Help with Sigma Flash repair Please!*****

Hey POTN,

A few months back i dropped my Sigma 530DG Super out of my bag to the cement from about 4 feet. Long story short the flash will not turn on. So, i checked my battery connectors inside the camera to make sure the batteries were still touching and they were. I had sent Sigma a letter about this and they wanted me to turn it in and get it fixed but i opted out of this and decided to open it up myself and check it out.

Here is what i think is the problem: *Sorry for the cell phone pics...i hope you can actually see what im talking about*

Hello, just looking at the pics you have. I am by no means a electrial guru, but would look to see if they were ever soldered in the first place. Also if these do go there(which them seem to fit the spot well) see if their is any chance of them making contact with each other. This would cause a short circuit if they touch. Most jumpers like this usually have bends in them to offset any chance of touching to cause that problem. What is the battery voltage on this unit---how many batteries does it have? try to see if this cross-over is needed to get to the + post where the red wire is soldered. Just my 2 cents worth-Ron

Also if you have an OHM meter. load your batteries back in side and close the compartment door. Check and see if you have any voltage at the pos. and neg post where the wires are soldered in(The bottom two posts in pic #2). If you have voltage there then the jumpers don't go there. If you dont they probably do- this supplies the needed connection for the battery compartment. Just something to check. You could also see what voltage you have with this in place and look at your owners manual under specs. and see what the required voltage is for that unit.

cbacarella wrote in post #10108852
My question is does anyone know if these actually go here or if negative goes to positive and positive goes to negative when i solder them on? Or does anyone have an internal manual of these flashes? I searched online with no luck!

I'd say it's very, very unlikely that the metal bits go on the soldered side of the PCB. Especially as there's already the Orange and (blue? can't quite see...) wires coming off to feed the main flash circuitry.
What I'd rather suspect, is that it's far more possible that they go at the other end of the battery holder to bridge the battery contacts so that the four batteries end up in series making up 6Volts.

Can we see a picture showing the other end of the holder please?

Ronmc wrote in post #10109042
Also if you have an OHM meter. load your batteries back in side and close the compartment door. Check and see if you have any voltage at the pos. and neg post where the wires are soldered in(The bottom two posts in pic #2). If you have voltage there then the jumpers don't go there. If you dont they probably do- this supplies the needed connection for the battery compartment. Just something to check. You could also see what voltage you have with this in place and look at your owners manual under specs. and see what the required voltage is for that unit.

an Ohm meter is for reading resistance - if you use it anywhere on circuitry with voltage on it, you'll likely end up with a non-functional Ohmmeter... Suspect Ronmc means a voltmeter...

I took a look at my 500DG Super without opening it up. Since you would want to run the batteries in series to combine the voltage of each battery 1.5 + 1.5 + 1.5 + 1.5 = 6V. On the battery lid you are already combining the two side banks of batteries together. The metal on the lid bridges from positive to negative on each side. This gives you 3 volts per side bank. To get the 6v needed to run the the flash the two banks would need to be connected together. If you take a volt meter and put it across the bottome left positive and top left negative I would expect to see somewhere around 3v. The same would be said if you did the same on the bottom right negative and top right positive. That would be the two 3 volt sides. The top right positive and top left negative have a circle around them. I dont know if there are traces or a piece of metal that is connecting the two sides together there but if there is I would expect that if you placed the probes on the bottom left positive and bottom right negative you would see 6 volts. That would mean that all batteries are in series and they are all connected. If you dont get a reading across there there is a break in the connections somewhere. I hope that makes sense. Definitely check out the voltages on the circuit board side with a volt meter.

http://www.modifiedpow​erwheels.com/forum/top​ic.asp?TOPIC_ID=698 is a link to the idea of the series wiring. It shows only three batteries but gives the general principle.
http://www.engineersed​ge.com …_parallel_conne​ctions.htm is a link to a smaller diagram showing 4 2v batteries in series to get 8v again showing the principle.

Disclaimer: I am no electrician and my knowledge comes from building battery packs for rc cars and doing car audio installations.

These two pieces connect the front and back cover of the lower half of the flash. The reason they were floating around in there is because you took out all 4 of the scrwes on the top of the bottom half. If you had only taken out the two on the front or the back, they would have still been attached to the other half and the flash would have still come apart. DO NOT attach them to the batter in any way shape or form.

So again, these pieces connect the front and back sections of the bottom half of the flash.... on the top of the bottom half. When you reassemble the flash, connect them to either the front or the back before you put it together and when you connect the two halves you can screw the other side into them.

Hopefully that made sense. I've dropped my sigmas many times and the only time one broke I sent it in and it needed a PCB (main) board. The repair cost was only $60 plus shipping, $70 total. Still cheaper than a new one.

If I didn't explain that well enough let me know and I can get on the tele or something to help you out. DO NOT put those pieces on the batteries!!! I've dismantled mine a few times to get rid of annoying rattles and know exactly what they are.

Thanks to everyone who replied! I have just gotten done with my exams for the day so look forward to using the above advice to put this flash back together.

Ill report back later tonight with results!

Thanks again..i really do appreciate this!

>Chris