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Panto props
Nov. 24th, 2014 10:12 pmOkay, just one prop.
But it's a rather interesting problem, and one that's taken me two weeks to get to even a moderate understanding what the problem is...
I've already mentioned on here about the idea I'm working on for a remote sound-effect trigger system.
Well, our director noticed how (seemingly) adept I am with electronics, and on November 8th approached me with a supposedly simple problem.
You see, we feature our fairy queen with a magic wand prop, which gives off a bright flash when its button is pressed. The flash is bright enough to be seen in the back rows of the theatre, but not bright enough to blind the fairy.
Anyway, apparently our current fairy queen was taking last year's decorations off the wand when she accidentally broke the ball off the end.
You know, the ball that contains a flash circuit board from an old film camera?
She broke the wires off the circuit board, and the question was how to get it back in working order.
My initial response: Yeah! Sure! I'll have it done by next week!
Yeah, no.
The circuit board was taken from an old film camera, and therefore not intended to be used in the manner we have been, so the pads I'm supposed to solder the wires back onto are not marked, which in turn meant that I had to follow the traces on the PCB by hand.
(yes, I checked. The part number on the board didn't show up anywhere online)
Anyway, after finding about half-a-dozen different schematics for various brands of old xenon-type flash units (none of which matched mine), I finally (thought) I'd figured it out and decided to move all the components to a new board.
Unfortunately, it didn't work, and I then moved only the parts responsible for charging the capacitor back to the original board, where it worked again.
(turns out I'd missed a connection)
My current plan is (as I'm still not finished it yet) to use both boards to make it a more compact package, incorporating a plug and socket between the wand itself and the flash unit so we can have a backup flash unit.
(and hopefully this won't happen again)
I wired the whole thing up again in a temporary manner on my workbench (aka, my bed with a board overtop) and it works again! =^.^=
Next up is to move the charge LED (now a bright white one instead of a tiny green one) next to the flashbulb, lower the value of the resistor right beside it, and wire the boards together properly.
But it's a rather interesting problem, and one that's taken me two weeks to get to even a moderate understanding what the problem is...
I've already mentioned on here about the idea I'm working on for a remote sound-effect trigger system.
Well, our director noticed how (seemingly) adept I am with electronics, and on November 8th approached me with a supposedly simple problem.
You see, we feature our fairy queen with a magic wand prop, which gives off a bright flash when its button is pressed. The flash is bright enough to be seen in the back rows of the theatre, but not bright enough to blind the fairy.
Anyway, apparently our current fairy queen was taking last year's decorations off the wand when she accidentally broke the ball off the end.
You know, the ball that contains a flash circuit board from an old film camera?
She broke the wires off the circuit board, and the question was how to get it back in working order.
My initial response: Yeah! Sure! I'll have it done by next week!
Yeah, no.
The circuit board was taken from an old film camera, and therefore not intended to be used in the manner we have been, so the pads I'm supposed to solder the wires back onto are not marked, which in turn meant that I had to follow the traces on the PCB by hand.
(yes, I checked. The part number on the board didn't show up anywhere online)
Anyway, after finding about half-a-dozen different schematics for various brands of old xenon-type flash units (none of which matched mine), I finally (thought) I'd figured it out and decided to move all the components to a new board.
Unfortunately, it didn't work, and I then moved only the parts responsible for charging the capacitor back to the original board, where it worked again.
(turns out I'd missed a connection)
My current plan is (as I'm still not finished it yet) to use both boards to make it a more compact package, incorporating a plug and socket between the wand itself and the flash unit so we can have a backup flash unit.
(and hopefully this won't happen again)
I wired the whole thing up again in a temporary manner on my workbench (aka, my bed with a board overtop) and it works again! =^.^=
Next up is to move the charge LED (now a bright white one instead of a tiny green one) next to the flashbulb, lower the value of the resistor right beside it, and wire the boards together properly.
