A month ago or so, a trakkaBeam M800, (800 Watt, ground based Short Arc – not the airborn model) appeared on Ebay. I'm not completely sure I remember correctly but I believe it was listed for a starting bid of $5995. The light was listed as "For parts, not working" and further down in the ad it said "More than likely, it will need to be repaired". The package included the light, the power supply that can be fed with 120VAC or straight DC, the hand held remote, all 6 cables and an OEM rolling Pelican-type case. Six grand was too much for my budget and too much for me to even make an offer. It didn't sell and got no bids.
It was re-listed for a starting bid of $3,000. Still too much for me. A few days or so before the listing ended, I communicated with the seller trying to get some info and more pics of the units. He had posted only one pic of the light sitting in the rolling case and it wasn't a good pic. The pics he sent me showed the physical condition of everything was pretty good. So I decided, as I seem to frequently do, to make an offer. He replied that the offer was too low. I countered with a little bit more and he still said it wasn't enough and that this is a $25,000 light, new. It was all a very pleasant back & forth. So I figured I'd wait a couple of days and see what happens. In a few hours, I noticed that he had posted all his new pics in the ad. I thought this would move it out. As luck would have it and day and a half later, he communicated back saying he would take the offer. I guess the pics didn't help.
So yesterday, it arrives at about 5:30 and low and behold – the shipping box looks in good condition and better yet, the contents look untouched and undamaged. Yea! First impression was that it was bigger than the pics made it look but it's actually fairly small for an 800 Watt light. So I hooked everything up, flipped the switches and the light made some noises and wouldn't stop making noises. It could tell it was either the focus motor or filter wheel motor noise. It wasn't cooling fan noise. The display on the remote was blank but the crude operation manual said in some still hard to understand English that the display might be blank if switches were pushed in a certain order. The manual also said that the motor noise was a reset to neutral booting process for the focus and filter wheel systems but they should stop in about 8 seconds. So I hit the lamp start button anyway and no surprise – it did not light. I had already got prices for a new lamp figuring that might be the reason it didn't work. It uses a Cermax 1000 Watt Elliptical reflectored lamp driven at 800 Watts which is well within the manufacturers range of 650 to 1050 Watts. This is the same style of lamp used in the Megaray. However, a new 1000 Watt lamp is going to cost $1,250 discounted from $1,500.
So I unhook everything and proceed to move the light around for disassembly. When I turn it over, I hear this big "clunk" inside. Hmmmmm, is that a piece of the lamp rattling around? I finally figure how to get the light apart and what do I see as I pull the first layer of guts out? A brass gear about the size of a quarter. Hmmmm, that could be very good news because with the logic built into this light, if it doesn't see feedback from the focus and filter wheel mechanisms, it won't light the display up and probably won't light the lamp. (I'm guessing on the last part) I quickly see where the gear goes and it's obvious that the set screw came loose and it came off the end of a ball screw focusing shaft. To fix it, I'll have to finish removing the final layer of guts.
Dinner and TV show time, break for 2 hours (it was excruciating being away from the light!)
Back to work. I finally figure out how to remove everything else. The focusing system is revealed and it's in pristine condition and quite well made. It functions just like the Megaray. The lamps elliptical reflectored light source forms a pinpoint focused beam a few inches in front of its' window after it has gone through one of six filters (IR, yellow ect.) on the motorized filter wheel. The focused beam strikes a primary optic lens and is projected out into the secondary lens. It's now 11:15 PM.
Well, I can't go to bed without knowing if the brass gear was the only issue or if I'm going to have to spend $1,250 on a new lamp. So I put it back together outside the housing, hook up the cables, ensure that there is no chance of being struck by the high voltage and proceed through the startup process. I turn on the power supply and the focus and filter wheel do their thing and come to a stop. That's a good sign. Then all is quiet. I then flip on the remote on/off switch and see the cooling fan move a few degrees and stop. That's probably not a good sign. Lastly, I push the lamp-start switch and voila! – the cooling fan takes off, a few seconds delay and I hear the familiar "strike" that Cermax lamps make and I see light! I'm happy and can go to bed.
Remaining issues.
I need to talk to TrakkaBeam about two items. In this focusing system, both the primary and secondary lenses are moved. In the Megaray, only the secondary lens is moved. The focus system is complex in that the machined grooves in the ball screw focusing shaft provide widely varying rates of movement for the two different lenses and in my tinkering, I moved one lens so that it jumped a complete grove on the shaft. Then I proceeded to move the shaft forward and backward where one lens moved and the other didn't. So now I'm realizing that the lenses are no longer in sync and I've probably screwed up the beam. I've found a way that maybe re-syncronizes them but it's just a wild guess.
There is a series of detent groves on the filter wheel that tells the system when to stop the filter correctly in line with the beam. I noticed that when the micro switch detent arm is in the groove and wheel movement has stopped, that the chosen filter or blank hole is way off-center over the light beam passages hole to the primary lens. The switch is adjustable so I need to ask Trakka where it's supposed to stop the wheel.
I may need to buy a new remote unless the display can be fixed.
All in all, though, I've gotten very lucky again!
The "driven" brass gear is missing off the shaft just above the visible brass gear
Ignitor and lamp connections
The guts out of the housing
Here, I've put the missing brass gear back on the shaft
The Cermax lamp in it's cooling fins
The primary and secondary lens ball screw tracks - big difference in movement of each lens
It was re-listed for a starting bid of $3,000. Still too much for me. A few days or so before the listing ended, I communicated with the seller trying to get some info and more pics of the units. He had posted only one pic of the light sitting in the rolling case and it wasn't a good pic. The pics he sent me showed the physical condition of everything was pretty good. So I decided, as I seem to frequently do, to make an offer. He replied that the offer was too low. I countered with a little bit more and he still said it wasn't enough and that this is a $25,000 light, new. It was all a very pleasant back & forth. So I figured I'd wait a couple of days and see what happens. In a few hours, I noticed that he had posted all his new pics in the ad. I thought this would move it out. As luck would have it and day and a half later, he communicated back saying he would take the offer. I guess the pics didn't help.
So yesterday, it arrives at about 5:30 and low and behold – the shipping box looks in good condition and better yet, the contents look untouched and undamaged. Yea! First impression was that it was bigger than the pics made it look but it's actually fairly small for an 800 Watt light. So I hooked everything up, flipped the switches and the light made some noises and wouldn't stop making noises. It could tell it was either the focus motor or filter wheel motor noise. It wasn't cooling fan noise. The display on the remote was blank but the crude operation manual said in some still hard to understand English that the display might be blank if switches were pushed in a certain order. The manual also said that the motor noise was a reset to neutral booting process for the focus and filter wheel systems but they should stop in about 8 seconds. So I hit the lamp start button anyway and no surprise – it did not light. I had already got prices for a new lamp figuring that might be the reason it didn't work. It uses a Cermax 1000 Watt Elliptical reflectored lamp driven at 800 Watts which is well within the manufacturers range of 650 to 1050 Watts. This is the same style of lamp used in the Megaray. However, a new 1000 Watt lamp is going to cost $1,250 discounted from $1,500.
So I unhook everything and proceed to move the light around for disassembly. When I turn it over, I hear this big "clunk" inside. Hmmmmm, is that a piece of the lamp rattling around? I finally figure how to get the light apart and what do I see as I pull the first layer of guts out? A brass gear about the size of a quarter. Hmmmm, that could be very good news because with the logic built into this light, if it doesn't see feedback from the focus and filter wheel mechanisms, it won't light the display up and probably won't light the lamp. (I'm guessing on the last part) I quickly see where the gear goes and it's obvious that the set screw came loose and it came off the end of a ball screw focusing shaft. To fix it, I'll have to finish removing the final layer of guts.
Dinner and TV show time, break for 2 hours (it was excruciating being away from the light!)
Back to work. I finally figure out how to remove everything else. The focusing system is revealed and it's in pristine condition and quite well made. It functions just like the Megaray. The lamps elliptical reflectored light source forms a pinpoint focused beam a few inches in front of its' window after it has gone through one of six filters (IR, yellow ect.) on the motorized filter wheel. The focused beam strikes a primary optic lens and is projected out into the secondary lens. It's now 11:15 PM.
Well, I can't go to bed without knowing if the brass gear was the only issue or if I'm going to have to spend $1,250 on a new lamp. So I put it back together outside the housing, hook up the cables, ensure that there is no chance of being struck by the high voltage and proceed through the startup process. I turn on the power supply and the focus and filter wheel do their thing and come to a stop. That's a good sign. Then all is quiet. I then flip on the remote on/off switch and see the cooling fan move a few degrees and stop. That's probably not a good sign. Lastly, I push the lamp-start switch and voila! – the cooling fan takes off, a few seconds delay and I hear the familiar "strike" that Cermax lamps make and I see light! I'm happy and can go to bed.
Remaining issues.
I need to talk to TrakkaBeam about two items. In this focusing system, both the primary and secondary lenses are moved. In the Megaray, only the secondary lens is moved. The focus system is complex in that the machined grooves in the ball screw focusing shaft provide widely varying rates of movement for the two different lenses and in my tinkering, I moved one lens so that it jumped a complete grove on the shaft. Then I proceeded to move the shaft forward and backward where one lens moved and the other didn't. So now I'm realizing that the lenses are no longer in sync and I've probably screwed up the beam. I've found a way that maybe re-syncronizes them but it's just a wild guess.
There is a series of detent groves on the filter wheel that tells the system when to stop the filter correctly in line with the beam. I noticed that when the micro switch detent arm is in the groove and wheel movement has stopped, that the chosen filter or blank hole is way off-center over the light beam passages hole to the primary lens. The switch is adjustable so I need to ask Trakka where it's supposed to stop the wheel.
I may need to buy a new remote unless the display can be fixed.
All in all, though, I've gotten very lucky again!
The "driven" brass gear is missing off the shaft just above the visible brass gear
Ignitor and lamp connections
The guts out of the housing
Here, I've put the missing brass gear back on the shaft
The Cermax lamp in it's cooling fins
The primary and secondary lens ball screw tracks - big difference in movement of each lens