Megastar Strobe

[Nicktaylor]

Everytime mine has been out its been a set speed and control my mains. This time some one wants a single flash. I can see there are remote jack sockets but shorting any permutations does not do the trick. Am I doing something wrong or is there a fault? In fact I think having it on the slowest speed and control in at mains might be good enough to get one flash

[alistermorton]

Everytime mine has been out its been a set speed and control my mains. This time some one wants a single flash. I can see there are remote jack sockets but shorting any permutations does not do the trick. Am I doing something wrong or is there a fault? In fact I think having it on the slowest speed and control in at mains might be good enough to get one flash

 

The blurb claims that the strobe can be controlled by an external trigger oscillator, so it should be possible to make it one shot by just sending it a single trigger pulse which, from reading the spec, it would appear is a 10V pulse to fire (not fired by shorting the input).

[Nicktaylor]

Thanks. I suppose in that case you could use an old analogue fader channel?

[alistermorton]

Thanks. I suppose in that case you could use an old analogue fader channel?

 

I think you need a pulse rather than a linearly rising voltage, so I'd be looking at a push button on a dimmer channel or even a one shot pulse generator (hello 555 monostable circuit) to debounce the button.

[dbuckley]

I've tried firing 10v trigger strobes off analog desks and Botex demux units and it doesn't work, it does need to be a pulse.

 

I have a 555 in a box that I built decades ago that does the job. The 555 has a decent push/pull output stage that delivers the goods.

[damobarrowafc]

Does anyone know where I can find a manual for this strobe?

Ive tried the anytronics website and all I find is a brochure

 

Cheers

Damo

[sleah]

A VERY rough and ready way would be quite simply a push-to-make button and a PP3 9v battery connected in series across a jack plug :)

..which would be connected to the "Trigger in" socket.

 

Some strobes also had a "remote" socket that allowed you to connect a variable resistor (and a series button if required) to remotely control the internal clock.

[J Pearce]

Ideally you'd have a capacitor or two to debounce the switch too, and a charged capacitor to ensure a rapid supply of current for the pulse.

[Richard CSL]

A VERY rough and ready way would be quite simply a push-to-make button and a PP3 9v battery connected in series across a jack plug :)

..which would be connected to the "Trigger in" socket.

 

Some strobes also had a "remote" socket that allowed you to connect a variable resistor (and a series button if required) to remotely control the internal clock.

 

 

from memory the pulse has to be reversed for each individual flash, so the 9v battery would only work once. unless you could reverse the signal for a second flash.