Scrutinizing a digital camera flash transmitter

As I conceptually mentioned final Might, following up with a teardown practically a yr later (and earlier this yr), grasp flash items mated to cameras’ scorching sneakers are sometimes additionally able to, whether or not through IR or numerous RF schemes, additionally controlling slave illumination gadgets positioned elsewhere in a studio or different picture-shooting location.

However what if you happen to don’t need to prohibit your self from a lighting-setup standpoint to connecting at the least one flash unit on to your image-capture machine for resultant full-frontal illumination of your topic? Extension cords can get you a foot or so away whereas retaining the full-featured bodily tether, for instance:

That mentioned, an excellent extra versatile strategy mates the digital camera to a dedicated-function transmitter (additionally generally known as a “set off”), with all lighting sources within the setup managed by it and subsequently performing as slaves. This strategy is equally useful if you happen to do want full-frontal illumination of your topic however your most important flash unit isn’t sufficiently “clever”, since such transmitters are sometimes camera-cognizant (thereby dealing with the “intelligence” themselves) and help “dumb” scorching shoe and cable sync choices to a close-proximity flash, too.

Immediately’s teardown sufferer, from Godox, is one such instance. The means by which I got here into possession of it’s admittedly atypical. Reiterating what I wrote in my Godox V1 flash unit teardown from earlier this yr:

As common readers already know, “for elements solely” discount-priced eBay postings, suggestive of gadgets which might be (for one purpose or one other) now not practical, are sometimes fruitful teardown candidates as dietary supplements to merchandise which have died on me personally.

The affected person this time is one other instance of this longstanding “dumpster diving” tendency…or at the least I thought it was going to be. Again in March, well-known used imaging gear retailer KEH held one among its periodic “stock discount” gross sales, this one providing 15% off a subset of its warehouse inventory. One of many issues that caught my eye was a “Godox X1T-F TTL Wi-fi Flash Set off Transmitter for Fujifilm” in “as-is” situation for $3.65 earlier than {discount}, $3.10 after:

“1” within the product code means first-generation, “T” stands for “transmitter” (or “set off”), “F” implies that it’s meant to be used with Fujifilm cameras…and “as-is”, paraphrasing KEH, mainly implies that best-case it’s cosmetically beat up and worst-case it doesn’t work in any respect. And certainly, when it arrived, that’s what the sticker hooked up to the bag containing the transmitter indicated:

What was inside the bag, nonetheless, was one thing a lot higher, a second-generation Godox X2T-F in pristine beauty situation (the Canon model of the X2T is proven within the following “inventory” photograph):

seemingly totally practical, in addition:

I don’t personal any Fujifilm cameras, which wasn’t an issue given my unique teardown-only plan for the as-is X1T machine, and which additionally precludes me from definitively figuring out this X2T’s functional-or-not standing. Nevertheless, on condition that it appears to be high quality, I’m going to do my utmost to do no everlasting injury to it throughout my my disassembly, in order that I can subsequently put it again collectively and donation-pass it on, the place it’ll hopefully discover good use for a while to return. To wit, I’ll restrain myself from any “excessive” dissection that is perhaps completely maiming.

To start, listed below are some overview photographs, as common accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for measurement comparability functions. Entrance: within the higher proper is the autofocus-assist lamp:

Proper aspect: the USB-C connector is used for firmware updates, and the three.5-mm sync jack may be settings-configured both as an enter (as a transmitter-triggering various to the “clever” scorching shoe on the backside) or an output (as a tethered various to alternatively firing a “slave” flash machine both wirelessly or through the “dumb” scorching shoe on the high):

Again:

Left aspect: the change on the left is for general unit energy management, whereas the one on the fitting allows or disables the AF-assist lamp:

Prime: notice first the “dumb” scorching shoe to, as talked about earlier, management a separate “slave” flash unit. Additionally notice the Bluetooth brand; as with the earlier-dissected V1 flash unit, this transmitter not solely controls different Godox (or rebranded Adorama) gear through the proprietary 2.4 GHz wi-fi X protocol but in addition optionally helps itself being configured and managed by a Bluetooth-tethered smartphone or pill together with a Godox (or Adorama) app:

And eventually, the underside, with its comparatively “clever” scorching shoe for mating with a (Fujifilm, on this specific case) digital camera:

Time to dive in. In prior footage, you will have already seen three (now eliminated) screws’ seen heads:

one on the backside:

and one on either side:

Extracting them sadly didn’t get me very far, although:

And a scrape-away of the left-side QC sticker didn’t reveal any extra screw heads beneath:

so subsequent, I appeared contained in the underside battery compartment:

Ah sure, there we’re. Two extra screw heads:

That’s extra prefer it:

First, right here’s a closeup of the left half of the earlier photograph, revealing the within (and underside) of the highest half of the machine:

And, leaping forward in time, one other perspective after disconnecting the two-wire tether between the “dumb” scorching shoe and the system PCB that controls it (the lens in entrance of the AF-assist beam additionally indifferent from the machine bottom-half within the course of):

About that two-wire tether: keep in mind my earlier mentioned differentiation between “sensible” and “dumb” scorching sneakers? I’ll confess at this level that I sorted this all out retroactively, after initially being momentarily baffled as to why there have been solely two wires (switched energy and floor) popping out of the topside scorching shoe…

A quick rewind-in-time now to the fitting half of the sooner overview shot, first nonetheless tethered:

And now standalone:

Together with three side-view views:

Unsurprisingly, there’s quite a lot of part commonality between this design and that of the beforehand detailed Godox V1 flash. They’re each based mostly on the identical most important system controller, for instance, the APM32F072VBT6 (PDF), from a Chinese language firm referred to as Geehy Semiconductor, integrating an Arm Cortex-M0+ operating at 48 MHz together with 128 Kbytes of flash reminiscence and 16 Kbytes of RAM. It’s within the higher left nook of the PCB, adorned with a pink ink dot, if you happen to haven’t already seen it (however given its comparative measurement, you most likely already did).

You most likely additionally already seen the 2 identical-looking PCB-embedded antennae on the backside. Above the one to the fitting is identical multi-component (and extra normal PCB) structure as that discovered within the V1: Texas Devices’ CC2500 low-power 2.4 GHz RF transceiver and TI’s CC2592 front-end RF IC, so per proximity I’m guessing that this one handles Bluetooth connectivity. By the method of elimination, then, I’ll additionally hazard a deduction that the different antenna, to its left, implements Godox’ X wi-fi protocol together with no matter circuitry is contained in the silver module with which it shares a standard mini-PCB.

And did you additionally discover the three further screw heads? what comes subsequent, proper?

Disconnect yet another two-wire harness, this one going to the AF-assist beam subsystem:

Push by means of the case openings one aspect’s value of battery terminals:

(the opposite aspect’s terminals are completely hooked up the case, not related to the PCB):

And voila:

Right here’s an summary of the now-exposed most important PCB bottom, with battery terminals within the higher left, the 2 aforementioned left-side switches at backside left, the USB-C and sync connectors at backside proper and ribbon cables (which, as beforehand mentioned, together with the one related to the opposite aspect of the primary PCB, I’m not going to probability disconnecting) alongside the decrease edge and main elsewhere:

We’re now wanting towards the within of the underside of the machine, the place each of these thinner ribbon cables find yourself. At left is the underside of the “sensible” scorching shoe, whereas at proper is the management dial you will have seen in earlier overview photographs:

Wrapping issues up, right here’s the bottom of the machine, mated to ribbon cables for the show (the broader one at left) and management buttons (the narrower one at left):

And now, first taking a deep breath for calming confidence, I retraced my prior disassembly steps in reverse. Apart from a short second of panic once I thought I’d misplaced a screw (which ended up simply being caught within the recesses of the matching-color case), the method went easily. And, after taking one other deep breath, popping two AAs in and flipping the ability change on, that is what I noticed:

I appear to have efficiently resurrected it, once more to the boundaries of my no-Fujitsu-camera testing talents. Yay! Pontificate along with your ideas within the feedback.

 —Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Imaginative and prescient Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the corporate’s on-line e-newsletter.

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The submit Scrutinizing a digital camera flash transmitter appeared first on EDN.

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