Tear down of an Einstein monoblock studio strobe

[mesonnaise]

Today I had to replace an the old fans in my studio strobes. While dismantling them I was reminded of Dave's tear downs on the YouTube channel, so I decided to document all the boards to share with everyone. 

The album contains front and back photos of each board, along with the full assembly without the case.
https://imgur.com/a/QC3Fe9S

[NiHaoMike]

What surprises me are the "Richey" caps amongst the well known, higher quality brands. Does the fan run all the time or only when the flash has been fired several times in a row?

[mesonnaise]

The cap selection is because of the tight price point. If the capacitor wasn't part of the charge pump or main storage a cheaper part was used.
The fan runs constantly. The manufacture did create a new firmware to cycle the fan when the SCRs start to heat up. The problem is I can't find a compatible micro SD card  to do the update.

Everything on the  left side is for the modeling lamp and charge pump. The right is the dc to dc converter for the digital control.

[NiHaoMike]

The fan runs constantly. The manufacture did create a new firmware to cycle the fan when the SCRs start to heat up. The problem is I can't find a compatible micro SD card  to do the update.

If it only accepts the older SD cards and not SDHC, look for a 2GB card. It's good to keep a few 2GB and under SD cards for that reason.

[mesonnaise]

I wasn't having a problem finding first gen 2GB SD cards. Finding a first gen micro SD card is the problem.

[tom66]

The problem is microSD launched in 2005 and SDHC launched in 2006/2007.  So there is a very short time span between when the older technology was common with microSD, and when it will have been less common and then eventually obsoleted altogether.

[NiHaoMike]

I wasn't having a problem finding first gen 2GB SD cards. Finding a first gen micro SD card is the problem.

Might want to try a micro SD to full size SD adapter (opposite of the usual type), once commonly used with Raspberry Pi.

[mesonnaise]

Might want to try a micro SD to full size SD adapter (opposite of the usual type), once commonly used with Raspberry Pi.

I'll see if I can hunt one down that fits.