19" motorized Carlisle and Finch searchlight restoration / lamp upgrade

[Obsessedwithlights]

Hello community,

First and foremost I want to say how much I enjoy this forum. I have learned a lot and am jealous of the lights people have restored and upgraded.

I am currently working on a restoration of a 19" Carlisle and Finch motorized searchlight from the early 70's. Currently it is completely tore down and has been sent to be powder coated. Currently I have been buffing out the glass lens and cleaning all the parts so I can start putting it back together once I get it back from powder coating.

All electronics for the drive system are working after going through everything. The searchlight has a BTR 1,000 watt halogen bulb currently and I wanted to upgrade the lamp to something more intense.

I was leaning towards an HMI bulb or a Xenon short arc.

I have researched both quite a bit, but I am having issues with exactly what I need in order to safely operate either bulb. I have a decent amount of electrical knowledge, but have never experimented with higher voltage igniter and all the circuitry.

I am hoping someone can educate me on how I would go about getting either lamp to ignite and running.

I found a DC power supply from an old movie theater which is a strong industries 1kw - 3kw xenon power supply and I also found an IREM high voltage ignitor rated @ 150 amps at 40kv. I do not know exactly how those are wired together, I am guessing the igniter goes in series with the bulb? I am confused on what tells the ignitor to stop firing once the arc is established and the bulb is running on constant dc current to sustain the arc.

I know what I am asking is not simple, but if someone could point me in the right direction regarding on how to upgrade this lamp without making drastic changes to the original searchlight would be great.

I should mention the reflector is a parabolic reflector, but it does NOT have a hole in the middle. It is one solid reflector, not sure if that changes anything in regards to upgrading the lamp.

I look forward to sharing pictures of the restoration which is the easy part. I also hopefully look forward to sharing some beam shots of beautiful xenon or hmi beauty!

Thank you to anyone who chimes in!

 

[IgNITEor]

Alright! We have a thread dedicated to the C&F 19 inchers

There are plenty of these lights still out there on work boats and more are retiring to dark and dusty
corners of forgotten dockside storage sheds where I found mine back in the early 90's.

The one you have is called the DEC model (distant electric control). The stock glass reflector has a lesser parabolic
shape more suited for larger filament lamps like the BTR. Upgrading to a HMI family lamp can be affordable
given the beam angle projected. The HMI lamps being of the AC type have most of their luminosity at
the tips of the electrodes and outwards slightly.
You can use a Xenon lamp, but the desired collimated beam won't happen without upgrading the reflector as well.
The C & F glass reflectors have a focal length of several inches so there will be plenty of room to work with. You could mount a Xenon lamp vertically with forced air flow. The "cone" of light between the anode & cathode would still project fairly well with your existing reflector but the lamps real capability works better with a deeper metal reflector and Rhodium coating.

The HMI lamps of the Osram SharXS group have short electrode gaps, about 7-9 mm. The Osram HTI Lok-it lamps are even tighter at 5 mm. The most popular are the 575 and 1200 watt. The lamp I'm currently eyeballing is the 1500 Watt HTI, also a 5 mm gap. Unfortunately, Osram has indicated (mysteriously) they are discontinuing the socket for this lamp, so I am going to contact them. The HMI lamps come in double and single end mounting. There is also a group of HTI lamps (the non- lok it bi-pin types) that use the GY22 base which is getting harder to find.

My HMI lamp upgrade was the single-ended 1200 Watt older style with a 11 mm gap, and the still available G38 mogul bi-pin base and a reflector with about 70% reflectivity and did surprisingly well. The SE lamps with the outer glass enclosing the inner quartz globe are more tolerant of lesser air flow than the open quartz lamps. Nearly all the open quartz globes emit high levels of UV radiation, so be mindful of this. Your light's front glass will block UV.

When I briefly tested the 1200 SE lamp horizontally in a 24" light with a slightly deeper reflector that was designed for a large, 10K lamp, I was able to focus the beam on either of electrodes. That was a crazy discovery! When centered between the two hot spots, it was still a good throw of light.

Regarding the IREM ignitor, you are correct that it is in series with the ballast output circuit to the lamp "+" using the beefy terminals with the hex nuts on top of the casing. The terminal stud with the lightning symbol is the output side. There is a terminal board usually one of the sides for either 120 or 240 volt AC input for starting the lamp. AC power is applied with a pushbutton switch and only for a second or two for lamp ignition.
You can email IREM, with the model number and they will send you a wiring diagram.

Do you have a pic of your light before you tore it apart? Love to see the rough "as-is" version.

 

[Obsessedwithlights]

Thank you for your reply. I will be honest with you, I can't add anything as an attachment when I reply and I do not know how to enter a URL so you can see any of my pictures?
Would love to post some of them, I'll have to try to figure that out.

 

[Obsessedwithlights]

Some pictures before the restoration and the light completely disassembled for powder coating.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/owBmXdiP6u6Y2fp86

 

[Obsessedwithlights]

Well clearly that didn't work for adding pics... I am such a noob. Who would have thought adding pictures to a forum could be confusing.

Edit.. figured it out, but you have to click the link in order to see it. I have to figure out how to post pictures to the site. Think I have to be a paying member, will have to sign up to be a paying member.

 

[BVH]

You don't need to be a paying member. You need to use a photo hosting site and then use the hosting site link and insert it in your post. I still use the Photobucket hosting service.

 

[Obsessedwithlights]

You don't need to be a paying member. You need to use a photo hosting site and then use the hosting site link and insert it in your post. I still use the Photobucket hosting service.

I put the link in the post above... the pictures do not show on the site, you literally have to click the link to see the pictures.

I was assuming for you to be able to post as an attachment to your post you have to be a paying member. The attachment button is not available on my screen when I post a reply. It is washed out like it is there, but not available to click.

 

[BVH]

I don't know if this will help but in Photobucket, there are multiple types of links you can choose:

Direct Link
HTML Code
HTML Thumb
IMG
IMG Thumb
Email and IM

I use the IMG link. The other links react like yours, clickable links to get to the pic instead of the pic being imbedded in your post.

I tried to post the literal link text but it still imbeds the pic.

 

[IgNITEor]

Obsessedwithlights, you're getting closer to pic posting. Keep at it!

I am really disappointed with Photobucket for their scale back of hosting abilities and what they charge now.
And yet, I've been dropping $5 a month for mediocre service and they STILL can't figure out how to link my old "free"
account. Photobucket was offering a $20 special membership to CPF'rs if I saw that correctly, somewhere.

I did find some older pics on Blogger that I'm going to attempt to transfer back to VSS-1 thread where the original beamshot pics have disappeared, expired, or whatever.

Saw your DEC base in your link. I always wanted to see the inner workings of that operation. Very cool!