Dick Smith Disco Strobe light problem

Feb 24, 2006 5 Replies
D

I got the kit and made the disco strobe light. Turned it on and its flashing away happily. Then as the book suggests I slowly start turning the variable resistor to adjust the timing and I hear a pop sound, now nothing works.



I have had a look and there are no marks or burns of pop caps or anything. I have tested pretty much every component and it is ok, the one exception is the hand wound transformer. When I made the transformer I accidentally snapped the wire in the 3rd winding, so I solded them back together and kept winding. This is on the 3rd winding which is 200 turns onto the flash tube. The other windings are 3 turns and 20 turns. What sort of resistance should I expect to see across this kind of transformer if anyone has the kit? I am getting 5 ohm on the 200 turn (I am guessing this has shorted) and 4k ohm on the 20 turn...



Will probably unwide it and have a look but its a bastard to unsolder and solder back onto the two pcb boards...


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B

? 4Kohm on 20 turns sounds extreme to me.

Assuming the flash tube hasn't carked it from too high a discharge rate, (without knowing the details of the DSE kit) the most likely failure candidates are the DC-DC converter driver and the transformer if it is user-wound.

If you have a steady hand and a decent multimeter, check out the voltage across the HV cap. If that's in the 300V+ region the DC-DC is good. Double check this is at the xenon tube. DON'T go poking around the trigger transformer with power atatched - pulses are typically 4KV or more, and can get your attention real fast.

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P

"DAC"

** Which kit is a that ??

The "Beat Triggered Strobe" ?

** Now you have me worried.

What DSE strobe kit used a hand made tranny ?

The pulse tranny is a cheap item supplied with the kit.

....... Phil

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D

Its called "Disco Strobe Light" K3155. There is a hand wound transformer, 3 windings, of 3, 10 and 200 turns.

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P

"DAC"

** That kit seems to be one of DSE's own designs - it has not appeared in the catalogue for several years.

However, DSE sell trigger transformers for less than $1.

.......... Phil

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D

:-8 a friend of mine brought this and asked me to put it together. Turns out DSE charged him 150$+ for the kit. Also its definatly the tube that has blown, after about 1 minute of use.... going to take this back, especially since some NZ stores are stilling this kit online in at dse.co.nz for less than 50$. The trigger transformer is not the one that is you have to sell wind, that transformer is only really little. This circuit has a much bigger transformer to produce the 500V (or whatever it is)

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