Graflex.org

[t.r.sanford]

I don't know whether this is the appropriate forum for this topic, but it seems the most logical one...

My first "real" electronic flash was a Honeywell "65D," which I used on a 4x5 with "Tri-X," and sometimes on a "Century" with roll back for "High Speed Ektachrome." It is a neat flashgun, that stopped flashing about ten years ago. Specifically, the capacitor will no longer hold a charge.

I've had a number of interesting but futile telephone conversations with flash repair outfits advertising in "Shutterbug." They claim they can't get parts, and I can't really argue with them. They could do half a dozen profitable repairs in the time it would take them to horse around with mine.

I claim that Honeywell almost certainly bought a standard capacitor from Lytics or Sprague or somebody, and gave it an OEM part number. If I could get at the capacitor, I think there's a good chance that I could match it pretty closely from current production. But I can't figure out how the darn thing comes apart.

If I'd been designing it, I'd have made the bottom of the handle a threaded cap. If Honeywell did this, they must have made a special tool to engage that cap.

Does anybody know how to disassemble a "65D" -- or any Honeywell gun of similar vintage?

[worldphoto]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2984113804&category=48549
A 65C has just a few hours left on the auction. Perhaps a matching unit?
Harry

[t.r.sanford]

My impression is that the "65D" was the only model in that series that used the high-voltage pack, either a "PF497" dry battery or (later) Honeywell's "Permacad" rechargeable batteries. The others used the then-normal Heiland/Honeywell pack of three "C" cells in the head.

Besides, I had this one modified with the "bare-bulb" option...

I know that Honeywell flash technology was absorbed by Rollei a couple of decades ago, shortly after which Rollei had enough troubles of its own to pay no further heed to that great tradition. Still, somebody somewhere must know how the doggone things come apart!

[worldphoto]

This may be of help. March 2004 issue of Shutterbug has a Help Column reader asked similar question. Honeywell....
Capacitor replacement for dead Honeywell flash. Answer listed at least six firms that made those repairs. Page 220.
Several telepnone calls and you may find someone to answer your question and may also have a good capacitor source?
Harry

[ This Message was edited by: worldphoto on 2004-02-08 18:22 ]

[t.r.sanford]

By golly, you're right! I bogged down on the Olympus "E-1" review and hadn't gotten to Page 220. The editor's caution seems well-advised, and I'm not wildly optimistic, but it is a starting-point.

Thank you for the heads-up.

[clnfrd]

I have several working and non-working 64B's, all with good caps. What's the value in microfarads and voltage-rating of the cap you're looking for? Also, FWIW, many old caps just need to be "re-formed"...that is, charged and discharged many times. I spent several days doing this with a Strobonar II...and they finally re-formed and now hold a charge. Fred.

[ This Message was edited by: clnfrd on 2004-02-09 04:51 ]

[t.r.sanford]

The difficulty is that I can't get the flashgun apart to examine the capacitor, thus I don't know its capacitance and working voltage. I am imagining that the capacitor resides in the handle, and should be accessible through the bottom, but I have no profound reason for thinking so.

I, too, have spent many happy hours with old flashguns, reforming the capacitors. That's not the problem with this one. I surmise that the capacitor is shot, i.e. the dielectric has gone west, although I suppose a broken electrical connection somewhere might produce the same effect -- but this would come to the same thing: I have to get the gun open, or find someone who knows how, and is willing to do it.

[clnfrd]

If your 65D resembles that 65C in the link above, it looks surprisingly like a 770 I have. In the pics of the 65C, as with my 770, there are tabs on either side of the rear of the flash head that, when pressed in, allow removal of the innards. Is yours anything like this? Fred.

[t.r.sanford]

All of the Honeywell handlemount flashguns, right up to the end, had heads like that. Most of them used those tabs to latch a slide-out battery-box that took three size C cells. This was true even of the successor Rollei "682S."

The "65D," and the late "892" and "892S," did not have the internal battery-box, as they were designed to work with an external battery pack. The tabs are there, all right -- it would be logical for the manufacturer to use one set of molds to make the body shells for all models -- but the tabs and the slideout module seem to be glued or sonic-welded to the head. At least, pressing in and pulling produces no result, and I've been reluctant to apply mechanical means of pulling harder!

You do suggest a possibility that had not occurred to me. I'd imagined that the big capacitor, or bank of capacitors, needed to store sufficient energy for the high-powered flash would be mounted in the handle. That's where I would have put it, but maybe Honeywell didn't.

If the head isn't full of dry cells, the space may contain a capacitor, or capacitors, instead. Perhaps the tabs do give access to these, although the manufacturer (reasonably) wanted to keep passersby away from them. I'll take a closer look at it, and see whether I an work the back of the head loose without performing major surgery.

[alecj]

I once had a 65D and no, there was nothing in the space where batteries were usually inserted in the head. It was empty, but you could take the back off. I used that space to store sync cords when not in use.

[clnfrd]

So, apparently, the back of the head should be removable, as Alecj has suggested, but no sub C nicads inside, as with the 770. If there are caps or electronics inside, there should be some heft to it. How were you attempting to charge the caps...with an AC adapter cord...or a "wall wart" charging supply?

[t.r.sanford]

The "65D" came with an AC supply of the sort the computer folk have taught us to call a "wall wart," and with a case for a PF497 dry battery. Honeywell's later "Permacad" outfit also could power the "65D." I cannot get the ready-light to come on, nor the gun to flash, when powered by either the AC adapter or the "Permacad" pack.

If the head contains an empty, vestigial battery-box, then the capacitor almost certainly is elsewhere -- most likely (I continue to think) in the handle. I have not seen a "65D" service manual around anywhere.

[clnfrd]

t.r.....I pulled the battery pack on my 770, and there are screws inside that may lend access to other components. It's only a guess, but I imagine that if you can extricate the vestigial battery pack, you may be able to delve further into the workings of your 65D. If man built it, man can repair it. If your battery pack contains one of the pricey high-voltage batteries, I don't see how a wall wart can be a substitute. Fred.

[t.r.sanford]

You've certainly aroused my interest, and I'll take a closer look at the "65D." It was built before robotic assembly techniques were applied to disposable electronic equipment, so I quite agree that it can be repaired by humans!

The AC adapter is pretty good -- recycling time is a bit longer than with a high-voltage battery, but not much. Honeywell built good stuff, and supported it well. I mourn their exit from the photographic equipment business.

[larrys]

If I recall correctly, the wall wart for the 770 has three wires coming off it: Ground, battery charge, and one you really don't want to test with your tongue.
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