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N_Cook N_Cook is offline
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Default Vivitar 365 flash unit

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...
I have an old 365 that I still use. Lately the capacitor has been getting
hot. Cap is rated 1800uf 400V
The flash works fine except for the heat.

On checking I found that there is 465V on the cap. Even hooking it to a
"dead" battery that only had 8V during charging, the cap still had 430V on
it. I believe the cap is getting hot from the overvoltage. I've checked the
cap on a Sencore Z meter, an ESR meter and with an ohm meter and all
indicate that it is ok. The Z meter showed a little dielctric absortion but
not bad for a cap 30 yrs old and that size. Ohm meter tests in the 50meg I
ran over all the diodes, resistors and semis that I could recognize. I found
one semi in a TO-220 type package that reads 94 ohms between the outside
leads. It reads .09 in both directions on a diode test. The tab-center lead
reads around 5meg to the other 2 leads and counts up like a capacitor
charging. I have searched extensively on the net for info on this device
and have found nothing. Anyone know what this is and if it's good or bad? My
thoughts are that it is used to regulate the voltage applied to the cap and
is not working. Any and all advice is apprecaited.

++++


What is the normal temperature for these caps , presumably when used near
continuously.
What does a thermometer tell you is the temp of you're one in use. As users
don;t experience the heat of these caps , as they're enclosed, maybe its
normal. As the volume of these caps is critical to the aesthetics/ergonomics
I would not be surprised if they used underated caps, as the way they are
used is different to the usual specified application.