Zone VI Compensating Enlarging Metronome "TikTok" instruction

[Ginette]

I search for the instruction of the Zone VI Compensating Enlarging Metronome "TikTok" and the Photo Cell that come with. A scan or a photocopy will be welcome. You can email through the forum or PM me for my postal address.
Thanks a lot.

[Doremus Scudder]

Contact Calumet customer service, they used to market the Zone VI products and still support some of them I believe. They had a temperature probe for my Compensating Developing Timer when I needed one.

Failing that, someone here can probably get you a copy of the instructions, and you can scour eBay for a photo cell

Good luck,

Doremus Scudder

[André Michaud]

Ginette , tu dois parler francais,
J ai un tik tok , mais pas de livret d instructions , c est un metronome electronique
qui doit etre jumele a une tete d agrandisseur genre ,,cold light,, avec une connection
speciale pour brancher le tik tok. Ce systeme etait vendu par Fred Picker de Zone VI
Le Tik Tok a cette particularite est qu il varie la frequence des sons bip bip selon la temperature de la lampe,plus la lampe est froide au debut de la seance , les bip bip sont espaces. quand elle rechauffe , les bip bip sont rapproches. Ce sont ces bip bip que tu comptes et qui representent le temps d exposition correct selon la temprrature
de la lampe. Si tu as d autre questions , je puis y repondre, j utilise le tik tok

[André Michaud]

Ginette,I just found the instructions you needed.Send me postal address and I 'll
send you a copy of a text '' Zone VI Compensating Metronome'' by Fred Picker
and a copy of a text published in July-August 1985 Darkroom magasine by
Joseph B. Englander.
Excuse my bad english , I am a French man

[wfwhitaker]

There's really not much to operating the TikTok. You just plug it in to the socket for the photocell in your lamp head. With the proper battery installed, the TikTok will start when the lamp is turned on; when you turn the lamp off, the TikTok stops. Count "seconds" as you would with a metronome when printing. The TikTok changes the time between Tik's depending on light intensity so that each interval is an equivalent "exposure unit". It's a very clever system, all the more so because it's so simple. With a footswitch and a TikTok you have a timing system for a coldlight that's foolproof. And it's independent of the lamp's power supply, so you don't have to worry about heavy inductive loads as you would with a conventional timer.

[Ginette]

Thanks to all.
I already have the Zone VI photocell installed on the used Aristo D1414 coldlight I just bought but no instructions for both.

@ André, I PM you my address (merci je suis francophone aussi)

@ Will, yes a footswitch will be great, I didn't have one with my kit but I don't see any socket for it on my metronome. Did Zone VI produce more than 1 model ? or the footswitch connect between the actual plug and photocell socket.
On WWWBay Item number: 350264886720 , maybe a footswitch for the Zone VI timers only, it's a socket similar to phone jack.

[wfwhitaker]

The compensating metronome does not take a footswitch. It is self-contained and turns on when the lamp comes on and turns off when the lamp turns off. What I meant was a footswitch to turn the lamp on and off is very convenient because it leaves both hands free for burning and dodging. You can find a footswitch at http://www.mcmaster.com/ or most any industrial supply house. Item number 7614K32 or 7717K13 should work (type the item number in the search box at McMaster's site). Please note that both of these are rated at 125 volts and are not rated at 250 volts. If your cold light runs off 220 volts, you'd need to select a switch rated for that voltage with the appropriate current capacity. Of the two I listed, the former is rated at 15 amps and the lighter duty (and less expensive) switch is rated at 10 amps. Either would probably work, but the first switch also has a heavier duty housing and is more pleasant to work with (I use one at work for a different application). Both switches have 3-prong adapters which allow you to plug the switch into the wall and then plug the lamp into the back of the switch's plug; the switch then controls the lamp. In any case, besides meeting the electrical criteria, you want a momentary-contact, SPST or SPDT, normally open (abbrev. NO) switch. If you have more questions about it, you may PM me.

[Eric Woodbury]

I don't have one, but I think you would do as said above, then warm up the lamp to maximum brightness (when the tik-toks are coming the fastest). If they are not one second, there should be a little hole with a little screw inside. Adjust the screw until the ticks are every second. There you have it.

You may be surprise that on cold days, the cold coldlight will be very dim and the ticks will come at about 10 seconds intervals. As the lamp warms up, it will go back to the one second interval.

[wfwhitaker]

But the nice thing about the compensating metronome is that you don't have to wait for the lamp to warm up. Each tik represents the same exposure time whether the light is bright or dim. It's just that as the lamp warms and brightens, the tiks come closer and closer together. (That's the compensating part.) The absolute time between tiks is inconsequential; just count tiks as you would seconds on a standard metronome.

[paulr]

This is the one Fred Picker creation I really love. I printed with the tick tock and a foot switch for years. Made complicated prints so easy and repeatable. You can split up any exposure into several short exporsures, so you can take your time picking up different burning and dodging widgets.

No worries about changes in intensity from unstable power or temperature or from the bulb's normal warmup time. And the beeps keep your burns and dodges precise.

Only caveats are that music can't be too loud, and you have to be sober enough to keep count.

[Ginette]

Paul, which foot switch do you use and witch Cold light (voltage)?

In an old 1985 Zone VI catalog they talk about a foot switch for the Tiktok but not described it. See the attachment below. Anyone have this ?

The D1414 is a big 480 Watts unit with a separate Power Supply 115Volts. It have a standard wall 3-plug only for the Pre-heat cable, the lamp is relied to the power supply by a special connector.
The Power supply have a ON-OFF switch as well of the Head.
ic-racer just post the instructions sheet in his Durst Restoration topic (thanks)
So the Head Switch serve only to the prehamp feature and the ON-OFF switch of the power supply turn the lamp on. A timer (not in my case) or a footswich can be place at the end of the power supply.
Will, on your link website, they list foot switch Max. voltage is 250 VAC/500 VDC, is it enough for the the big lamp? But they are pretty expensive.

[wfwhitaker]

God! That catalog seems like yesterday! I seem to remember a footswitch. My recollection is of a footswitch similar to the lighter duty unit I referenced and with a 3-prong adapter so that you plug the cold light into the plug from the footswitch which goes into the wall outlet. But I'm not certain about that. In any case, it did not connect to the TikTok itself. At 480W, 115VAC, you're talking less than 5 amps, so a footswitch rated at 10A should be perfectly adequate. The lighter duty unit in my previous post should work fine and the price shown was under US$20. That seems pretty reasonable to me.

[Ginette]

At 480W, 115VAC, you're talking less than 5 amps, so a footswitch rated at 10A should be perfectly adequate. The lighter duty unit in my previous post should work fine and the price shown was under US$20. That seems pretty reasonable to me.
Thanks for your Amps specifications, 20$ it's fine. I type "Foot switch" on their website and it send me to their Heavy Duty Foot Switches that sell for 125-200$

Sorry my English is not very good :o
Springs Back (Momentary) vs Stays Switched (Maintained) ??
Witch one will stay ON till you hit it again to turned OFF.

[wfwhitaker]

"Momentary" is just that - the switch makes contact only as long as your foot presses on it. "Maintained" means that the switch "latches"; it makes and keeps the connection even when you remove your foot. You need to depress the switch again to turn the light off. Personally I would opt for the momentary connection (item #7717K13; type that number on their website); most switches that I've seen for this kind of application were of the momentary type. However, that doesn't mean that you couldn't use the latching type ("maintained") instead, if you wanted.

[paulr]

Paul, which foot switch do you use and witch Cold light (voltage)?

In an old 1985 Zone VI catalog they talk about a foot switch for the Tiktok but not described it. See the attachment below. Anyone have this ?

I used a zone vi coldlight, and have no idea about its electical specs. the footswitch either came with the coldlight or was an optional accessory (though it was clearly a standard part not made by zone vi).

The footswitch just turned the light on and off ... in fact, I think the cold light head plugged into the footswitch and the footswitch plugged into the wall.

The ticktock just plugs into the light sensor in the head. It doesn't have its own switch. It spontaneously turns on when it detects light (ticktock is powered by a battery).

I have this stuff in a box around here somewhere.

[ic-racer]

With the pre-heater of the 1414, you don't need a compensating timer, but since you have it, it will make things a little more predictable.

This is what to expect: once it is warmed up with the pre-heater, it will actually get a little dimmer as it stays on. It loses about a half of a stop as it nears 5 minutes of on-time. In the time it takes to process a print, it will cool down to the starting temp again, and is very repeatable. If you do a lot of long exposures and your method of working does not allow time to cool off between exposures, the tic-toc will come in handy to get repeatable results.

(the diagram shows 1212 but it should be 1414).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v670/ic-racer/IntensityTemp.jpg

[Eric Woodbury]

There is actually an optimum temperature of operation above which the lamp will begin to dim. For critical exposure, especially the highlights, compensation is mandatory. Some lamps are better than others, but all coldlights will fluctuate with temperature. The heater controls the temperature to some amount, but then if the lamp is on and off, the temperature of the gas in the tube changes, changing the flourescent response.

[Ginette]

Here the instruction sheet that André send me. Thanks to him and I post it if it can help someone else.
It is dated 1984.

Also I have located a nice 15A footswitch at Lee Valley, a Canadian woodworking tools seller, so I will use it also with some power tools.
Thanks to all for the help.