Disposable electronics...

Kinda bummed...

My Metz 54 MZ-3 "popped" a while back. Probably the bulb or capacitor. The minimum repair cost from Bogen is over $150, but carefully watching eBay and various forums I can pick up this same model for $75-$130. Yes, it would be used - but (technically) so would my existing unit.

Now I'm holding a very nice flash unit, cosmetically perfect condition, but totally useless. And due to the repair cost, it's probably going in the trash.

A $300 disposable flash? Make that VERY bummed...

Have you tried opening it up to see if there's anything obviously blown up? Be VERY CAREFUL, they keep their charge for ages and may have enough juice in it to hurt or perhaps even kill you.

not yet - is there a reasonably safe way to discharge the capacitor???

As for discharging the capacitor, get a piece of INSOLATED wire and place it across the two terminals. If you have not had batteries in the unit for two months or more, you SHOULD be OK, but it's best to be careful and discharge the capacitor.

If you don't know anything about electronics, you're probably wasting your time and should buy another unit. Alternatively, you might be able to find a local electronics store that may be able to fix it.

Personally, I'm an electronics junkie and have grown callous to "Moore's Law" which describes your disposable electronics feeling.

Well, that was a mess and now I know why these things cost so much to work on. Being "careful" not to break or mess up anything, it took me 20 minutes to get the top portion of the flash apart sufficiently to form a hypothesis. Some brownish discoloration on one end of the small reflector suggests (to me) the flash bulb popped. However, the bulb is soldered to the leads and I have no idea what to replace it with even if I could get it out, replaced, and all back together. I have to assume flash manufacturers build these things with the intent they will never fail - or more likely with the idea of planned obsolence. Otherwise, components like a flash bulb would (presumably) be much easier to access and replace.

As for Moore's Law, my observation may have less to do with the exponential growth of computing speed/power than simple Functional or Systemic Planned Obsolescence. However, it's not quite the same. In true planned obsolescence, the cost of repair is generally equivilent to a new purchase; thus causing a reasonable consumer to opt for the new purchase.

Of course this paradigm first began in the early 20th century when mass production made it faster and cheaper to assemble a new product than to disassemble and repair the same product. Until that time, hand-assembly (i.e. "craftsmanship") meant the exact opposite: it was faster and cheaper to disassmeble and repair something than to purchase a new version of the same thing.

Certainly, larger mechanical items and durable goods still benefit from repair rather than replacement (cars, a/c units, etc.) but almost everything electronic does not. (The semi-modularity of computer CPU's is an exception.)

So I hereby propse "KLYNAM's LAW" of consumer electronics...lol

"Due to the design and manufacture of modern integrated consumer electronics, the failure of any individual component will typically create a repair cost that is higher than the price of an equivilent replacement (unless covered by warranty) regardless of the initial product value or the value of any remaining (theoretically) serviceable components."

Example: The failure of a $0.15 nylon gear-set will render a $150 inkjet printer useless and disposable because the cost of repairs (both real and associated) are greater than the outright replacement cost of a new printer. Even though everything else in the printer is fully functional.

So what are these foriegn countries doing with all the eletronic waste being sent to them? Hopefully some resourceful people are mashing up electronics to create a race of super-robots!!! Of course they'll stop working when those HP gear-sets strip out...

klynam wrote in post #6106967
So I hereby propose "KLYNAM's LAW" of consumer electronics...lol

"Due to the design and manufacture of modern integrated consumer electronics, the failure of any individual component will typically create a repair cost that is higher than the price of an equivilent replacement (unless covered by warranty) regardless of the initial product value or the value of any remaining (theoretically) serviceable components."

I'll second that proposal. At least you're still alive

digadv wrote in post #6095792
As for discharging the capacitor, get a piece of INSOLATED wire and place it across the two terminals. If you have not had batteries in the unit for two months or more, you SHOULD be OK, but it's best to be careful and discharge the capacitor.

If you don't know anything about electronics, you're probably wasting your time and should buy another unit. Alternatively, you might be able to find a local electronics store that may be able to fix it.

Personally, I'm an electronics junkie and have grown callous to "Moore's Law" which describes your disposable electronics feeling.

Do NOT short the terminals of a capacitor. On top of probably making you crap yourself if you aren't expecting it, you will damage the capacitor. The caps in flashes and other high-volt electronics (TVs, amplifiers, etc) carry plenty of power to kill someone if the current goes through your heart (thus the making of the "one-hand" rule where one hand is left in a pocket to avoid the current crossing your body/heart). If you are to short the cap while it's still charged, it will spark, make a loud pop, and will pit/burn whatever you use to short it. For instance, I've shorted the cap in my 283 around 2-3 times with a small screwdriver. The points where that screwdriver touched the cap's leads both are charred and have pits in them from the electricity jumping the gap. On top of the whole danger part, you are damaging the cap. The capacitor in my 283 now does not hold a strong charge unless it's being constantly fed from the batteries. It used to be slightly above 300V before I shorted it twice (and once with a high-watt low-resistance resistor). Now, after charging the flash fully, removing the batteries and firing off a full power pop, it only holds somewhere around 90-100v.

If you want to discharge a cap, you'll need a high-power resistor with a decent resistance. I use a combination of 3-4 resistors that total somewhere around 100-200k ohms. Two of those resistors are 10-25w, the other is probably a 5w. After maybe 20-30 seconds of shorting the cap terminals with these resistors (I have them in series with two alligator clips on the end, where I attach two screwdrivers), the cap is completely discharged.

Do you have pics of the flash disassembled? I'm not familiar with that specific flash, but I can't assume it would be too hard to repair. I'd be willing to bet the most of that cost for repair is labor, and chances are the techs know what they're doing, generally and specific to that flash. They most likely have a service manual that tells exactly how to disassemble the flash, diagnose a problem and replace busted parts with minimal effort. They get paid a ton, too

No pics of the disassembled flash - I threw it away due to KLYNAM's LAW above...lol...

klynam wrote in post #6107217
No pics of the disassembled flash - I threw it away due to KLYNAM's LAW above...lol...

Don't throw busted stuff away. Give it away at the very least, or even make a couple bucks off of it. I would have taken it if it was completely busted, I need all the broken stuff I can get

So thinking more, Planned Obsolescence does not quite fit what I'm describing. A better name might be "Klynam's Law of Random Obsolescence Risk."

In this regard, manufacturers may not intend for components to fail. But designing and building products so that every possible (or even likely) point of failure is accessbile and serviceable is simply not cost effective. So they don't. The intent is that the components will not fail. Indeed, the vast majority of individual components will have a service life far longer than the product itself.

Let's give (most) manufacturers a little credit and assume reasonable quality controls are in place for the components and construction. In my particular case, I have two older Metz flash units that still work fine. So, I believe most items are intended to provide a reasonable service life. That doesn't change the fact that failure of any single electronic component will still render the entire product functionally useless.

So we then have (from the consumer's perspective) a Random Obsolescence Risk associated with every product purchase. This is both a qualitative risk and a quantitative risk. The same capacitor may exist in a $300 LCD TV and a $3000 LCD TV. If both fail, the failure rate goes up by two. But the resulting cost risk (KLYNAM's LAW) has much greater impact on the owner of the $3K television. Doubtlessly this is why retailers offer that "additional warranty." They constantly analyize this risk and know exactly where they will make money on average - like the "house" at a casino - by selling extended time-based warranties.

Then there are companies that intentionally make serviceable components inaccessible (think iPod batteries) and are definitely guilty of planned obsolescence!!!

I actually tried to give it away before - but no one local (DFW) wanted it and no one here wanted to pay the shipping to have it sent to them. Believe me - it PAINED me to toss it. But if you really want it, I'll dig through the trash and get it...

There is another option although it may not be the best.

Bogen Imaging has a fairly reasonable trade-in policy and they also don't charge to give an estimate.

The way the trade-in works is that regardless of the unit working or not they will give you 35% off the dealer list price towards a brand new unit or anything else they make or sell.
It's not the best deal but something to consider.

If they give you an estimate after having the flash you can make the decision to repair it or not. If you don't repair it they'll return it to you and they cover shipping. If you want to trade you can then do that and they will tell you it's value towards a new item.

As I said, it's not necessary the best way to go but it is an option that Bogen Imaging offers.

Interesting - I had NO idea that was an option!!!

But given the current state of the flash unit (i.e. disassembled and in the trash) I doubt they'd do the deal...

klynam wrote in post #6108431
Interesting - I had NO idea that was an option!!!

But given the current state of the flash unit (i.e. disassembled and in the trash) I doubt they'd do the deal...

Assemble it and give it a try. I don't know how far they'll go but I do know the policy is 'working or not'.