SB105 electronic scheme

Thus spake Marcin Dobrucki <Marcin.Dobrucki@TAKETHISAWAY.nokia.com> :

>Christophe wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm an electronic student at the University of Bordeaux 1, France. I'm
>> looking for the electronic scheme of the Nikonos SB-105 to add a laser
>> beam for strobe postionnning. If you have such plan, I would greatly
>> appreciate if you could send it to me.
>
>http://manuals4less.com/nikonos.htm
>
>You could try these guys, and see if the repair manual contains the
>schematics.
>
>Laser positioning for underwater photography... this will be
>interesting. Especially with red laser

Assuming your target is no more than 15 feet away, this shouldn't be a
problem. And at depth, with red filtered out, it should really show
up.

>
>/m

--
dillon
Linux, it's not just an OS, it's a way
of life.

And a damn fine one, at that.

The laser will show in the pictures. Somebody made a widget with two lasers
to let you
set the distance with extension tubes without having the dang goal posts get
in the way
of where you want to put the camera. The laser would show in the pictures.

And more importantly, with wide angle, if you point the strobe right at the
subject,
you'll get lots of backscatter because you are also lighting the water
between the
subject and the camera.

And why would you need the schematic if you were just adding a laser? Why
should
it be electically tied to the flash?


"Christophe" <chris.n@free.fr> wrote in message
news:42c3a6e6$0$31770$636a15ce@news.free.fr...
> Hi,
>
> I'm an electronic student at the University of Bordeaux 1, France. I'm
> looking for the electronic scheme of the Nikonos SB-105 to add a laser
> beam for strobe postionnning. If you have such plan, I would greatly
> appreciate if you could send it to me.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Christophe
> __________________________________________________ ____________
> Université Club Bordeaux 1 Section Plongée
> http://www.ucb1plongee.org

"Chuck Tribolet" <triblet@agarlic.com> wrote in message
news:11c8tdectl7344e@corp.supernews.com...
> And why would you need the schematic if you were just adding a laser? Why
> should
> it be electically tied to the flash?


How about, so that you can turn the laser off when the strobe is about to
fire?

Cpt. Dale Bennett

Cpt. Dale Bennett wrote:
>
>
> "Chuck Tribolet" <triblet@agarlic.com> wrote in message
> news:11c8tdectl7344e@corp.supernews.com...
>
>>And why would you need the schematic if you were just adding a laser? Why
>>should
>>it be electically tied to the flash?
>
>
>
> How about, so that you can turn the laser off when the strobe is about to
> fire?
>
> Cpt. Dale Bennett
>
>
>

Exactly !

The idea is to shut down the laser just before the flash beam. That's
why we need the electronic sheme of the SB-105 strobe (electronic
contains many proprietary components).

At this time, I didn't get any answer about this post. It seems dificult
to find this scheme.

Regardsn,

Christophe
__________________________________________________ ____________
Sealifecenter.com / Welcome to the Fish World
Underwater photography and biology
Web : http://www.sealifecenter.com

Christophe wrote:

>
> Exactly !
>
> The idea is to shut down the laser just before the flash beam. That's
> why we need the electronic sheme of the SB-105 strobe (electronic
> contains many proprietary components).
>
> At this time, I didn't get any answer about this post. It seems dificult
> to find this scheme.
>

since the sync cord can provide that signal, I don't see why you need to
get at the internal circuitry.
a (relatively )simple "splitter" to a circuit that catches the "fire"
signal and shuts down the laser is all you need. you can use either a
timer to keep the laser off for a few seconds or the "ready" signal.
see ikelite.com for pinouts of the cords.

If you trigger on the "FIRE" signal, you better be able to shut down the
laser immediately (10-50 us max), and if you
just turn off power to the laser, that's probably not good enough because it
may continue to run for a bit
on power stored in in its caps.

The "READY" signal won't work because it may not go off at all when closeup
in TTL mod, and
even if it does go off, it won't be until the strobe has already been on for
a while.

But once again: If you point the strobe right at the subject, your
wide-angle shots will hve
excessive backscatter.


"James Connell" <jconnell@gci.net> wrote in message
news:11ci1cnccbq882c@corp.supernews.com...
> Christophe wrote:
>
>>
>> Exactly !
>>
>> The idea is to shut down the laser just before the flash beam. That's why
>> we need the electronic sheme of the SB-105 strobe (electronic contains
>> many proprietary components).
>>
>> At this time, I didn't get any answer about this post. It seems dificult
>> to find this scheme.
>>
>
> since the sync cord can provide that signal, I don't see why you need to
> get at the internal circuitry.
> a (relatively )simple "splitter" to a circuit that catches the "fire"
> signal and shuts down the laser is all you need. you can use either a
> timer to keep the laser off for a few seconds or the "ready" signal.
> see ikelite.com for pinouts of the cords.

Chuck Tribolet wrote:
> If you trigger on the "FIRE" signal, you better be able to shut down the
> laser immediately (10-50 us max), and if you
> just turn off power to the laser, that's probably not good enough because it
> may continue to run for a bit
> on power stored in in its caps.

Well I'll tell you what - if you can tell me a way, from inside the
strobe, to figure out when to shut off the laser BEFORE the strobe
receives the trigger signal, I'll by you a boat dive.
It takes a little while for the strobe to fire too you know, Likely
enough to get the laser shut down, and even if it's on for a micro sec.
or two after the shutter opens it won't show on the image. Many people
make a Remote TTL trigger that works fine both tiggering and shutting a
strobe off remotly and keeping well inside exposure limits, I see no
reason the same can't be done with a solid state laser.



>
> The "READY" signal won't work because it may not go off at all when closeup
> in TTL mod, and
> even if it does go off, it won't be until the strobe has already been on for
> a while.

the ready (or 'Confidence' signal) would be (maybe, this is simply
speculation) for turning the laser back on, not off. I don't think it'll
work, I prefer a timer, but it's an option that can be explored.

>
> But once again: If you point the strobe right at the subject, your
> wide-angle shots will hve
> excessive backscatter.
>

so we have decided it won't work for wide angle, big deal, turn it off
manually Before you shoot WA or ignore it, this is just you pissin on
the idea and has no real merit in the discussion.

"James Connell" <jconnell@gci.net> wrote in message
news:11cj19vj7cjmaa7@corp.supernews.com...
> Chuck Tribolet wrote:
>> If you trigger on the "FIRE" signal, you better be able to shut down the
>> laser immediately (10-50 us max), and if you
>> just turn off power to the laser, that's probably not good enough because
>> it may continue to run for a bit
>> on power stored in in its caps.
>
> Well I'll tell you what - if you can tell me a way, from inside the
> strobe, to figure out when to shut off the laser BEFORE the strobe
> receives the trigger signal, I'll by you a boat dive.

Well, proponenets of Star Trek will tell you about tachyons, particles that
travel backwards in time. Therefore they hit the target before you've fired
them. So, the required circuitry must have something to do with tachyons.
Recalibrate sensors, Mr Data!



> It takes a little while for the strobe to fire too you know, Likely enough
> to get the laser shut down, and even if it's on for a micro sec. or two
> after the shutter opens it won't show on the image. Many people make a
> Remote TTL trigger that works fine both tiggering and shutting a strobe
> off remotly and keeping well inside exposure limits, I see no reason the
> same can't be done with a solid state laser.

Absolutely. Who said you need to discharge capacitors anyway? Just use the
signal to interrupt power to the laser tube AFTER the capacitors . . .

Anyway, how does the rest of world manage to take pictures WITHOUT
laser-guided zoom lenses, eh?

Ken

> Anyway, how does the rest of world manage to take pictures WITHOUT
> laser-guided zoom lenses, eh?

Ah, but back in 2005BC i'm sure people were thrilled with how good their
abacus was for working out sums! Look at one now and its crap compared to a
graphical calculator. Maybe this laser will be the beginning of a
revolution in photography...? :o\

.... or maybe not! :o)

David

Chuck Tribolet wrote:

> I didn't say you needed to turn the laser off before the strobe received the
> trigger
> signal, only that it needed to be turned off very quickly thereafter, and
> that just
> disconnecting the power source from the laser might well not be quick
> enough.
>
> The SB-105 has a much wider beam (20 mm w/o diffuser, IIRC) than the lenses
> typically used for macro
> photography (28mm to 105 mm, occasionally 200 mm), AND the strobe is usually
> farther from
> the subject than the film plane, so, for macro, the strobe only needs to be
> pointed in generally the right
> direction, especially if you put the diffusers on (15 mm coverage), which
> gives a nice sof t light.
> Also, with macro, it's really easy to see where the strobes are pointed
> because the whole
> rig is in your field of vision (not true for wide-angle with nice long
> arms).
>
> One more thought: If you have two strobes, different colored lasers would be
> a good idea.
> Red on the left, Green on the right, would match boat running lights.
>

I built a laser system in 1998 for macro use. It wasn't for aiming the
strobes however, it was for NonSLR cameras to find the correct focus
/center point. ( I got the idea from someone who built a similar rig
that used the small 2 AAA pen lite flashlights, that never worked
becuase of beam spread). The sytem worked pretty well, on dry ground, I
never got it out of the crude prototype stage and sealed up for
underwater testing. And yes it is more than possible to shut the lasers
off in time.

It didn't frame the shot for you like a wire macro framer will but it
didn't scare the hell out of the subject either. It would also have
given better choices of composition than a wire framer could. Another
concern at the time was shining 2 lasers into a fishes eyes from that
small distance.


I must admit I don't see the need for this strobe aiming system - that's
why they have modeling lites in strobes.
If a SB105 doesn't have a modeling lite than scrap it for one that does.
IMHO the SB105 is not that great a strobe as it is.