How To Discharge A Camera Flash Capacitor

September 08, 2019

Without the flash capacitor the batteries located within your digital camera would drain in no time. When the voltage in the capacitor is high enough current can flow through the resistor to light up the small tube.

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Before you try to open the case of your digital camera you must first remove the batteries.

How to discharge a camera flash capacitor. Step 1to discharge safely you need to get a 5w or 10w 5k to 10k ohm ceramic resistor likely it is a square type connect one end to one lead of the cap then the other resistor end to the other lead of cap. My advice on discharging the capacitorcap is to be extra careful as the cap still able to store quite a huge amount of electric shock. Remove you hand and replace the batteries.

According to the schematics at sams strobe faq you should be able to discharge the capacitor on most of the disposable camera flash units by jumpering the contacts that go to the shutter. The capacitor circuit is also connected to a smaller gas discharge tube by way of a resistor. To discharge from small points it may be helpful to cut the exposed ends of wire into a point shape and solder them to maintain the shape.

Repeat the above process for the other side of the resistor. Just follow the procedure i received from canon to discharge capacitor and reset the camera. The total amount of energy stored in the capacitor is relatively small.

Remove your batteries and close the battery door. To complete the discharge tool strip the ends of the wires. The flash capacitor itself actually looks like a aa battery.

This acts as an indicator light telling you when the flash is ready to go. Step 1 opening the digital camera. This involves a relatively big resistor so you dont get big sparks and it may take a couple minutes to fully discharge.

Hold down the onoff switch for 1 minute. Now to simply discharge it. This drains the camera of all of its energy causing the camera to reset itself.

Will also help with short battery life. What makes the flashlight efficient is the super short time it is emitted or in which the capacitor is discharged. To discharge the capacitor you dont need a large wattage resistor.

And note that by the time youve exposed the shutter contacts youve also exposed the dangerous bits and some strobes dont have a dc path there at all.