ORC 1000 - Alignment Drift.

[Bill Duelly]

Well this has been plaguing me for years and each time I think I found the cause, it still drifts. I’ll explain:

It seems each time I go to run something, the bright spot I have focused on the aperature plate, has drifted out of alignment some, requiring a up/down or left/right tweek. I located the Allen screws that controlled the tightness on these and tightened them to what I felt was pretty tight before locking into place. No difference.

More recently I found that the center bulkhead itself was wobbly. On the operator side I saw what appeared to be a mount and tightened that. On the other side, by the plate that was for automation access, I made a small bracket to hold it down on that side. Center bulkhead was firmly in place. Still light focus drifts.

it is NOT during a show but when I go back to it like the next day.

I am running a 1000w bulb, which I would guess about 600 hours . Current around 32 which is steady.

Any thoughts or has anyone else experienced this? Thank you in advance for any input!

[Josh Jones]

Just spitballing....

Is the reflector tight? How about the bulb? I did see one lamp where the ceramic around the cathode connector had broken, and the bulb was free to swing around some.

Any chance the lamphouse itself is loose on the base, or something else mechanical between the lamp table and the back of the projector?

[Ryan Gallagher]

I would also wonder if something is thermally moving on you... you say it drifts while sitting overnight... so maybe the cold state it seems out until you adjust?

I guess does it seem to drift "between" two states... or is it more like it's always moving in one direction and needing correction?

[Bill Duelly]

Is the reflector tight? How about the bulb? I did see one lamp where the ceramic around the cathode connector had broken, and the bulb was free to swing around some.

Will check these out…. Probably wont have the time until Wednesday to do so….

Lamphouse base is solid on the projector so I’m discounting that.

Regarding ‘drift’ there does NOT appear to be a consistent direction. Sometimes a little to top or bottom or left or right…

[Tj Hopland]

That black cast basket assembly that holds the focus mechanism has its own blukhead sorts of things in it that are held in with I think 3 screws. The back one holds the focus adjuster rod. The one in deeper holds the brass assembly with the cable on it that the bulb threads into. I believe they are both some sort of phenolic material. If those are loose (or missing) that will let things move around a bit.

You said you located the allen screws? All 4 of em? They should be a stack, fender washer, cup spring washer, and another fender washer. You need to adjust all 4 which is a bit of a job in the M1000 since they decided to jam a whole power supply in back there. You start loose and get all 4 so they make contact. From there you go around all 4 doing say 1/4 turns till its nice and stiff. They shipped a T handle with these for a reason, that's now snug they are supposed to be. If you can move em with a standard grip tool with regular gripping force its too loose.


Also a side note if you are have to replace the bulb and have options get a 700w. The M1000 can't run high enough to keep a 1000w happy. 42 amps is the max for these things. You can set them higher but its just too much for some of those internals especially they way its packed in there. Its also really hard on a 20a 120v circuit. At the time those early ORC models hit the market many of its competitors were vertical designs which were less efficient at getting light to the screen. ORC's models were based on the equivalent light output of a vertical system. So the model 2500 put out the same light as a 2500w vertical but did it with a 1600w bulb. M1600 ran 1000w and the M1000 did 1000w equivalent was with almost 700 watts.

[Bill Duelly]

Update based upon posted input. First and foremost many thanks to those who responded so far to my inquiries.

lamp is fine and firmly in place. No broken ceramic or base that lamp screws into.

reflector, as well as the surrounding assembly is firmly in place.

lamphouse is firmly on projector base.

there are only two Allen screws which basically provide the friction for the mirror movements. To access them, I had to remove a large ‘can’ capacitor so I can access the screws. The ‘ cup spring’ washers were basically off center from the 2 other washers. I loosened the screws so I could center/reposition the ‘cup spring’. I tightened them up quite a bit then.

putting it back together to test, evidently I did not pay too much attention to the capacitor, as I reversed the + and -. Not good. Made some noise and I thought I heard a pop.

well I corrected the polarity and now I have a wicked flicker…. So gotta trace that down…. So it be some time until I address again the light drifting…

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Also, ORC derated the 1000 to 750 watts over two decades ago. So if you all of a sudden blow a rectifier diode or the blocking diode, or cook a choke, it's because of the 1kw lamp. I used model 1000's and 1600's on most of my location dailies jobs and had zero problems. They are capable of producing very flat light when properly set up.

[Tj Hopland]

2 screws could be right, I may have been thinking of the bigger lamps that had 4. I do remember taking that whole basket tube thing off for a good cleaning especially if they were somewhere that sucked up some popcorn oil. Things would get pretty gummed up.

Were you able to see those other bulkheads I was talking about screwed into the tube?

[Bill Duelly]

Thank you Mark. Image was steady before I removed the big blue soda can sized capacitor and put it back in backwards with the polarity swapped ?

[Bill Duelly]

TJ, yes I saw them. All was tight as it should be.

[Josh Jones]

If the power supply now smells like rotten fish, the cap let go. Otherwise, you're going to need an afternoon to go through the power supply looking for bad diodes. Early in my career, I thought those lamps were kinda cool. I never had to work on one of the integrated ones, but always remember techs telling me they didn't like working on them,

My current lamp at home is a 2500, basically the same lamp without the power supply. Its also not a lot of fun to work on.

[Bill Duelly]

Um no this has not been my favorite thing to work on.!...still working on eliminating flickers. Redid the diodes. didnt seem to make much difference. Swapped Control board... again... which seemed to help a bit, so Im now aiming for recapping the board. In experimenting with different interations and coming back to testing, it appears the light has NOT been drifting. All I did was straighten out the washers and tighten the adjustment friction screw some more. Also noted was in the bottom cover there was a little tab about at halfway ppoint that was broken off, that apparently was to hold the center bulkhead in place.(didnt recall seeing it in the diagrams in the manual!) I made a small right angle and drilled a hole to mount it., so Center bulkhead is now also rock steady.

[Josh Jones]

Is the flicker a constant frequency, or is it seemingly random? Can you see any movement corresponding to the flicker in the current meter?

[Dave Macaulay]

Electrolytic caps do not do well with reverse voltage. Replace it.

[Bill Duelly]

Josh, to try to clarify, the flickers now are sporadic. How best to describe them? almost more like random flicks, not a steady flicker. I ran a feature Saturday and there were these random flicks in the first 10 minutes or so and then rock steady for the balance of the 2 hour movie. Yes the meter did move some with these occasional 'flicks'

Dave, working on finding replacements caps for the boards. I did replace those big caps through this mess also.