timing lights?
Older, simpler lights are very simple. Photoflashes, timing lights, and CDI ignitions work the same in some respects.
You have an inverter from12v to high V DC which charges up a fairly large cap. The trigger flashes the strobe, or drives the coil to fire the plug.
The older lights triggers were dead nuts simple. Basically a plug wire which hard wired to no1, ran up into the lamp and connected with a trigger on the strobe itself. This is basically a metal ring clamped around the lamp
What can go wrong. The lamp can fail or break from dropping. The charge cap can deteriorate, although the old Penske's that I have/ had still work / worked (I don't know what I even have, after the house fire).
And the components/ transistors in the inverter can fail. Older ones actually operated via a vibrator instead of transister inverters. The way a vibrator works (used in old tube auto radios) is like a buzzer. A relay with interconnected contacts. it buzzes and vibrates back and forth, and opens and closes SPST contacts (or more) rapidly. This is used to rapidly pulse a transformer to simulate AC. The transformer then jacks up the ac voltage to a high value, where it's rectified and sent to the charge cap, which is connected to the lamp.
LOLOL!!! I went looking for a diagram, and here's AN OLD A BODIES POST!!!
https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/old-school-timing-light.329418/
Here is about the simplest xenon tube you can find, photo robbed off egag. The hi V connects to the two outer pins, the trigger (plug wire) connects to the center. I am not a chemist, physicist or nuke scientist, but somehow, the pulse of the trigger excites the gas molecules and causes it to ionize, flashing. The charge cap from the power supply is undersized enough that it flashes instead of attempting to light full time, like a mercury vapor or sodium vapor light. If the flash tube did that, it would burn up. So the cap discharges, much like a CD ignition, to a low enough level that the bulb just gives out a pulse of lgiht, then stops, the cap is re-charged from the HV power supply (I don't know, 300-500V or so) and around we go
Older, simpler lights are very simple. Photoflashes, timing lights, and CDI ignitions work the same in some respects.
You have an inverter from12v to high V DC which charges up a fairly large cap. The trigger flashes the strobe, or drives the coil to fire the plug.
The older lights triggers were dead nuts simple. Basically a plug wire which hard wired to no1, ran up into the lamp and connected with a trigger on the strobe itself. This is basically a metal ring clamped around the lamp
What can go wrong. The lamp can fail or break from dropping. The charge cap can deteriorate, although the old Penske's that I have/ had still work / worked (I don't know what I even have, after the house fire).
And the components/ transistors in the inverter can fail. Older ones actually operated via a vibrator instead of transister inverters. The way a vibrator works (used in old tube auto radios) is like a buzzer. A relay with interconnected contacts. it buzzes and vibrates back and forth, and opens and closes SPST contacts (or more) rapidly. This is used to rapidly pulse a transformer to simulate AC. The transformer then jacks up the ac voltage to a high value, where it's rectified and sent to the charge cap, which is connected to the lamp.
LOLOL!!! I went looking for a diagram, and here's AN OLD A BODIES POST!!!
https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/old-school-timing-light.329418/
Here is about the simplest xenon tube you can find, photo robbed off egag. The hi V connects to the two outer pins, the trigger (plug wire) connects to the center. I am not a chemist, physicist or nuke scientist, but somehow, the pulse of the trigger excites the gas molecules and causes it to ionize, flashing. The charge cap from the power supply is undersized enough that it flashes instead of attempting to light full time, like a mercury vapor or sodium vapor light. If the flash tube did that, it would burn up. So the cap discharges, much like a CD ignition, to a low enough level that the bulb just gives out a pulse of lgiht, then stops, the cap is re-charged from the HV power supply (I don't know, 300-500V or so) and around we go