Is it possible to repair these flashing strobes on a Honeywell Reson8 or
must I replace the whole bell box?

From what I can see the strobe tube is soldered direct to the PCB.

So I am not sure if its the driver circuit or the actual strobe tube
that has failed.....

S.

Put a meter across the strobe terminals and trigger the alarm see what happens if you get a reading at roughly 0.5 - 1hz then it is the bulb, nothing would suggest the circuit. If you do not have a meter since most alarm circuits work off 12V a car bulb will do. You did not mention if the siren was working or not?

Richard

No Name wrote:
Is it possible to repair these flashing strobes on a Honeywell Reson8 or
must I replace the whole bell box?

From what I can see the strobe tube is soldered direct to the PCB.

So I am not sure if its the driver circuit or the actual strobe tube
that has failed.....

S.

Since the flash tube is known to wear out, it
would be your first suspect.

Driving circuits can fail too. They're not immune.
But there isn't a precisely known failure mechanism
for those, so if they fail "it's just mother nature
at work".

If you look at the circuit diagram for driving a
flash tube here, there's really no place for
amateurs to play. You need a lab with a
100:1 or 1000:1 probe, to be probing any parts
of that circuit known to have high-voltage pulses
on them. The output of the pulse transformer, would
be difficult to see otherwise (no, you don't test
it by sticking your finger on it). The probe expects
to be loaded down by a certain resistance, to complete the
measurement circuit and provide the exact divider
ratio listed on the tin. Maybe it works into 10 megohms.

http://www.bristolwatch.com/ele/index.htm

The probes have a canonical form. The red color plus
the "insulating rings" hood ornament design, tell you to
walk the other way, away from the guys lab bench. If
you see someone working with one of these, note where
his bench gets power, because when he needs to be
resuscitated, you're going to need to make his
bench "safe" by turning off the power :-)

https://i.stack.imgur.com/mvq1h.jpg

A dumb ass in uni, damaged a Fluke meter by attempting
to probe a circuit like yours directly. It involved a Xenon flash
tube in an elliptical cavity. My hint not to do that, just
wasn't effective enough :-/ He put the meter across 2kV.
I don't even know if the insulation resistance on common
meter lead sets, is 2kV-proof. That's what the ends of
the flash tube were charged to. (This was part of a pulse laser.)

Your gut should tell you that the pulse transformer
is the second most likely thing to fail in the
circuit. If the secondary develops a short, there
will be no signal to excite the Xenon tube and make
it conduct.

Even dust and dirt, or a carbon mark on a high voltage
insulation, could drain enough energy from the trigger
wire, to prevent triggering.

Paul

Yes those xenon tubes are not very reliable if that is indeed what they use.
There are all sorts of different ways to strobe though. Brian

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"Paul" wrote in message
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No Name wrote:
Is it possible to repair these flashing strobes on a Honeywell Reson8 or
must I replace the whole bell box?

From what I can see the strobe tube is soldered direct to the PCB.

So I am not sure if its the driver circuit or the actual strobe tube that
has failed.....

S.

Since the flash tube is known to wear out, it
would be your first suspect.

Driving circuits can fail too. They're not immune.
But there isn't a precisely known failure mechanism
for those, so if they fail "it's just mother nature
at work".

If you look at the circuit diagram for driving a
flash tube here, there's really no place for
amateurs to play. You need a lab with a
100:1 or 1000:1 probe, to be probing any parts
of that circuit known to have high-voltage pulses
on them. The output of the pulse transformer, would
be difficult to see otherwise (no, you don't test
it by sticking your finger on it). The probe expects
to be loaded down by a certain resistance, to complete the
measurement circuit and provide the exact divider
ratio listed on the tin. Maybe it works into 10 megohms.

http://www.bristolwatch.com/ele/index.htm

The probes have a canonical form. The red color plus
the "insulating rings" hood ornament design, tell you to
walk the other way, away from the guys lab bench. If
you see someone working with one of these, note where
his bench gets power, because when he needs to be
resuscitated, you're going to need to make his
bench "safe" by turning off the power :-)

https://i.stack.imgur.com/mvq1h.jpg

A dumb ass in uni, damaged a Fluke meter by attempting
to probe a circuit like yours directly. It involved a Xenon flash
tube in an elliptical cavity. My hint not to do that, just
wasn't effective enough :-/ He put the meter across 2kV.
I don't even know if the insulation resistance on common
meter lead sets, is 2kV-proof. That's what the ends of
the flash tube were charged to. (This was part of a pulse laser.)

Your gut should tell you that the pulse transformer
is the second most likely thing to fail in the
circuit. If the secondary develops a short, there
will be no signal to excite the Xenon tube and make
it conduct.

Even dust and dirt, or a carbon mark on a high voltage
insulation, could drain enough energy from the trigger
wire, to prevent triggering.

Paul

On 20/07/2020 14:05, Tricky Dicky wrote:
Put a meter across the strobe terminals and trigger the alarm see what happens if you get a reading at roughly 0.5 - 1hz then it is the bulb, nothing would suggest the circuit. If you do not have a meter since most alarm circuits work off 12V a car bulb will do. You did not mention if the siren was working or not?

Richard


yes all 3 sirens work....

I have actually got 3 working bell boxes on the house and annoyingly the
strobe on the rear bell box stopped working,

Followed some time later by the strobe on the front bell box failing

So the only working strobe is the side bell box!

Are there any bell boxes that now use superbright LEDs instead of xenon
strobes now?

S.

On Monday, 20 July 2020 14:36:56 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
The output of the pulse transformer, would
be difficult to see otherwise (no, you don't test
it by sticking your finger on it).

Especially not standing up a ladder.

Owain

On Monday, 20 July 2020 14:05:28 UTC+1, Tricky Dicky wrote:

Put a meter across the strobe terminals

check what the driving voltage is first

and trigger the alarm see what happens if you get a reading at roughly 0.5 - 1hz then it is the bulb,


nothing would suggest the circuit.

really?

If you do not have a meter since most alarm circuits work off 12V a car bulb will do.

it definitely won't. Could get the op a serious shock too.

You did not mention if the siren was working or not?

Richard

If the op doesn't know to make some basic checks I wouldn't recommend working live on potentially deadly voltages. It may have its place but I don't think this is it.


NT

On Mon, 20 Jul 2020 08:05:17 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

snip

Could get the op a serious shock too.

Like the one my Mum got off the disco strobe I was building on the
dining room table when she tried to hurry me up putting it away
because Dad was on his way. ;-(

Whilst the strobe wasn't on all the time during a disco, I think it
might have only used 2 lamps in the 8 years (and it was used at least
every weekend).

Cheers, T i m