Flashmatic Photocells

[bgadow]

I have my Zenith Flash-Matic working pretty good. I want to have the remote tuned in the best possible. Right now it works but I think it could be just a little better. One of the photocells was dead so I replaced it with one from my junkbox, an light sensor from a 70s tv set. It works but isn't a very good match because it is much more sensitive and has a different resistance range. The originals test infinite on my meter when dark and drop down to about 20 megaohm with light. The newer one runs more like 10 megaohm dark and maybe 500K light, something like that. Anyway, with the adjustments available I can more or less make it work. I put a piece of white tape over the cell and that helped some. I tried adding resistance in series but that didn't work.

The cell that was bad appeared to have been a replacement part and there is another like it in another position. That one doesn't work too well. I was thinking about just replacing all 4 (they are easy to change) with the same type and adjusting for that. Has anyone had any experience with these? I couldn't find anything in the Mouser catalog but Allied has a selection of replacements. Again, not too big a deal but as it is one control will want to go haywire while another won't work at all.

What a gimmick!