STUDIO COLOR 575

I HAVE 6 STUDIO COLORS TOTAL. ONE OF THEM IS SIGNIFIGANTLY DIMMER THAN THE OTHERS. A LOCAL TECH REPLACED THE IGNITOR. DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT COULD BE CAUSING THIS. I TALKED TO HIM ON THE PHONE TODAY AND HE THOUGHT THAT IT COULD BE THE BALLAST. IS THIS HARD TO REMOVE. NOW I USED TO BE A MECHANIC SO I WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT I COULD SNAKE IT OUT OF THERE. I NEED HELP ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREAT THANKS
  • The Ballast is not at all hard to replace. But when I had this the same problem you did back when I worked in a night club, I replaced the bulb and that fixed my problem. How many hours are on the bulb? I dont know why he would replace the ignitor for this issue, But I wold have started with the ballast first, then worked my way to the power supply board. But thats me.

    Mike
  • #1 Clean the unit. Paying special attention to the dicros and lenses.
    Caution! Delicate glass. I use a support I made from foam to do cleanings but the support of a few fingers does well.
    #2 Check the light path for misaligned objects or UFO's that got in somehow.;)
    #3 Optoimize the lamp.
    #4 Check voltage at fixture.
    #5 Check to make sure the Iris/dimmer opens properly.
    #6 Check shutter it may not be opening all the way.

    If nothing works :dunno: scratch your head and come back here.:rolleyes:
  • I am with puffy on this one,
    (As Usual)
    It sound like it just has a much older lamp than the others, Or perhaps the lamp has failed in an unusual way.
    I have seen the pinches in the inner envelope fail and then the lamp will continue to work at reduced output.
    Otherwise, I would lean more torwards a Lamp power supply than the Ignitor card. Since once the lamp is struck the ignitor is pretty much just a piece of wire.
    Of course, the LPS is a fairly expensive chunk of electronics, but that is what I would lean torwards..
    Of course, this is all assuming you are talking about Studio Color S's or 575's
    If you have M's it could be a voltage setting as well, I am not sure, but if you had a fixture tapped for 208, but plugged into 120, it may indeed strike, but run at reduced output.. but this is pure speculation on my part... Not something I have tried..

    Now in rereading your post, I see you refer to the possibly bad part as a ballast, that leans me torward an incorrect tap setting, as usually when a magnetic ballast fails it stops working, not so much on the reduced output.

    Good luck, let us know how you work out.
    Joshua Wood
  • I tried replacing the lamp and that gave me nothing. I can check the voltage at the bulb, the only problem is I don't know what the speck is for that lamp.
  • [quote=ilvenw]I tried replacing the lamp and that gave me nothing. I can check the voltage at the bulb, the only problem is I don't know what the speck is for that lamp.

    DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!! www.emoticons.free.fr/smileys/Emotion-Scare/nerves.gif
    DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TEST THE VOLTAGE AT THE LAMP!!! Its 20-30k!!!
    Destroy your meter you will and zap your ass back to the stone age in the process!
    Did you clean all the glass and check all the other points in my post??
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