldn't flash, (I can hear it charge...), except I think the wires might have too much resistance. Is this possible? I know the bulb requires very large voltage, so maybe the voltage drop is too great from the resistance of the wire? (The two wires are about 2.5 feet each.)

 

By the way, if you try this at home you might want to be careful. I wish I had read more online before I started. The one-hand rule is a good one to follow--the capacator "bit" me six times...

And it is not advisable to connect the two ends of the capacator together, because it makes a big bang . I tested this three times (by accident, of course) to eliminate experimental error.

 

Thanks!

The bulb has to be pre-ionized.

 

When you took it apart did you see the little copper strip on the back of the housing? That has to stay intact or the resistance will be too high in the bulb (not the wires).

 

Edit: If you’re trying to make a strobe light you can buy a semiconductor trigger to automatically fire the flash when the cap charges too 240v (not a full charge but that’s the best you can get). You can sample them

Here

 

All you have to do is solder one to where the fire button would be.

The copper strip connecting to the housing (made of plastic?!) has to connect to what? Could I run a wire from that copper strip to the transformer or whatever it used to connect to, and have it work?

i might try that but i always get electrocuted when i have taken apart a disposiable camera...

Shocked, yes. I've had my share of that. I'm going to try the rubber gloves trick.

a simple way to avoid this and render it inert when not in use it solder a 10 meg resistor across the cap, they only charge to about 400v and a 10 meg wont significatly retard the charge time, but may stop you from jumping or dropping it the next time you pick it up after leaving it

 

10m 1/4w: Brown, Black, Blue, (Gold or silver they make no difference in this instance)

are the color bands