John Shriver
Well-known
Also, you do want to remove the battery when you're not using the flash. There is no on-off switch, so the battery is always charging up the capacitor. Any leakage in the capacitor is a drain on the battery. No capacitor is perfect, so there will always be at least a bit of leakage.
Especially with how much 22.5V batteries cost!
Especially with how much 22.5V batteries cost!
kb244
Well-known
Actually opening up the bottom portion of the flash, there is indeed an "Off" switch. There is a pin/center contact that touches the PC sync area of the camera. Upon attaching the flash to the side of the camera this pin pushes in pushing the metal contact that is attached to the negative end of the battery, to the contact that is connected to the negative end of the capacitor.John Shriver said:
So based on this finding, I would say the moment you remove the flash from the side of the camera, the battery is disengaged from the capacitor.
Last edited:
kb244
Well-known
Well got both peices. The good news was I did not need the capacitor, the one that it has works fine, I just needed a new battery. But I'll keep the new capacitor around just in case, or if I just want to "lighten" the load in the flash itself.
The 'test' button which flashes a lil dome on the side only works when attached to the Canon P and if a bulb is in, which further verifies the flash is only on when attached to the camera. Also fires off M5 and M3/2 (via adapter) just fine. To further test this, I pushed the pin in manually fired the test, let go fired one more to discharge the capacitor, then fired a third time, but the third time no light came on the test button until I pushed the pin in again. So yes it's official, it has an auto-off by removing it from the camera.
The 'test' button which flashes a lil dome on the side only works when attached to the Canon P and if a bulb is in, which further verifies the flash is only on when attached to the camera. Also fires off M5 and M3/2 (via adapter) just fine. To further test this, I pushed the pin in manually fired the test, let go fired one more to discharge the capacitor, then fired a third time, but the third time no light came on the test button until I pushed the pin in again. So yes it's official, it has an auto-off by removing it from the camera.
Xmas
Veteran
If you open any unit with capacitors you should be wearing safety glasses or goggles, a capacitor can explode, and scatter corrosive and metal particles.
Free white stick and trained dog time.
Noel
Free white stick and trained dog time.
Noel
John Shriver
Well-known
Kudos to Canon for such attention to detail -- an automatic power switch.
kb244
Well-known
I decided to go ahead and put the new capacitor in. When I Was testing the test button, I noticed that it took nearly half a second for the test button to fire again allowing for the capacitor to charge up. So while the old capacitor does work, it was in the stages of drying up.
I simply took the black cover, took the new capacitor, and coiled up the ends of the leads until they were at the edge of the black cover. Then I took two small plastic rods putting them thru the coil on both ends so that it holds the ends just above the lip of the black container, and taped that off (making sure the capacitor was matching the same polarity as marked on the black casing). Then I pushed in the new enclosure, poped a battery in and did the test button trick again, this time the test was firing instantaneously each time. The solderless method works for now and its in there pretty securely, the casing prevents for any accidental discharge. But even if it did dicharge in my hands, I likely would not feel 100uF/35V.
But least kudos to canon for having a removable capacitor as opposed to being soldered on a circuitboard like most the others. (They probably only wanted to deal with wires and connectors, no bread boards). But then again I don't know how feasible the technology was back in the 50s.
I simply took the black cover, took the new capacitor, and coiled up the ends of the leads until they were at the edge of the black cover. Then I took two small plastic rods putting them thru the coil on both ends so that it holds the ends just above the lip of the black container, and taped that off (making sure the capacitor was matching the same polarity as marked on the black casing). Then I pushed in the new enclosure, poped a battery in and did the test button trick again, this time the test was firing instantaneously each time. The solderless method works for now and its in there pretty securely, the casing prevents for any accidental discharge. But even if it did dicharge in my hands, I likely would not feel 100uF/35V.
But least kudos to canon for having a removable capacitor as opposed to being soldered on a circuitboard like most the others. (They probably only wanted to deal with wires and connectors, no bread boards). But then again I don't know how feasible the technology was back in the 50s.
kb244
Well-known
Xmas said:
If you looked at the pictures. The "Opening" of the unit is nothing more than taking the battery door off, because the capacitor is right there looking like a AA battery right next to the 22.5V battery which also looks like a AA, both are removable as such.
It's not like I was opening it up exposing the circuit, and going into de-solder it and such.