The T45 charger can usually be had for about $40-50 at Keh or elsewhere used.
The batteries themselves are more difficult.
The charger is dumb, but the current is low enough that the batteries should
survive float for
many days and even for many times, as long as you don't try to use NiMh
replacements in the
battery packs.
Dead batteries packs have to be dissected and cells replaced which is pretty
tedious.
Somebody mentioned using Quantums turbo's, but the cost is high even used.
There are however many Quantum cable compatible, clones of the turbo which can
often be had for
much less. Chuck has his favourites from B&H that go for $120-130 or so new.
Other ones that are
often available used include: Lumidyne 52c,Permapak Jet,Jackrabbit,Sunpak 2000
etc. some run at
premium like jackrabbit others are deeply discounted. The permapaks are very
easy to recell
yourself and use lead acid, for example. Oly's own relabeled version of the
Sunpak 2000
unfortunately, does not take Quantum cables and is even more expensive.
Sunpack sells an inexpensive HiV pack the TrIIa. ($80-110 new) but with no
Quantum cable
compatibility. So this means you must chop off the sunpak connector and solder
on an Olympus
connector removed from a Quantum-Oly cable. This is not difficult as long as
you have modest
soldering/electrical skills. Total cost then is a little over $100 including a
used Quantum cable.
The one shortcoming of the TRIIa pack is the battery connector plug is
underated and eventually
in long term use overheats and becomes unreliable, so needs to be replaced. The
nice thing, is
these packs are very easy to work on especially to replace the batteries (any
user can do it)and
have enough space for even bigger batteries if you want to modify them. You
can often get a used
TrII pak for little money with a dead battery which you can then replace. If
you wire the cells
yourself, this is extremely economical and you can put in higher capacity cells
although, they
must be high current rated NiCd, peak currents are high.
One other option is to replace the t45 battery with two Hawker cyclon ("Gates
")lead acid d-cells
(6$ea) which will fit into the handle battery compartment (with some space fill
padding). You just
wire all the different connectors for the T45 together to the battery two
terminals. Number of
flashes will probably be ~half because of smaller battery and you will have to
make/get a 4V lead
acid battery charger. I have not done this, but did consider it a while back,
so I know cells fit
and voltage although on low side, is likely close enough to work.
Tim Hughes
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