De Vere 5108, negative carrier and timer questions

[Luis-F-S]

I’ll check mine when I get home. Here you go.

[Ethan]

Thanks! That’s what the one looks like. Looking inside the other, it seems it has been modified, I’m guessing for whatever voltage stabilizer the previous owner had. Do you use a voltage stabilizer/regulator with yours? How important is it? There’s a $70 on B&H I found, which I’ll probably get just to be on the safe side

[Luis-F-S]

I use my voltage stabilizer because it came with my enlarger. It is on a dedicated 20A circuit and I turn off the breaker when I'm not printing, so it's off most of the time. I can tell you that when the lab that I use printed on DeVere enlargers, they did not use a single voltage stabilizer; and they used them commercially. L

[Ethan]

I think I’ll order one, just to be on the safe side.

On another note, the manual indicates that the small switch on the front of the head is supposed to turn on lights behind the dials, but it doesn’t seem to do anything on mine. I’ve heard that the bulbs for dials on other enlargers burn out somewhat commonly, is it likely that these bulbs have just burned out? It could also be the switch I suppose, has that ever been an issue? Either way, it would be nice to have dials that are easier to read in the dark, have you ever opened up the head to get to the dials, and is it very difficult to do so?

[ic-racer]

On my Durst, all the lamps for the color dials were burned out when i got it. They were somewhat hard to find. I'm glad I replaced them.

[Luis-F-S]

I suspect that could be the case, unlikely for all 4 bulbs to be bad, or the switch, or more likely the bulb that lights the dials is burned out. I have my 5108 lamped with four ENH bulbs which have a 175 hour life instead of 35 hour life for the ELH bulbs. 250 watts vs 300 W, so the head is lamped at 1000 watts instead of 1250! Both are 120 v bulbs Less than a 1/4 stop less light output and 6 times the lamp life. I buy my bulbs NOS at the auction site in lots of 4 or more when they're at a good price. I'd go ahead and replace the 4 bulbs and see if the head lights. There are 4 little red lights in the front that light when they work and go out when they're burned. If they still don't work, I'd look at replacing the ceramic holders. If they work, and the dial light still won't work, than I'd replace the dial bulb. I believe there is a thread that talks about how to replace it.

L

[Ethan]

Cool, all 4 lamps in the head turn on, it’s just the dial ones that don’t. Annoyingly, one of the 4 indicator LEDs must be bad, because although it doesn’t light up, I’ve verified that all the lamps do.

[Ethan]

Yup, I was able to grab one at the local hardware store. The 5108s method of using fiber optics to send the light to the panel seems a bit overly complicated to me, but it works well enough I guess.

[Luis-F-S]

Yup, I was able to grab one at the local hardware store.

Can you post the info on the bulb so the rest of us don't have to search when we need one?

[Ethan]

It’s a 25 watt T8 appliance bulb with a BA15d base. Make sure to buy one with the right base, as most T8s have a screw base, but it needs the bayonet style base to fit into the DeVere.