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Firotechnics
24th of October 2009 (Sat), 22:35
So I Came up with a crazy idea to wire 100 disposable flashes together to create one super flash.

So far the idea has kinda worked my friend and I have hit a little bump in the road and that deals with exactly how to trigger these things because the trigger voltage reaches over 250V at times. Also we can only trigger 4 at time.

I have to say other than the manual triggering these little units pack quite a punch when use together.

I would love some input on this small problem from others who may of done something similar or who know more about this stuff than I do.

Also I have some photos posted on flickr if you like to check out what has been done so far. http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkbluestudios/sets/72157622531314785/
J Kacey
24th of October 2009 (Sat), 22:42
Optical slave comes to mind......
Firotechnics
24th of October 2009 (Sat), 22:45
Optical slave comes to mind......

thats what I was thinking but can they handle the voltage
PacAce
24th of October 2009 (Sat), 23:12
thats what I was thinking but can they handle the voltage

You'd need to get about 99 optical triggers and then trigger all of them with the 100th one. :)

You might be able to cut the count by half if you can get two similar flashes hooked up to the same trigger.
J Kacey
24th of October 2009 (Sat), 23:25
Plus even if you ganged 128 flashes your only going to gain seven stops.... Right?
It's not like it's going to be 100 X the flash power as one....

"Super Flash" I doubt it!
fivegallon
24th of October 2009 (Sat), 23:39
given your username do you think its wise to be even attempting something like this ??????
Firotechnics
25th of October 2009 (Sun), 08:12
Ok so here the deal, the trigger voltage of one is around 220 volts the voltage of 4 is about 250V so not a huge jump
george m w
25th of October 2009 (Sun), 17:53
Firotech,
I'm curious....what are you trying to accomplish ? And more to the point, what do you really expect you WILL accomplish by having all of them fire at once ?
Firotechnics
25th of October 2009 (Sun), 19:56
Firotech,
I'm curious....what are you trying to accomplish ? And more to the point, what do you really expect you WILL accomplish by having all of them fire at once ?

A very large, powerful, and unique light source for about $0 that will probably be used to light cars or very large areas.
korrektor
25th of October 2009 (Sun), 22:15
you are not able to control this light really.. why not just use ... Mr.Sun? ;)
Digital_zen
25th of October 2009 (Sun), 22:49
You've piqued my interest. You know with that many flashes you could build a HUGE ringlight ! I'd try to mount them all onto some sort of flexible backing (maybe a garden hose) so that you could then just build different sizes and shapes of frames for it and just attach the "flash track or belt" to the frames with ball-bungies or something. Please keep us updated.
Vascilli
25th of October 2009 (Sun), 23:48
You've piqued my interest. You know with that many flashes you could build a HUGE ringlight ! I'd try to mount them all onto some sort of flexible backing (maybe a garden hose) so that you could then just build different sizes and shapes of frames for it and just attach the "flash track or belt" to the frames with ball-bungies or something. Please keep us updated.
Ooooo, that sounds fun. :D
gfizmog
26th of October 2009 (Mon), 01:35
I don't know what archive you need to find, but industy and architecture photographers used to use multiple flashbulbs for dramatic night time shots of dams, factories, oil refineries and such. The usual thing was to wire them all together and manually pop a switch with the shutter on "T" or "B". Rigging a 250 volt line to your digital camera's hot shoe or pc terminal might not be such a good idea, but a 1 or 2 second exposure would probably give you enough time to pop the lights. I think the old Kodak Master Photoguides had a section on multiple flash exposures. Have fun
Glenn