Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Christie Lamphouse mystery

This is topic Christie Lamphouse mystery - no light, then light?! in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-12-2004, 02:16 PM:

We have a Christie 2000w lamphouse which last night refused to light up. It had worked perfectly the previous day.

All connections were good and tight on the diodes. I removed all the diodes, tested them, they all tested good, put them back in again and then it worked.

What happened? And is there something I can do to prevent it happening again?

Finally, is it necessary to totally remove the diodes from the lamphouse to test them or can they be tested while installed? (I've always removed them completely to test because that's how I learned.)

Posted by Tony Hall (Member # 2490) on 07-12-2004, 02:33 PM:

Make sure All the Air FLow Switchs are working properly, it may have just been one of your Intakes/Exhaust took awhile to start up.
And once i had a 3phase breaker for the lamphouse go bad and lose a phase but could'nt tell it from the outside and the connections were tight.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-12-2004, 03:22 PM:

Let's start at ground zero on this one.

What model is it?

Do you have a rooftop exhaust, or a blower mounted on top of the lamphouse? Even so, remember those microswitches do fail.

When you turn the DC POWER switch on to light the lamp manually, do you hear a "clunk" from the rectifier?

If you hear that "clunk", do you hear the "zap" from the ignitor trying to strike the lamp?

(Remove the diodes, however I don't think that's your problem.)

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-12-2004, 05:13 PM:

It's a Christie CC20 console, 2000 Watt.

We have a rooftop exhaust which is working fine.

The airflow switches are fine.

As far as the DC power -- when the lamp didn't light I flipped that switch, and heard nothing at all - but when I hit the manual strike switch I could hear the ignitor "zap" and see the bulb try to light up.

As mentioned above, after I put the diodes back in, the lamp worked fine so I'm wondering if it wasn't some corrosion on one of the diodes or something.

I attempted to call Mark G. on this (he's doing our service work now) but the cell phone number on his biz card led to a "wrong number" (tried it twice).

Posted by Mike Babb (Member # 1379) on 07-12-2004, 05:25 PM:

There's that current dial switch on the back side that can cause issues, either not making good contact or I've seen the contacts burn right out.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-12-2004, 06:42 PM:

Your contactor is not closing. You can press that manual ignition button all day long and it won't ever strike without it.

I forget whether altering the tap setting will affect whether the contactor latches on the those or not, so you can give Mike's idea above a try, since it certainly won't hurt anything. (Pull the knob out and go up or down 1 notch.) If that doesn't work, you need to have a service call.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 07-12-2004, 07:21 PM:

Mike,
Although I'm normally doing that service route It could actually be myself or Clayton that does your service. If I'm in for surgery then Clayton would cover for me and so on. It also works the other way round. I'm pretty surprised you didn't call the office today!! If I'm not on call, which rarely happens on weekends I'm usually not around or reachable. I spent this past weekend up in the mountains doing photography. Always use the main office number 801-355-1250 to contact us. After normal buisness hours and on weekends its automatically forworded to another number and either someone "live" will answer or you can leave a message. That call forword is checked on the averaqge of six rimes a day over the weekend by whoever is on call that weekend(usually Clayton), so a call back is never more than an hour or more away, and usually happens with in 15 minutes. If you call the office tommrrow Vince will also give you many other contact numbers that you can use to talk to someone "live" imediately. There are at least a half dozen numbers he can give you.

Best way to get assistance:
1. Call the office number 801-355-1250 Lv msg if no one "live" answers.

2 Use any of the contact numbers that Vince will give you when you call the shop tommrrow. He will give them to you(or fax them to you) in a prefered order of usage as some of us are more experienced than others and you should take first crack at contacting the more experienced people first. If these numbers do not get you any assistance then there's been a nerve gas leak at the army depot and we're all dead [Eek!]

!

If your contactor is not pulling in then something in the safety loop(door switches, air flow switches, etc.) in series with the AC to the contactor coil is most likely awry. Might even be the door lock switch or air flow(even though you've tested it). Bad air flow is the most common problem, door lock second, everything else is pretty much a toss up. I see very few contactors coils fail but it could certainly happen.

Mark

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-12-2004, 08:52 PM:

One thing I did neglect to mention, while all this was going on last night both the DC and AC power lights were out. When it started working again, the DC lite was lit but the AC still was not...tested the light, and the freakin' indicator bulb is burned out in it. (Of course, it IS 24 years old.)

At any rate it's running just fine right now so I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks all for the suggestions.

Mark - I did call the office # last night, and got the answering machine, and eventually talked to Clayton. The lamp is running normally tonight.

(FWIW, I used to always call Eikhof on his cell so it was more out of habit than anything that I called yours.) [Smile]

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 07-13-2004, 08:53 AM:

Mike, when I test diodes, I disconnect the leads from the TB posts. Then check. You just have to isolate each diode from the circuit.

Paul

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-13-2004, 10:41 AM:

Even thought the fans are running I have had the airflow switchs not move and also door switch not close so the disasembly probably jarred it loose

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 07-13-2004, 07:55 PM:

The problem apparently was just a safety switch.

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-13-2004, 10:29 PM:

That's my "final answer" too. It's running fine again tonight.