ARISTO VCL 8100 with very uneven light

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

I have had an ARISTO VCL 8100 vary contrast head for thirteen years without trouble but now when I started to print a big project
there are suddenly stripes of light with much higher intensity giving me much darker areas in my print. Do you know this problem ?
Is there anyone repairing ARISTO cold light heads or making the tubes ? This is urgent !

[Jim Noel]

Have you looked directly at the light while on? If one of the tubes is burnt out you will see it immediately. Another way to determine if a tube is burned out is to look at the light emitted at extreme ends of the contrast scale - set it to "0" and then to "5" to see the difference in color. Also, some of your diffusers may be missing. Although the amount of light reaching the easel will be reduced, adding more diffusion may well solve the problem.

[Sal Santamaura]

I have had an ARISTO VCL 8100 vary contrast head...there are suddenly stripes of light with much higher intensity giving me much darker areas in my print. Do you know this problem ? Is there anyone repairing ARISTO cold light heads or making the tubes ?


Have you looked directly at the light while on?...If you do look directly at the light, wear sunglasses! When my 1212 was first delivered, I made the mistake of looking at it directly and had a migrane headache for several days as a result.

This quote for replacement tubes


http://home.comcast.net/~kjnadvor/temp/VCL4500_Quote.pdf

is almost two years old. For updated availability and price, contact Louise Kessler at


lkessler@lcdl.com

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

Both tube seem to be giving light but when I go from 0 to 5 I can see two bright stripe like areas that are brighter than the rest and the higher contrast I adjust to the more those stand out from the rest even when I have doubled the diffusion.

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

Louise Kessler at LCD Lighting in Orange, Ct. has a new telephone number (203) 7951 520

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

I got a very fine and informative email from Louise Kessler. She suggested my problem might be something else not necessarily the tubes.
Does anyone have a circuit diagram for the VCL 8100 ?

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

Now when I have found out that the problem with my VCL 8100 is the blue neon tube that needs to be exchanged. Does anyone know about a repair shop that has experience in repairing cold light heads ?

[Bob Farr]

Does the bulb need to be replaced or some other type of repair. I ordered a replacement bulb for my Aristo 5x7 through Louise Kessler last fall and didn't have any problems installing the tube. Good luck solving the problem with your VCL.