YongNuo YN-622N High voltage adapter for old norman 202 system

S

stuartm

Senior Member
im currently useing the 622n system on my d7000 for playing with speedlights . i have decided to try my hand at real estate photography and i picked up an old norman 202 202 studio flash system.

This system uses the household two prong sync port, my understanding of these is that the output voltage can reach 400v, the old film hot shoes were just glorified switches that could take the voltage, obviously a dslr can not. I have also read that triggering these from radio triggers is very finicky and polarity often becomes an issue.


Im willing to open the flash pack up and do a permanent mod but im wondering if anyone has done this successfully.

Found a few circuit ideas for the voltage conversion.
DIY version
Safe Sync Adapter Circuit on a Breadboard - Robot Room
419 unused

store bought version.
Error

idealy i would like to add a hot shoe port on the top of the power supply wired into the voltage conversion board internally and removed the old two prong sync port.


Or i could just use an old school optical slave, but then i need a speedlight or something to trigger that i think.
 
Last edited:
W

WayneF

Senior Member
stuartm said:
im currently useing the 622n system on my d7000 for playing with speedlights . i have decided to try my hand at real estate photography and i picked up an old norman 202 202 studio flash system.

This system uses the household two prong sync port, my understanding of these is that the output voltage can reach 400v, the old film hot shoes were just glorified switches that could take the voltage, obviously a dslr can not. I have also read that triggering these from radio triggers is very finicky and polarity often becomes an issue.
Click to expand...


First, you need to actually find out what the facts are (I don't know either). This site Photo Strobe Trigger Voltages reports two values for the Norman 202B ... 100 volts, and 29 volts. However, this is just hearsay, and to know anything, you need to measure it yourself.

To know what the sync voltage is, you need to actually measure it. Use of the AC connector does not necessarily mean the voltage is high, it is just an inexpensive connector that was used a lot, back then.

This is very easy. Just turn the flash power on, not connected to anything. Carefully measure the DC voltage between the two sync pins with any DVM or VOM (voltmeter). If you don't have a meter, some friend probably does and could do it, or there are cheap meters available. Or at worst, maybe you could ask a neighborhood electronics repair shop to measure it (and report polarity).

Here is a $8 meter that claims 10 megohm input impedance (any digital model is probably OK)
Amazon.com: INNOVA 3300 Hands-free Digital Multimeter (10 MegOhm): Automotive

You are not looking for any precise voltage value. You just want to know if it is low (say under 50 volts), or if it is high, like near 200 volts. And then you will know, and will also know polarity, and can mark the Plus pin so polarity is visible. This is the only way you will know.

All of the Nikon DSLR hot shoes are rated to 250 volts if polarity is correct. See D7000 manual page 275.
 
Last edited:
S

stuartm

Senior Member
I have lots of dmm's I'm an industrial electrician haha. I will check that out. So the camera might be rated for that voltage but I doubt my cheepo triggers are. I would like to make the power supply wireless.
 
Top