Zone VI Enlarger Ballast Replacement

[Mexipike]

I have a buddy in Mexico City who is asking me to help him get his Zone Vi enlarger back operational. He says it's the ballast that's not working. Hopefully someone here has some info on where I could source him a replacement. I'm including some images of the part and the information panel from the enlarger.

[Mexipike]

183464

183465

183466

183467

[Keith Pitman]

Check in with Richard Ritter. He used to work for Zone VI.

[RichardRitter]

They were custom made and the company is out of business.

[Mexipike]

They were custom made and the company is out of business.

Any ideas on something that could be rigged up? Plenty of electronics companies he can buy ballast from in Mexico City.

[Eric Woodbury]

Aristo Grid products probably made the lamp and supplied the ballast. They are gone, but someone here will know where they went because parts are still available. That said, take your ballast to a sign company and see if they have something close enough to make it go. These ballasts are not the same as a neon transformer, but they are cousins.

How do you know it's not the tube? Not much in a ballast to fail. The ballast is a winding and a core and maybe one small bypass cap. I don't remember anything else in there. Regardless, I'd start with a sign company or industrial lighting company.

[Chuck Pere]

If it's a VC head here's an old thread on problems: http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?146336-Zone-VI-VC-Head-trouble

Looks like no fix was found for bad parts.

[LabRat]

Are you sure it's a ballast??? The ones I have worked on with grid tubes had a HV AC transformer with voltage somewhere over 400V...

Connect an AC voltmeter to the output and see if there is an output voltage... A replacement might be small box with an old small transformer from something tube...

If someone has a small HV AC power supply, it could be dialed up to test the grid... It shouldn't hurt the tube as its just phosphor and gas inside...

See if the grid has burnt ends...

Steve K

[Duolab123]

We have a great old company in town that still retains neon sign fabrication and repair. You need to find someone like that. I'm not an expert but I think that's a stabilized HV power supply. Have a tech type check to see if it's functioning at all.

[ic-racer]

This is 75W. Maybe this or something similar.

https://www.buyultraviolet.com/ballast-surelite-cold-cathode-120v-10-0024b-r