Jobo Serial Numbers

[laroygreen]

Hey guys, have another Jobo related question:

Is it safe to buy a Jobo CPA2 with a serial number of 13320? According to the Jobo website, this is the "2nd Upgrade: Strengthened the rotation motor circuit to accommodate larger loads, i.e. 3000 Drums.".

I plan to develop 4x5 (maybe 8x10 eventually) sheet film in an expert drum, and I know ideally you should look for a Jobo with the 3rd Upgrade (serial number higher than 22000), but does it make a huge difference or is it just a nice to have upgrade, or more specifically, will the Jobo break down or exhibit some undesirable characteristic when using large drums?

FYI. I plan to develop colour C-41 4x5 film (may develop as much as 25-50 sheets a month for a project).

Thanks for the help!

[Greg Blank]

Make sure it is working with an unconditional return policy. Their was a reason for the third upgrade. They found that the second was not quite enough for those Expert drums. In my personal CPP2 I recall having to have the upgraded motor plus circuit board changes for Expert drums.....my second series motor died. My serial number was in the 20,000 range. Jobo actually made tweeks of the components along the way- so a given processor between say 13,000 and 22000 may have more or less of the final upgrade.

A CPA2 is a hard sell to me as a potential buyer, not because of the serial but because Jobo discontinued the model and stopped servicing them 5 years prior to Jobo stopping building the CPP2. Usually there is a good reason a manufacturer discontinues a product, it could be lack of sales, or difficulty in obtaining key components-I don't know.

If you were to say CPP2 and serial 13320 I would say go for it becuase the boards would at least have the same basic design as the 22000 and above. I have a 130-2 serial CPP2 in house that I have been working on.....so I know with the CPP2 it would be ok.

The problem is that the CPA2 have a fair amount of difference in the circuit boards and are not the same as the CPP2. If one component is no longer available it would make your machine obsolete.

Hey guys, have another Jobo related question:

Is it safe to buy a Jobo CPA2 with a serial number of 13320? According to the Jobo website, this is the "2nd Upgrade: Strengthened the rotation motor circuit to accommodate larger loads, i.e. 3000 Drums.".

I plan to develop 4x5 (maybe 8x10 eventually) sheet film in an expert drum, and I know ideally you should look for a Jobo with the 3rd Upgrade (serial number higher than 22000), but does it make a huge difference or is it just a nice to have upgrade, or more specifically, will the Jobo break down or exhibit some undesirable characteristic when using large drums?

FYI. I plan to develop colour C-41 4x5 film (may develop as much as 25-50 sheets a month for a project).

Thanks for the help!

[laroygreen]

Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I've decided that a Jobo might not be right for me, and I'll instead use a constant temperature bath and hand rotate the drum or incorporate a servo motor & controller if that proves too unreliable. Seems much simpler than buying something for several hundred dollars that may very well break with no simple way of fixing.

Thanks again, and hopefully my solution works :-)