JohnMarcson
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Let's Assemble a Soviet Russian Strobe
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JohnMarcson
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JohnMarcson
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Well she worked for a hot (pun intended) second. Grounding the base, sending power supply power to the plus terminal and the trigger to the other made the strobe string to life. I'm not sure what it was rated for but the bulb was both old, crusty and probably not rated for the supply I used. RIP bulb no one can replace.
RS485
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Neat!
You used your 20-watt TOMAR emitter PS there?
That strobe head has its own trigger caps (two, blue, plus a bleeder resistor) (and what appears to be a pretty beefy potted trigger xformer in the back).
Have you tried to get it to flash again since you first tried (i.e. after everything bleeds off and fully discharges)?
Thanks for posting! Its neat to see a very different take on this stuff.
You used your 20-watt TOMAR emitter PS there?
That strobe head has its own trigger caps (two, blue, plus a bleeder resistor) (and what appears to be a pretty beefy potted trigger xformer in the back).
Have you tried to get it to flash again since you first tried (i.e. after everything bleeds off and fully discharges)?
Thanks for posting! Its neat to see a very different take on this stuff.
JohnMarcson
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I was going to dig out something more kind to try with the beacon but got a case of the " f-its". I have not tried it again, the bulb was covered in what I would call 50% grime and 50% some sort of oil. I was under the assumption I ruined the bulb. I can swap in a "bare" no trigger Edwards bulb and use my old school "trigger in the dome" noname beacon. I got a few good flashes before the output turned to trigger clicks only with voltage (pretty low, like 130v). The bulb in the other one looks physically broken so I am going to be soldering in edwards bulbs in both I bet.
Stampeed Valkyrie
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JohnMarcson
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In USSR you wait in line for 7 hours for new strobe tube and are told try again tomorrow....
JohnMarcson
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And.... when they found out I used American Power supply I got thrown in goulag. No strobe tube, no Vodka ration; nothing. They said something about needing manpower for some operation they are doing, wonder what that is...
kitn1mcc
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Was residue from worn suit liner of Soviet Spaceman. You know...Kosmoline....
JohnMarcson
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RS485
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JohnMarcson
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First of all I shocked myself with it. It hurt, but I'm fine. 1000 VDC at .048 amps is pain not injury. But no I'm not doing it again for the video. I also shocked myself on the trigger; the trigger voltage is over 200 volts and then it runs through two capacitors before entering the large trigger coil at like 20 volts. It is an odd system, they send continuous high voltage like normal, but then when the trigger activates it's around 50% voltage of the firing strobe. Did they want to avoid building a trigger system and just use timed return/residual voltage from powering the bubs or something? It is very odd. I have the set working, I built a mount for a large trigger coil free bulb and soldered it in. I will have a video out soon. Along the way I used old linear edge tubes with the trigger coil removed to test the function. I am editing the video now.
Here is the holder I built. I will post the video soon.
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JohnMarcson
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RS485
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Ah! I finally found them in your schematic above! See "VS1" and "VS2" connected to pins "9" and "10" in the schematic -- those are SCRs doing the exact same job as "SCR1" in this Whelen patent
In Whelen's case, when firing, "SCR1" shorts "C9" which is the trigger cap built into the PS. In the Russian PS case, the only thing that's different is that the equivilent of "C9" is mounted _in_ the lighthead in the form of the two blue caps with a bleeder resistor across then for safety.
Any idea what those "DD" parts are in the schematic?
In Whelen's case, when firing, "SCR1" shorts "C9" which is the trigger cap built into the PS. In the Russian PS case, the only thing that's different is that the equivilent of "C9" is mounted _in_ the lighthead in the form of the two blue caps with a bleeder resistor across then for safety.
Any idea what those "DD" parts are in the schematic?
JohnMarcson
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I have no clue. The supply was costed in what I assume is super-carcinogenic blue viscus stuff. I figured out the pin out for the plug and sealed it back up. Does that design difference explain the high trigger voltage to the beacon then?
RS485
Supporting Donor
If you measure Whelen's trigger voltage in the PS, it should come it at ~200v.
In the Russian schematic, it looks like "R8" sits between raw anode voltage and the trigger feed. i.e:
...so it depends on the value of that as to what the lighthead(s) see on the trigger line.
Note: that setup is similar to the obstruction beacons I've seen. They put the trigger cap and transformer in the lighthead.
I also really dig that it does triple flash!!! That's cool!
Congrats on your great work!
In the Russian schematic, it looks like "R8" sits between raw anode voltage and the trigger feed. i.e:
...so it depends on the value of that as to what the lighthead(s) see on the trigger line.
Note: that setup is similar to the obstruction beacons I've seen. They put the trigger cap and transformer in the lighthead.
I also really dig that it does triple flash!!! That's cool!
Congrats on your great work!
JohnMarcson
Administrator
It's an interesting design for sure. The supply at least almost looks like it was meant to be mounted with radio equipment on a tower. I was surprised by the triple flash too. I had my money on single. Looking again I am still at a loss as to whether the wires in the power supply plug were color coded and faded or just the colors they are.
The wires out to the beacons are arranged very similar to my Federal deck strobes which also share power and ground wires out of the supply with the triggers being the only separate wires.
Someone on Reddit was trying to tell me getting zapped by this was "100% fatal". A taser is 50 times more volts at similar or higher amps. I can say from experience that this hurts more (poor contact and high resistance in skin on fingers/hands probably) but the taser knocks you flat on your butt. I was definitely still able to swear and throw things while being shocked by this.