Tweet
I am new to this so my terminology will likely be off. My Elmo ST-180 8mm projector "surges". That is, the mechanism that turns the belts spins, then shuts off, then spins again, then shuts off etc... The only maintenance I have done since its last operation >20 years ago is replaced the belts.
-
-
Hi Ryan
After reading the above, your problem sounds familiar. I still have a ST180 myself and its a projector I really like, but for a while it would slow down and speed up. I tried lubrication all the simple stuff first, then in the end I went to a spare ST180 I use for parts. I swapped the motor control board over with the spare and its been great since. The board itself is really easy to remove or swap over.
Now what I been thinking for a while, is to hopefully find someone who is right up with electronics a lot more than me, that can check to see if its a capacitor or something on that board that could be simply replaced. That's my thoughts at the moment so will see, I do suspect its a capacitor in there somewhere, that due to old age is the problem.
I hope I am wrong with yours, but it does sound similar, do you know anybody that's good with checking electronics? like TV/stereo repair people that kind of thing?, anyway here are a couple of early photos.
I had just swapped the board over, the old one is on the bench
-
Hi Ryan,
I have an Elmo ST-800 that sat for maybe 40 years in a camera store and when I first got it going it would not reach full speed. It kept speeding up and slowing down but didn't reach 24FPS. As far as I can tell it was oxides on the motor commutator and control knob switches. I worked the control knob a bunch of times and that at least got it going. After that it was just awful: slow and unsteady. It had to run for a while to get to full speed and stabilize. Along the way I believe the brushes wore down to bright copper on that commutator and allowed enough power to get through to reach full regulated frame rate.
If you're lucky, maybe your troubles are some variation of this.
What's interesting with this machine is even today, 4 years after it became active, if it sits for a month or so it won't go full speed until I work those switches a few times. None of my other Elmos that have been at work all their lives do this.Comment
-
Fantastic. Thanks for the responses guys. I will start tinkering.Comment
-
Hi Ryan
Let us know how you get on with your projector, as none of us are ever through learning about those machines
.
All the best and hope things come right.Comment
Comment