Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

1 of my 1600 units seem to be exhausting flash tubes at a more rapid than normal rate. After about 4-6 months of moderate use the contacts of the tubes are covered with a sooty black corrosion to a much greater degree than my other units. They will fire about 2-3 times before the bulb has to be reseated or removed and the contacts wiped off to even allow them to fire again.. As stated before. These bulbs are perhaps 4-6 months old and have been fired maybe 5000-6000 times before these problems set in, which is a major hinderance to my workflow. The other units do not seem to have such an excessive problem. I assume the contacts corrode through some sort of electrolysis process, is this an issue specific to some units or tubes? is this something that can be remedied? These tubes essentially look burnt around the contacts.

This actually sound like "arcing" where there's a slight gap between the pin and socket. A layer of carbon gets laid down and causes more resistance which causes more carbon (that's a bit of a guess there). However I've seen that it'll keep getting worse if you don't take some sandpaper and polish the pins up.

Don't remember ever seeing it occur with a flash tube but it is often found on the pins of the head cords that connect flash heads to the pack.

The arcing will start eating away at the pins till the gap gets larger as the pin gets shorter. Eventually the gap gets big enough that either the head stops working or it blows the pack up.

Had this happen to an old Norman 2000 pad. Bada-Boom!

Yaes, that is arcing. The head will need to come in as the charring is also happening to the contacts inside the head. This is caused by the gap described above, which is often caused by softboxes falling onto the tube and dislodging it. We can repair it under warranty or $40 plus the cost of a new tube.