Mar 27, 2017 19:44:48 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Mar 27, 2017 17:45:54 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Machine just died

No power.

Wiggled the power socket where the chord connects to the machine and it briefly lit up, but instantly powered off.

Tried again but this time it cut the power to half my house. So for fear of electrocuting myself I'm putting the Ultrasonic machine back in its box.

So now its time to try to find yet another source for this machine at a reasonably shipped price...or maybe just give up! 

ouch! will be interesting to see how the supplier responds.

Indeed.

They don't have any more in stock, so I can't get a replacement from them unfortunately.

Mar 27, 2017 19:44:48 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Mar 27, 2017 17:45:54 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Machine just died

No power.

Wiggled the power socket where the chord connects to the machine and it briefly lit up, but instantly powered off.

Tried again but this time it cut the power to half my house. So for fear of electrocuting myself I'm putting the Ultrasonic machine back in its box.

So now its time to try to find yet another source for this machine at a reasonably shipped price...or maybe just give up! 

wise move, definitely some non-compliant electrical funkiness going on in there.

i didn't know there as an earlier double-matrix.

the new sonic is $6k, a bit too close to the klaudio us cleaner.

Thanks rocl, Citroen - I have only ~100mL left.
At 0.1% concentration, that will do 100 Litres of cleaning fluid, or about 20 tank fills.
So a Litre would do 200 tank fills!
However, it may be beneficial to have higher detergent concentration (still experimenting), esp if doing older or dirtier s/h records. (guest110 talks about 0.1% up to 0.5% mix.)

Maybe some punters could share a 1L purchase.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Mar 27, 2017 19:44:48 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Mar 27, 2017 17:45:54 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Machine just died

No power.

Wiggled the power socket where the chord connects to the machine and it briefly lit up, but instantly powered off.

Tried again but this time it cut the power to half my house. So for fear of electrocuting myself I'm putting the Ultrasonic machine back in its box.

So now its time to try to find yet another source for this machine at a reasonably shipped price...or maybe just give up! 

Hmmmm unfortunately my tank is full presently, but will look inside for you later to check - the chassis at least should be Earthed (the yellow wire?).
You will see that the IEC socket has a fuse (+ spare), 10A 250V.

The inside looks like this (pic taken earlier) - the socket & all connectors are silicone glued to resist the vibration of the (3) transducers.



PS. With all that water about, I always disconnect from the wall socket when I load/unload records from the tank.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Owen Y i'm not fussed about spending $50 for a litre - in fact i have. if someone in chch wants some that is fine.

apart from records it can be used for cleaning anything. i have read a reference to it being used for washing hair and saving the need for conditioner as it's non-ionising!

Chaps - the 2nd (final) prototype running on the weekend.....

New baseplates (minor tweaks), new spacers, clamp knobs, end-bearing.

The baseplate comes in 3 pcs, with in-built nuts for super-easy assembly (just 4 screws, 1 allen key needed), attach the motor (3 screws), slide whole assembly onto the tank, done.
Load the records, insert into motor drive, drop into the tank.
Switch on motor, switch on tank, set timer, start.
(No heating.)



(Using water + 0.1% Triton detergent, you can see the fluid now filming nicely over the vinyl.)

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Mar 28, 2017 7:17:06 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

Mar 27, 2017 19:44:48 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Wiggled the power socket where the chord connects to the machine and it briefly lit up, but instantly powered off.

Tried again but this time it cut the power to half my house. So for fear of electrocuting myself I'm putting the Ultrasonic machine back in its box.

So now its time to try to find yet another source for this machine at a reasonably shipped price...or maybe just give up! 

Hmmmm unfortunately my tank is full presently, but will look inside for you later to check - the chassis at least should be Earthed (the yellow wire?).
You will see that the IEC socket has a fuse (+ spare), 10A 250V.

The inside looks like this (pic taken earlier) - the socket & all connectors are silicone glued to resist the vibration of the (3) transducers.



PS. With all that water about, I always disconnect from the wall socket when I load/unload records from the tank.

Earth's fine and fuse intact. Everything else looks ok, nothing obviously burnt out or loose. 

Mar 27, 2017 19:48:42 GMT 12 Citroen said:

I use Photoflo from my darkroom days.

Ah yes, I still have some darkroom gear in my bro's basement

Photo-Flo is essentially Triton (+ another ingredient), but only 5-10% concentration, so long term at least, a costly way to buy detergent.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Anyone know a techie who might want to look at my dead US machine?

Mark Maloney (Vintek) has been recommended to me previously, does SS & valve work, all sorts.
Riverbank Rd, New Lynn, 826 4442

(I'll put his details up on Repairers.)

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

1 Litre Triton X-100 arrived overnight from Conservation Supplies in Havelock Nth - thanks rocl



Should be good for over 200 tank-loads

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Mar 31, 2017 12:01:00 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

1 Litre Triton X-100 arrived overnight from Conservation Supplies in Havelock Nth - thanks rocl



Should be good for over 200 tank-loads

it's beaten mine owen, but mine has further to travel. seems like good value for money - 25c a tank

spoke too soon - was on my doorstep when i got back from a walk.

Minor update:
Spacers have arrived, enough for a quite few cleaner kits.

These are semi-soft spacers, which should work well, without damaging record labels.

We have had some discussion here about the size of the spacers.
Record labels are 100mm diameter.
These spacers are around 75mm diameter.
After testing, we chose these smaller spacers, ie not same diameter as the record label - as splashed water tends to be drawn up unseen by capillary action between label & spacer. In practice, we think it's better that the record label is always visible, as it's easier to adjust water level to suit.

Laser cutting for 1st batch of stainless metalwork should be done within a week.
Injection-moulding, for the plastic driver adapter for the motor shaft, should not be far behind.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Citroen - any news about tank repair?

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Mar 29, 2017 11:02:48 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

Mar 27, 2017 19:48:42 GMT 12 Citroen said:

I use Photoflo from my darkroom days.

Ah yes, I still have some darkroom gear in my bro's basement

Photo-Flo is essentially Triton (+ another ingredient), but only 5-10% concentration, so long term at least, a costly way to buy detergent.

Good to know.

As a wetting agent for film only a few mils was needed, so I have plenty in stock which should last a while for US cleaning. 

Mar 30, 2017 10:20:44 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

Mark Maloney (Vintek) has been recommended to me previously, does SS & valve work, all sorts.
Riverbank Rd, New Lynn, 826 4442

(I'll put his details up on Repairers.)

Top bloke, very knowledgeable and a pleasure to deal with. And a dog lover too. Highly recommended.

Dodgey loom wire connection to power supply, so easy fix.

Apr 9, 2017 17:23:17 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

Minor update:
Spacers have arrived, enough for a quite few cleaner kits.

These are semi-soft spacers, which should work well, without damaging record labels.

We have had some discussion here about the size of the spacers.
Record labels are 100mm diameter.
These spacers are around 75mm diameter.
After testing, we chose these smaller spacers, ie not same diameter as the record label - as splashed water tends to be drawn up unseen by capillary action between label & spacer. In practice, we think it's better that the record label is always visible, as it's easier to adjust water level to suit.

Laser cutting for 1st batch of stainless metalwork should be done within a week.
Injection-moulding, for the plastic driver adapter for the motor shaft, should not be far behind.

Personally would have preferred complete coverage ie 100 mm.  

"After testing, we chose these smaller spacers, ie not same diameter as the record label - as splashed water tends to be drawn up unseen by capillary action between label & spacer. In practice, we think it's better that the record label is always visible, as it's easier to adjust water level to suit."

Splashes are negligible, but by having complete coverage this protects the label from splashes. Any capillary action splash would surely only be worse with incomplete coverage?

Any problem with determining  water levels by the spacer, rather than the visible label? Would think they are the same.

Anyhow, my overall preference would be for full label coverage.

If you have big spacers, they obscure the water level at the low part of the label.

Correct, there shouldn't be any 'splashing', but if it happens you wouldn't want warm water on the paper label for 15 mins or whatever, between spacer & label.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

No biggie, but given the dimensions of the record spindle mount, it would be fairly easy to determine the maximum water level of the tank to not encroach the label, and to have the label fully protected.

Having said that labels are very robust. I've only ever had one label to show some peeling/bubbling when water damaged in my nearly 40 years of record cleaning.

How thick are they, that is, how many lps cleaned at once?

The line on the side of the tank is the best way to set water level.
You set the motor & shaft at a fixed level - done.

Spacers are ~23mm thick.
Thus you can fit up to 5 records in the tank. But I like to do no more than 3 or 4 at a time.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Apr 9, 2017 20:01:12 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

The line on the side of the tank is the best way to set water level.
You set the motor & shaft at a fixed level - done.

Spacers are ~23mm thick.
Thus you can fit up to 5 records in the tank. But I like to do no more than 3 or 4 at a time.

What line? Mine doesn't seem to have one (on a PS30A).

Are there noticeable differences between 3 and 5 lps done at once? 
What about just increasing the time for greater numbers of lps?

There is an indent step line around the tank, around 30mm down.
I think this is the maximum water level 'line' referred to in the instruction manual.

You can see this in the last video above, at 0:29.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

No line on my PS30A variant.

Now that my trials with Solid Gold Hits and Keith Richards lps proved so successful, I've now run quite a few more through the machine using distilled water with and without a wetting agent (Photoflo). I vacuum dry with the RCM.

Owen Y How far away are you from shipping working prototypes?

Hi Citroen - no more prototypes, we are happy with them.
We will have first 'production batch' ready in about a week - as per Minor update above, 9 April.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Thanks for the update

As an aside, just cleaned some silver in the machine.

Does a decent enough job with plain room temp water but even better with the addition of some surface surfactant, and at a warmer temp (40 degrees).

The results are clearly visible, so I'll be using this in the hope it also translates to cleaner vinyl.

It would be useful if you could try (i) just added surfactant (ii) just raised temperature - ie isolate these 2 factors & observe changes.
Something that I wanted to research, but haven't found time yet.
Cheers.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com