low voltage power unit

I am not sure whether this should be posted under lighting or camra building but here goes
Low Voltage power Supply


I have been trying to build a low voltage power supply for a Vivitar 283 . Most of the information that I can find is for two cell flash units or much higher voltage I made the dummy batteries out of dowel with a hole drilled through them . Steel thumb tacks with light weight radio wire soldered to the tips. The four dummy batteries show continuity and voltage from the four D cell batteries in two, two cell D cell holders. I get continuity from the dummy loads in the Vivitar battery compartment showing apparent connection to the contacts inside ,However I get no power to the flash unit from this set up. Technically it should work but obviously it isn’t .Does anyone have any experience and /or even better schematics on the wiring for Vivitar 283 battery setups.

I have done this - selling it now.

I did a post to Craigslist on this just this week - since I have sunk my teeth into few other flash outfits this one is redundant.

the ad text: So you follow the strobist blogsite, are all keen about getting better taking flash shots with inexpensive multiple flash heads, and all, but the cost of buying a lot of AA batteries is really starting to bite. Or you have NiMH units, but they are dead when you want to use them. Or you don't mind the cost, but when one flash unit starts to recycle slow, and you don't notice right off it did not fire, or only fired at part power right away, the retake requests you need to make drive you nuts.

This is your ticket. An old PC power supply - It puts out 5V at up to 22A. The 4-AA battery flash units you have will have never recycled faster, even from full manual dumps, and all of the flash units recycle at the same rate all day long. No need to modify most battery compartments- just don't slide the battery cover fully closed. The screws in these wood blocks that are the contacts are set up for Vivitars, but modifiaction is easy to sout other configurations. Connectors and wire are from Canadian Tire to hook up more flash units. This set comes with 2 falsh blocks, and three connectors on the power supply.

Most of the four battery flashes I have seen (and own) are wired in series. In other words imagine all four batteries in a row end to end with the positive of the first connected to the negative of the second and the positive of the second connected to the negative of the third and so on. This gives you a 6 vdc output from the positive of the 4th and the negative of the first ( each single cell being 1 1/2 vdc). I would suggest a further disassembly of the flash to find the TWO (and two only) voltage input wires to the flash. Install a small socket of some sort to the proper polarities and use a mating plug for the power supply. This way you can get rid of the faux batteries entirely.

I'll have a look inside
I am really trying to get a portable unit. I have the AC adapters However following my grand kids around with a cord is not a great idea. I use to have a Vivitar 510 volt battery pack. But after one last :”Sure Uncle Bob will be glad to shoot your wedding and give you the album” Even though Uncle Bob had not shot a wedding or done color printing in twenty years and spent the next month in the darkroom printing the album., the power pack mysteriously broke down and I never replaced it!.