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**Solstice72** · 05-07-2019, 01:26 PM

Heavy suspicion.

**andygg1986** · 05-07-2019, 02:20 PM

I have been selling a flash for almost a year and a half, same price, same warranty. One of my first customers was an indoor simulator business and he just ordered a second batch of flashes for all of his simulators a couple weeks ago. A direct quote from his most recent email order "they aren't totally out they still work with 98% success but have noticed more missed shots over the last few months. they went strong for over a year on high volume sims. Great product."

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum...-gc2-megaflash

Also, in the test video, they simply flash the bulb at 10Hz continuously. This is not how a GC2 operates in practice. It delivers roughly 10 flashes at close to 10kHz, then waits several seconds before the next shot is hit. That's why a GC2 has a capacitor the size of a film canister (to store energy for 10 flashes) and they don't have any larger than a penny. The burst of flashes should induce higher stresses on the bulb because the argon gas inside can't cool down between flashes. I can't say for sure that it would make a difference in how long the bulb would last, but it seems like if you are going to bother making a test, you might as well simulate the actual use case as accurately as possible.

They don't show what happens at 2.3 million flashes, but the reason the flash would fail is the bulb gets cloudy and the light level gradually drops off to the point that the cameras start missing shots occasionally. You need to periodically put the flash in a GC2 to make sure the light levels are still sufficient if you are going to claim it is still working.

**Amon** · 05-08-2019, 04:16 PM

We are an electronic design company. One day, a golfer customer asked us to repair a GC2 flash module. We did not only fix it by replacing new devices on board but we had to study and research the GC2 flash working topology before designing the best circuit for a new flash module named “Ultra Flash module”. We also studied and understood the triggering command and the charge transferring of the flash triggering control board of GC2 thoroughly. So we could simulate the voltage level, timing, frequency of triggering and volume of energy transferred from GC2 precisely. With all of these reasons, our testing result of the ULTRA FLASH Module life is the most correct and reliable accordingly. Therefore our customers are able to trust in our Ultra Flash module.

Andy, please don’t look down on others. You are not only one person who know about GC2 flash module working. Your words are “It delivers roughly 10 flashes at close to 10kHz.”You might use this words from someone to tell to many people. Your words is right only 50%. Yes you are right about GC2 delivers roughly 10 flashes per shot but your “10 kHz” word is wrong and about 8 times far from the real fact. That means you never measure and understand how GC2 transfer energy to flash module. I think you just find some components, replaced it and tested if it worked or just bring some knowledge from someone to make it and sell it.
Your words are “they don't have any larger than a penny. The burst of flashes should induce higher stresses on the bulb because the argon gas inside can't cool down between flashes. I can't say for sure that it would make a difference in how long the bulb would last..”
If you watched carefully and fair, you would see three of capacitors paralleling which has total volume about 5 cubic centimeter. It is totally larger than a penny. You could use the small capacitors with high voltage transferring energy to flash bulb and get same light energy as GC2 does.

You would not say like this if you understood about energy transfer from capacitor to flash bulb.
Energy in capacitor is equal to ½ C V². So it is not necessary to transfer energy with high capacitance and low voltage. We also can transfer energy with low capacitance and high voltage. It depends on how much energy we want to transfer. We measured the volume of energy transfer from GC2 to flash module precisely and we used the same quantity of energy in order to make sure we would put the same stress to the flash bulb as GC2 does.
Kinetic energy, ½ m V², is a good example to understand. You could use high mass with low speed or use low mass with more speed to get same kinetic energy. The best option depends on which one is suitable for your condition and the result variables you want.
My condition for the testing is the testing time and accuracy, we had to select the option of low capacitance with middle voltage to build energy and transfer to flash bulb. We have sensor for number of flash counting so we selected 10 Hz. in order to get the accuracy of flash counting. 10 flash firing per second means 864,000 flash firing per 24 hours. We had spent 2.7 days to find the flash bulb life of 2.3 million flashing. Using of high capacitance need time to recover energy back otherwise it need a big converter circuit to charge it up. Time is an important variable if you want to test lifespan of device. We can design and make it with high capacitance but it is not smart design. Because we can put same energy and same stress to device by the better and more suitable circuit.
There are many flash bulbs sell in the market. Some have lifespan only 1,000,000 times or lower. How do you know which one is good for your customers? One million time of flashing can use about 100,000 shots in GC2 because 1 shot of GC2 need about 10 times of flashing. If customers use 100 shots per day, the flash could last for 1,000 days. It may be OK for home GC2 using. But if customers use 1,000 shots a day in driving range like golf center in Bangkok Thailand, this flash could last only 100 days. How do you know the quality of your flash bulb or components if you never test its lifespan before? Design and making the flash lifespan testing circuit is not easy. If you had no knowledge of power electronic especially dc to dc converter, your testing circuit would not work. It would be burnt before you got lifespan of flash module.
We used light sensor to counting number of flashing so we could set how much density of flash light that we would count. So we could choose the best quality of component especially flash bulb for our Ultra Flash Module. Therefore our Ultra Flash Module can last 2.3 million flashing. That means 230 thousand of shots. If using 1,000 shots a day, it could last for 230 days.
Andy, I’m sorry to mention your name in the forum. I have never look down on anyone before. We made our products for our customer honestly. And they always are really happy with what we offer and service.

By the way, if you want to know how long your flash module last, you may send me for testing.

**andygg1986** · 05-08-2019, 05:30 PM

Amon, I am not trying to say that your flash doesn't work and I apologize if I came off as condescending. There seemed to be some confusion as to whether your flash was the one as I have been selling for the last year and a half as evidenced by comment by wbond (same price, same warranty) and I wanted to make sure it was clear that this was not my flash.

In regard to your comments, I got 10kHz directly from Foresight's website (see attached photo). Maybe their advertisement is off by a factor of 8. The rate at which the flash fires is dependent on ball speed, so if you were hitting putts you can get much slower flashes than if you are hitting drivers.

I do in fact understand capacitance, and I tried to explain that your setup likely cannot deliver the same pulse pattern as a GC2 without using a similar size capacitor (560µF at 450V). The large capacitance is needed because it cannot be sufficiently recharged in between high frequency pulses. When you deliver the pulses at a slower rate, you can charge up your smaller paralleled capacitors in between pulses. You can drive a flash at a lower energy with smaller capacitors and get significantly longer life out of the bulb. It sounds like you adjusted your setup though to try and make a fair assessment of durability.

For lifetime testing, if you looked at the first post of my link you would see that I worked with another engineer who had built a test rig and he tested the flash to work for over two million pulses. Since then, I have had around 20 flashes used in commercial environments lasting over a year, and am now starting to get reorders because those users are happy with the performance. So I do know how long my flash lasts when being used both in a test rig and in an actual GC2.

I hope your flash works well because additional low price options are good for the consumer, and may get Foresight to drop their $500 price on their Superflash.

**Ports** · 05-09-2019, 12:08 AM

I have an andygg1986 flash and it works well.

**ChadGolf** · 05-24-2019, 05:36 AM

Amon andygg1986 When is the LED retrofit going to happen? Should just take about 200 in series to handle the 450V.

**Mikl** · 01-17-2024, 10:45 AM

I am interested in this GC2 flash ... but my unit is serial# 1308 ... will it work?

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Very interesting new Flash Module!!! for GC2

Very interesting new Flash Module!!! for GC2

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