Help! Devere Mk 2 507 queries

[mark e mark]

Hello all, I have finally finished my house extension and and now sorting out my devere 507 ready to use in anger. After buying a 180mm lens and ensuring the glass neg carrier was dust free, 5x7 neg in place, I fired up the enlarger. A few concerns I have 1) the colour dials on the colour head do not light up; is this usual or have some bulbs blown (both the 2 X250 watt bulbs are OK). 2) After 10 minutes there is a nice toasty smell of old dust, oil etc. cooking away nicely from the head. I take it the circular vents on the side of the heads have fans in - when do they kick in ? Any manual for this enlarger (apart from the £25 pdf ones I have seen in the past).
Regards,

Mark

[Aled Hughes]

The fans should be running from the moment you turn it on! are you using the DeVere Transtab 500 unit?

[Peter De Smidt]

And there should be a lamp who's sole purpose is to light up the dials. There's a switch for that light. Odyssey Sale in England or KHB Photographic in Toronto should have manuals available.

[Phil Hudson]

The lamp for the dials is a screw in 6v torch lamp. It is buried quite deep down on the right hand side under the right hand lamp housing. It runs off its own transformer mounted inside the cooling duct that run from each fan cowl around the light mixing box, over the lamps and out the top vent. I have needed to replace the transformer in the past, but it is likely to be the lamp.

As has been mentioned the fans run all the time when correctly wired. Which transtab are you using? My 507Mk II uses the 500W SMPC power supply and it can't be used with the earlier 500W Transtab (wired differently). Ask at Odyssey Sales or google Lightwave Servicing - very helpful.

[Peter De Smidt]

I agree with Phil: Lightwave Servicing (in London) is a great place. They custom made me an adapter so that I could use a Stop Clock professional timer on my De Vere mural enlarger. It was reasonably priced, and it works great.

[mark e mark]

Spoke to a chap at work who has a 504, and he said the same as Aled. Have just ensured all the connections are OK (Lead in the back of the 500w Trans stab (not sure if it is a SMPC -but I doubt it, it's a big cube) lead was a bit loose. The lights behind the dials now work , but fans still don't . The Trans Stab came with the enlarger- you mean I have been sold the wrong one? You would think they would supply a different connecting lead from the enlarger so the old Trans stab could not be used if the fans won't come on. Any way around this to get the fans to work?

[IanG]

Some De Vere's are modified so that the fans continue to run after the lamps turn off at the end of exposure or the focussing stage. Mine has an adjustable timer, external to control just how long the fans stay on.

Ian

[Phil Hudson]

If the head came with a square plug with flat connector blades then it is probably meant for the older pre-SMPC 507 Transtab so no problem there. The SMPC has a round screw pin connector to the head which looks totally different.

I once has to replace a fan on a 504 so it is not impossible that it has just stopped working. Replacements are easily available at Maplin (or were). On the other hand two fans not working suggests either that they are wired together and perhaps a fuse has blown in the Transtab, a loose connection somewhere or the windings on that part of the transformer have gone (I think the fans are 24v but can't remember precisely).

Removing the fan housing on either side of the head is easy - just undo the screws. If you do this you can check the spade connectors incase there is a bad connection. Be sure to replace the leads the right way round so that the fan is sucking not blowing!

On the other hand if the panel lamp was solved by a loose connection it may be the case that the connector blades are not making a good contact to the Transtab. Keep wiggling and then call Lightwave - they will completely rewire the plug to make the repair permanent. Can't recommend them enough.

[IanG]

De Vere's are prone to bad connections, it's worth checking over every connection you can find, in particular the lamp holders can cause problems and if the contacts aren't good lamps blow a lot more frequently.

This is more about the fact the enlargers are usually in damp atmosphere's in a darkroom than build quality, it can happen with other makes as well.

Ian

[mark e mark]

I took the fans + covers off for testing. They are 240V and both worked OK (sucking in air not blowing). As they are A/C, it does not matter which way you plug them in, they still suck -DC would be a different matter. I have the oblong connector with the flat blades. I have found that connections 7&8 are the 240V ones and 245 was conning out of the trans stab, all good so far. Lead going to the head looked in good nick. With a strong torch I tried to look at as many connectors as I could in the main electrical area (lamp area) and...it looked like a spade connector was off. Had to take the side panel off to gain access to the connector. Got it on nice and tight (inside looks good corrosion wise). Plugged in, switched on and... both fans work Remember KISS, IanG was right.

Now to try and get down to use it. Thank you all for your input.