Seagull SYK-5 remote control cube

Just some information for y'all:

Thought I'd give the SYK-5 remote cube a go with the MX-1. Nicely priced around £10 on eBay, but took a while to arrive (from abroad). Apart from the instructions being in Chinese Simplified (thank goodness for the web!), it's quite a nice little device.

However, I've had a few issues - some of which I've resolved.

1. On my ageing AF360-FGZ it would trigger on the "flash" mode (i.e. regular cube mode), but would do nothing reliably on the "red-eye" delayed mode.

2. The MX-1 wouldn't work with it for regular flash, but seemed to for red-eye mode.

So, yesterday and today I pulled apart the SYK-5 and did some electronic analysis

Turns out that they've used a 4013 dual D-type flip flop, which really needs at least 3V to work. The AF360 was supply a trigger voltage of just below 3.2V (effectively starving the circuit on the SYK-5). Hey ho... switch over to the monster Metz 50MZ5 (5V trigger voltage).

Now the K10D triggers properly, with the SYK-5 correctly ignoring the pre flash of P-TTL and firing off on the main flash.

But the MX-1 was a little trickier. So, out came the DSO (Digital Storage Oscilloscope). Turns out the MX-1 has a minute gap of 22ms between pre-flash and flash - and the Seagull can only be adjusted down to 70ms. Some reverse engineering showed that the variable resistor (1MΩ is in series with a 100kΩ resistor (R1), feeding into a 1µF capacitor. It's fiddly work, but certainly possible for those used to working with 0603 SMD (surface mount devices).

Shoving - for want of a better engineering term - a 1kΩ resistor across R1 now means the SYK-5 triggers perfectly off the MX-1

Now all I need is a boost convertor to handle very low trigger voltages off the AF360

Matt

Some images:

Before 'hacking'



Notice that R1 is tucked underneath the capacitor at the back left

Close up of R1 + 1kΩ







Triggering Metz 50MZ5 to the left of camera




WARNING
Doing this will invalidate the warranty on the SYK-5 and you may damage yours if you try! I accept ZERO responsibility for your actions (but a 'thank you' would be nice if you are successful )

Hi matt
Nice coarse in electronics