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I first want to thank Tretee from the other forum for his help troubleshooting and everyone who has worked on ways to refurbish GC2 flashes. When I saw that the superflash price was way more than I would want to pay when my flash eventually burns out, I went ahead and designed my own circuit board since I didn't have a spare. I followed goatbarn instructions for taking apart the housing which are here.
Once you get the case apart once, it is easy to swap out circuit boards as many times as you want. I'm not sure how long my circuit board assembly will last, but I have the 3.5.1 firmware with the flash counter so I can at least track it. I played a round this evening and did not have a single missed shot. To be totally upfront, I'm not trying to claim that this is as good as the superflash. I am using the same $6 tube ($13 for shipping it) that is referenced in the thread above, plus a trigger coil off aliexpress. All I am claiming is that the performance should be comparable to refurbishing one of your old flashes according to the tutorial and that this would be easier if you don't feel comfortable soldering.
Is a circuit board assembly like this something that other people here would be interested in? Replacing it still has some DIY element of getting the case apart, but at least you wouldn't have to wait several weeks for the xenon tubes to come from overseas or do any soldering. If there is enough interest, I would go ahead and get a run of circuit boards made and order a larger batch of components to save on shipping costs. A pricing structure that I was thinking of would be something like this.
Assembled replacement circuit board: one for $40, two for $75, three for $100 (including shipping to the US)
Opening old flash case: You pay for shipping it to me plus $10 fee for opening it
So if you didn't want to do anything, you would send me your burnt out flash and $50 and I would open the case and replace the circuit board.
It took about 3 weeks last time for me to get the flash tubes, so these could potentially be ready to ship in about a month.
Once you get the case apart once, it is easy to swap out circuit boards as many times as you want. I'm not sure how long my circuit board assembly will last, but I have the 3.5.1 firmware with the flash counter so I can at least track it. I played a round this evening and did not have a single missed shot. To be totally upfront, I'm not trying to claim that this is as good as the superflash. I am using the same $6 tube ($13 for shipping it) that is referenced in the thread above, plus a trigger coil off aliexpress. All I am claiming is that the performance should be comparable to refurbishing one of your old flashes according to the tutorial and that this would be easier if you don't feel comfortable soldering.
Is a circuit board assembly like this something that other people here would be interested in? Replacing it still has some DIY element of getting the case apart, but at least you wouldn't have to wait several weeks for the xenon tubes to come from overseas or do any soldering. If there is enough interest, I would go ahead and get a run of circuit boards made and order a larger batch of components to save on shipping costs. A pricing structure that I was thinking of would be something like this.
Assembled replacement circuit board: one for $40, two for $75, three for $100 (including shipping to the US)
Opening old flash case: You pay for shipping it to me plus $10 fee for opening it
So if you didn't want to do anything, you would send me your burnt out flash and $50 and I would open the case and replace the circuit board.
It took about 3 weeks last time for me to get the flash tubes, so these could potentially be ready to ship in about a month.
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