A Pair of 5's, Anyone?

BVH

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Sep 25, 2004
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After acquiring the separate components and building my SX-16 NightSun, and its' portable battery power supply, I craved its' little brother, the 500 Watt SX-5 Starburst with its' 2-degree minimum focus beam. Well, truth be told, I've craved it for years. Finally, about 3 months ago as I have posted, a bare light head with electric, 2-axis gimbal and a few cables appeared on Ebay. It was listed for a 5-day auction. It didn't sell. I made an offer to the seller and it was not accepted. He listed it again at a lower price and towards the end of that auction, I made a little higher offer. I didn't hear anything and the auction ended without it being sold. A few days later, I got a communication from the seller accepting my offer. Hurray! At least I have part of a Starburst! The light needs a Junction Box and a Control box to function but at least it was a start as Starbursts are very rare on Ebay or anywhere for that matter.

It arrived in good condition. I set about disassembling it for inspection and cleaning. All the components looked good inside and the reflector is about a 7.5 on the 10-scale. The lamp is an old Optical Radiation Corp (ORC) lamp but it works fine having tested it in my arc lamp test housing with my 100 to 600 Watt universal arc lamp power supply. Since that time, it has sat disassembled on my second workbench waiting for me to find the rest of the needed components. I wanted to buy a new reflector for it but I was waiting to see what the rest of the components were going to cost.

A short time later, an SX-5 Junction box and a control box showed up on Ebay separately. They were very costly so as usual, I made offers. None were accepted. A couple weeks later, I communicated with the sellers and made higher offers. I was told by both sellers that both items were sold.

A week ago, the same Junction box by the same seller showed up again. So I guess it didn't really sell. It was set for a 5-day auction. I made a higher offer and the seller accepted it on day 3. Great! Now I will have the 2nd of the 3 components needed.

Fast forward to this past weekend. In looking for the Control box, I tried a Google search I hadn't used before and WOW!, I got a hit for "SX-5, helicopter". I noticed the link was for a Craigslist item. That really surprised me. Then I figured it would be back East with my luck and the seller wouldn't ship it. So I clicked it and WOW!, it was for a 100% complete Starburst system with Junction box, Control box, gimbal and most of the cables. And holy moley, its' price was in British Pounds. Turns out, I got a hit for a very good condition Aberdeen, Scotland Craigslist Spectrolab Starbust. I'd have never guessed!

Now I really don't need a second Starburst but I could get it it at a good price so how could I resist. Then the stress began. Will the seller ship overseas to CA? I emailed the seller asking if he would consider shipping to me if I paid all shipping costs. A day later, he replied "Yes". My Adrenalin was flowing now! Of course there's always a risk using Craigslist as there is with Ebay but even more risky is having to Wire the money with a bank transfer. There's no recourse. But, my previous experience with the Ebay seller in Wales who sold me the two Marconi lights worked out just fine so I'm up to trying again. I was able to get some specific pics of views of the components that I wanted to verify that at least the seller has access to the light to take the pics. What are the odds of my acquiring 3 short arc lights from the British Isles? Actually, make that 4 lights. The SX-16's history starts in Great Britain, too with an ultimate move to FL, then to me

So as it stands now,

Starburst I - apart on the bench.




Waiting for a new lamp due this week.
Waiting for a decision to buy or not buy a new $900 reflector
Waiting for the Ebay Junction box due this week from FL.
Waiting for a few connectors due this week.
Waiting on a control box and cable to be ordered from Spectolab – if I want a separate one for each of the lights.




Starburst II
Waiting for shipping confirmation


 
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