On Monday 04 November 2024 03:27:22 am wn4isx wrote:
I've seen a 2N2222 used in avalanche mode to drive a xenon strobe. It feels as though they used the C/E connections across 120 with a series resistor and capacitor similar in how a NE-1 relaxation oscillator was wired. When I saw it I didn't believe it possible. This would have been the summer of 1976 because a local company was making xenon strobes for a local Bi-Centennial event.
I couldn't believe the low parts count because I had constructed a xenon photo strobe for my father.
I never heard of an NE-1, which I thnk you've mentioned more than once. I know NE-2 (wire leads), NE-51 (bayonet base) and the H (high brightness versions) of these. I also recall NE-45, which was a screw base with a built-in resistor for 120V, I had an old tape recorder once that used a couple of these for level indicators. I thought they were kinda nifty, but the last time I looked the pricing on them was silly.
On flash units, at one point my brother was working for a photo processing place. I got him to snag me some of the flash units that were removed from those disposable cameras. Aside from a brief look, I have't taken the time to figure these out. There's a pair of battery contacts (which polarity?) for a AA cell, and two sets of switch contacts, one to turn the flash on and one to trigger it, but reverse engineering them is something I haven't gotten around to yet...
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
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Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
