yet another IIIA monitor question

[Wing Gee]

I just got my first 3a sled from John Vetter. (Awesome person to work with) I bought the sled knowing that the monitor didn't work. He had told me that it just stopped working on him and the fuse started blowing.

 

I received the sled yesterday and started inspecting it today. I found a harness in the monitor had been unplugged (two yellow and two orange wires). I plugged those back in and powered it on. I noticed some sparking. I quickly powered down and took the board out to get a closer look at it. the wire that runs from the tripler to this coil looking thing had came apart from the coil. The sparks was from the wire arcing. I soldered the wire back onto the coil and powered on again. The monitor comes on, but that's about it. Nothing comes up with a source signal, none of the controls (knobs) do anything to the picture. So, i guess i'm pretty much stuck now. I really can't afford another monitor right now, as this is my first sled. There is supposely a Brand new focus tube in it, only being a few years old. (http://www.steadicamforum.com/forums/index...pic=102&hl=)

 

John had given me the history of this sled. It has gone through a few hands. Stephen von Bjorn, Chris Squires, and a few others. The sled is full of Derose mods, and supposely had been to David Hable for some mods. John has also said that he brought it to Terry West with no luck.

 

Any suggestions on what i should look at? I know some of you have had goodluck repairing these 3a's.

Just seeing if anybody had any pointers, before i attempt to call David Hable and Terry West.

 

Just trying to get my first rig together.

 

Thanks!

Wing

[RobVanGelder]

Apart from calling the people you mentioned, you might find a local television repair shop and befriend them

Specially the old guys might know the electronics and as these are fairly basic, they might find what's wrong.

They have the test equipment too, normally.

[Wing Gee]

Thanks Rob, That's kinda what i figured. I already called about 5 local tv shops. All of them refused to even look at it. All of them just pretty much said, parts are all discontinued and we can't get them. They said this without even looking at it. I'll keep calling around. Just trying to find a local shop before resorting to shipping it out. If i can even find someone to look at it at all.

 

Thanks!

Wing

[Wing Gee]

How can i test if the tripler is dead? It looks like this tripler has been possibly repaired before. Since there is clear silicone on the lower half of the unit and white silicone on the upper half of the unit.

 

Thanks!

Wing

[RobVanGelder]

When I needed to repair my IIIa electronics, i opened all the panels and then in pitch dark i switched it on. Sometimes you can see where things go wrong, like blue sparks under the silicone or between other components.

it is likely that some parts (condensers) in the tripler were renewed and the problem might be there.

But you might also see sparks between the HV-tube or components near it.

 

its a starting point.....

 

And about the attitude of those repair shops...... :unsure:

Might be a typical thing in this society: don't fix it, buy new.........

[Wing Gee]

Thanks Rob,

 

I really appreciate your help and suggestions. I'll start poking around some more tommorow. I've posted a few want ads for 3a electronics that people may have laying around. See which happens first, I find the problem and fix it or I get a replacement board to fix it with.

 

Thanks

Wing

[RobVanGelder]

:D

 

While scanning through an old harddisk that I brought from Holland I found my manual of how to restore/exchange the HV unit in the III(a) systems!

 

Apparently I had the foreseeing thought that it might be handy one time, before I moved to Thailand!

 

Here are 3 scans from the manual that I made, it is from my first days in Steadicam, and a similar situation as where Wing Gee is in.

 

I have the high res. files too, if someone needs that.

 

Have fun with it!

 

 

:)

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

While scanning through an old harddisk that I brought from Holland I found my manual of how to restore/exchange the HV unit in the III(a) systems!

 

 

Rob,

 

Hero post of the month! Everyone with a model I/II/III should have this.

 

Well done

[Wing Gee]

That's really awesome Rob! Thanks I mounted that 12" i was telling you about. After this weekend's shoot i'll see if i can get it working. I have a feeling the flyback transformer is shot on mine though. I noticed some black marks on the coil, Like it was arcing before and it melted the wires on the flyback.

[RobVanGelder]

Guys, if you want to have the high res files, please include your email address when you PM or email me.

The jpg's are about 5Mb each and I cannot send this via the Steadicam Forum.

 

(I tried once, didn't work, I hope that Tim is not mad at me, I saw too late that I was replying to the forum instead of a person, the message got rejected.)

[Wing Gee]

Rob, if you like I can host the pictures on my site.

[RobVanGelder]

For those who have a III(a) monitor and electronic unit lying around with a fried HV bridge:

 

I just found a few of the very same HV-units that I used in my manual, here in the electronic quarter from bangkok. It´s amazing what you can find if you really dig deep in the hundreds of little shops!

 

Price was not too bad, around $25 or 20 Euro.

 

So if you want to give it a try I can buy for you and mail it.

 

:)

[Imran Naqvi]

I've finally had a chance to put Rob's scan's online(major broadband issues).

 

They're available here

 

Enjoy!

[RobVanGelder]

Thanks Imran!

 

:) :)