All this is really impressive for someone with a mechanical background.
I have some of the parts and will test the solutions this week when I get the missing one.
That would be a good practice!!!
Thanks guys.
I thought about that also but using two different digital SLRs and a variety of settings the shutter always lagged the flash (or the camera sensor lagged the flash) enough. Another concern I had was the pre flash triggering things too soon and I found I could adjust to eliminate that problem.
I was going to butcher a small LED flashlight but never got that far in messing around with it.