Household Sync adapter question

[Corran]

I hit the jackpot yesterday and bought out the entire estate of an old pro photographer for fairly little. In this package was a huge Speedotron kit with the 2400w power pack and 4 heads.

I am definitely keeping this and putting it to use. It looks old but runs perfectly. It has a standard household sync input, no adapters. There's a myriad number of adapters available and I'd like to get a high-quality adapter - some of the cheap flash cables I've used just don't hold up, even being lightly used. I need something that I can use either directly into my D800 or flash commander, as well as standard PC input for LF lenses, which I will likely be using mostly.

Even though the LF lenses don't need it, I'd like the discharge voltage to not be high, just in case.

I'm fairly inexperienced with this gear, especially the older packs, so any suggestions on specific adapters would be appreciated!

[Jac@stafford.net]

Speedotron has their own low voltage adapters. Check with them.

Then there are the famous Wein adapters.

[Corran]

Ah, found the Speedotron product - $72, wow. More than I paid for the whole kit.... The Wein one looks the same, for a bit less. Still need a further adapter to get to PC socket or DSLR.

Would a Peanut system be easier, especially across multiple camera types? I need to research that, I've never used them.

[Tracy Storer]

For syncing with a digital camera, I would suggest a Pocketwizard set.

[Corran]

Apologies if I was unclear. I have a wireless trigger. It does not take household sync.

[Peter De Smidt]

Cables from camera to the pack are a disaster waiting to happen. Use 1/8th to household adapter, from Paramount or others, and use your PWs.

Old Speedotron packs:

1) Never plug or unplug a head when the pack or modeling light is powered up. That also applies to someone tripping on a cord.....
2) Don't change settings while the pack is charging.
3) After you change settings with the dial, fire the flash once. Otherwise the first flash won't be changed.

Packs that sit unused can have their capacitors deteriorate. You need to slowly reform them. With the pack unplugged, plug in a head, turn the pack all the way down. Plug pack into the wall. Turn power one for a minute. Turn pack off. Unplug pack from wall. The next day, repeat using 2 minutes, then four, then 8.

[Corran]

Thanks for the tips Peter! Luckily I knew the first, and most important rule. I will work on the capacitors.

[HMG]

Household to PC cables are fairly common. You can find older Honeywell-branded ones or old-to-new Paramount. I would think you can easily build your own household to 1/4 or 1/8" - find an old non-polarized extension cord.

I don't know what brand of wireless triggers you have. I've used both Yongnuo and Cowboy Studio wireless syncs with older monolights that were probably above their rated flash voltage.

The "Peanuts" mentioned are, I assume, optical slaves. So you need a flash to set them off - like a popup or shoe mount. But I was playing around the other day with a flash connected to an optical slave slightly behind me at a 45 deg angle to subject and the popup flash on my camera would not set it off.

[Corran]

Thanks folks, the brands you mentioned were a great help. Just ordered a Wein voltage regulator adapter and two different household -> PC adapters from Paramount. Expensive but I didn't want junk cables when triggering these potentially dangerous lights.

Excited to finally have a good strobe kit!