# Not Quite The Holy Grail But Still Pleased - TrakkaBeam M800, 800 Watt Short Arc



## BVH (Aug 1, 2013)

A month ago or so, a trakkaBeam M800, (800 Watt, ground based Short Arc – not the airborn model) appeared on Ebay. I’m not completely sure I remember correctly but I believe it was listed for a starting bid of $5995. The light was listed as “For parts, not working” and further down in the ad it said “More than likely, it will need to be repaired”. The package included the light, the power supply that can be fed with 120VAC or straight DC, the hand held remote, all 6 cables and an OEM rolling Pelican-type case. Six grand was too much for my budget and too much for me to even make an offer. It didn’t sell and got no bids.

It was re-listed for a starting bid of $3,000. Still too much for me. A few days or so before the listing ended, I communicated with the seller trying to get some info and more pics of the units. He had posted only one pic of the light sitting in the rolling case and it wasn’t a good pic. The pics he sent me showed the physical condition of everything was pretty good. So I decided, as I seem to frequently do, to make an offer. He replied that the offer was too low. I countered with a little bit more and he still said it wasn’t enough and that this is a $25,000 light, new. It was all a very pleasant back & forth. So I figured I’d wait a couple of days and see what happens. In a few hours, I noticed that he had posted all his new pics in the ad. I thought this would move it out. As luck would have it and day and a half later, he communicated back saying he would take the offer. I guess the pics didn’t help.

So yesterday, it arrives at about 5:30 and low and behold – the shipping box looks in good condition and better yet, the contents look untouched and undamaged. Yea! First impression was that it was bigger than the pics made it look but it’s actually fairly small for an 800 Watt light. So I hooked everything up, flipped the switches and the light made some noises and wouldn’t stop making noises. It could tell it was either the focus motor or filter wheel motor noise. It wasn’t cooling fan noise. The display on the remote was blank but the crude operation manual said in some still hard to understand English that the display might be blank if switches were pushed in a certain order. The manual also said that the motor noise was a reset to neutral booting process for the focus and filter wheel systems but they should stop in about 8 seconds. So I hit the lamp start button anyway and no surprise – it did not light. I had already got prices for a new lamp figuring that might be the reason it didn’t work. It uses a Cermax 1000 Watt Elliptical reflectored lamp driven at 800 Watts which is well within the manufacturers range of 650 to 1050 Watts. This is the same style of lamp used in the Megaray. However, a new 1000 Watt lamp is going to cost $1,250 discounted from $1,500.


So I unhook everything and proceed to move the light around for disassembly. When I turn it over, I hear this big “clunk” inside. Hmmmmm, is that a piece of the lamp rattling around? I finally figure how to get the light apart and what do I see as I pull the first layer of guts out? A brass gear about the size of a quarter. Hmmmm, that could be very good news because with the logic built into this light, if it doesn’t see feedback from the focus and filter wheel mechanisms, it won’t light the display up and probably won’t light the lamp. (I’m guessing on the last part) I quickly see where the gear goes and it’s obvious that the set screw came loose and it came off the end of a ball screw focusing shaft. To fix it, I'll have to finish removing the final layer of guts.

Dinner and TV show time, break for 2 hours (it was excruciating being away from the light!)

Back to work. I finally figure out how to remove everything else. The focusing system is revealed and it’s in pristine condition and quite well made. It functions just like the Megaray. The lamps elliptical reflectored light source forms a pinpoint focused beam a few inches in front of its’ window after it has gone through one of six filters (IR, yellow ect.) on the motorized filter wheel. The focused beam strikes a primary optic lens and is projected out into the secondary lens. It's now 11:15 PM.

Well, I can’t go to bed without knowing if the brass gear was the only issue or if I’m going to have to spend $1,250 on a new lamp. So I put it back together outside the housing, hook up the cables, ensure that there is no chance of being struck by the high voltage and proceed through the startup process. I turn on the power supply and the focus and filter wheel do their thing and come to a stop. That’s a good sign. Then all is quiet. I then flip on the remote on/off switch and see the cooling fan move a few degrees and stop. That’s probably not a good sign. Lastly, I push the lamp-start switch and voila! – the cooling fan takes off, a few seconds delay and I hear the familiar “strike” that Cermax lamps make and I see light! I’m happy and can go to bed.

Remaining issues.

I need to talk to TrakkaBeam about two items. In this focusing system, both the primary and secondary lenses are moved. In the Megaray, only the secondary lens is moved. The focus system is complex in that the machined grooves in the ball screw focusing shaft provide widely varying rates of movement for the two different lenses and in my tinkering, I moved one lens so that it jumped a complete grove on the shaft. Then I proceeded to move the shaft forward and backward where one lens moved and the other didn’t. So now I’m realizing that the lenses are no longer in sync and I’ve probably screwed up the beam. I’ve found a way that maybe re-syncronizes them but it’s just a wild guess.

There is a series of detent groves on the filter wheel that tells the system when to stop the filter correctly in line with the beam. I noticed that when the micro switch detent arm is in the groove and wheel movement has stopped, that the chosen filter or blank hole is way off-center over the light beam passages hole to the primary lens. The switch is adjustable so I need to ask Trakka where it’s supposed to stop the wheel.

I may need to buy a new remote unless the display can be fixed.

All in all, though, I’ve gotten very lucky again!































The "driven" brass gear is missing off the shaft just above the visible brass gear






Ignitor and lamp connections






The guts out of the housing














Here, I've put the missing brass gear back on the shaft






The Cermax lamp in it's cooling fins






The primary and secondary lens ball screw tracks - big difference in movement of each lens


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## FRITZHID (Aug 1, 2013)

I swear bob, you get the luckiest scores on lights! Wtg! I was looking at these a while ago, that filter wheel intrigued me, but as usual way beyond my budget. Hope you have fun with your new toy!


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## Echo63 (Aug 1, 2013)

Nice score !

Our local police department has one of these on their new chopper (well the airborne version of it)
And a night sun on their old helicopter (I posted pics of the old one, in your nightsun thread)

I will see if I have pics of the new helicopter, showing the light (I know I have pics from the inside looking out, one of the perks of my job is occassionally seeing and doing really cool stuff)

I would be interested to see how the beam compares to your night sun, the crew say they prefer the Trakkabeam, but couldn't explain why, other than "I dunno, I just like this light better"

It may have some thing to do with the actual beam (optics vs reflector) the internal filter wheel, or the Trakkabeam's ability to be slaved to the FLIR/visible light camera/IR Laser designator system (which actually interfaces with the GPS and can be used to slave the camera on a house, or use the laser to point out where they are going)


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## BVH (Aug 1, 2013)

I would guess that its slaving ability is the reason they like it best. Even with the 8-way thumb joystick switch, the NS, I imagine, would be very difficult to hold on a target. The newer NS's have all those slaving abilities so if they had one with that option, I would guess they might like it better. Who wouldn't want double the Lux on the target at any given distance. The newer NS's look more like the TrakkaBeams.


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## Echo63 (Aug 1, 2013)

BVH said:


> I would guess that its slaving ability is the reason they like it best. Even with the 8-way thumb joystick switch, the NS, I imagine, would be very difficult to hold on a target. The newer NS's have all those slaving abilities so if they had one with that option, I would guess they might like it better.  Who wouldn't want double the Lux on the target at any given distance. The newer NS's look more like the TrakkaBeams.


The old helicopter has an old night sun, it looks very similar to yours.

As for how long they have had the helicopter - the aerospatiale squirrel crashed when I was in year 5 (I remember because it was a week after it visited my school) which makes it 20 years ago.
the helicopter would have been replaced within a year or so, so the helicopter, and probaly the light are almost 20 years old.

I would agree though, more light, and less messing around aiming it would be pretty good reasons to like the newer light.


Edit - the helicopter was bought in 1990, and the crash was 92, according to Wikipedia
so it's 23 years old, assuming it hasn't been upgraded in that time.


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## Walterk (Aug 1, 2013)

Love the mechanics!


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## BVH (Aug 14, 2013)

An update. I've had a few conversations with the Trakkabeam U.S. service rep and got all my technical questions answered that I posed above. I also bought the operation and the maint/repair manual. The focus gear coming off was a common problem so they upgraded the short part of the focusing shaft to use a spring clip to hold the gear onto the shaft and instead of a round hole in the bore of the gear, they machined it to conform directly to the shaft so no set screw is needed, just put it on the shaft and put on the clip. I ordered the kit to get this done but unfortunately, it's not working. When I slide the OEM plastic washer and new gear onto the new shaft in the kit, the spring clip groove in the shaft does not protrude from the gear hub. I could machine down the gear hub but I shouldn't have to if these are OEM parts made for this light. I really didn't get much feedback on this from the rep. He sent a couple requests to headquarters but can't seem to get a response. So in the meantime, knowing how to sync the lens plates and more about how the light works, I put it back together, making all the critical focus shaft adjustments to do some bench testing.

Got it hooked up and went through the starting process. When the power supply is turned on, logic performs a filter wheel "homing" maneuver and then a focus system homing maneuver. Only if these are completed and the power supply gets feedback that it has occurred, will it allow the lamp to start. Filter wheel and focus shaft movements are all controlled by stepper motors that work on a specified number of "counts" for a specific operation. Now that the homing sequence was completed, I pushed the lamp-start button and the fan immediately started up and the lamp ignited a second or so later. Everything worked perfectly and I ran it for about 30 minutes to re-establish good solid Cathode and Anode electrodes. In the bigger lights, if you run them for periods under 20 minutes, they want a maintenance run done every so often to repair the damage from all the strikes with short run times. I then shut the light down. I noticed that my hotspot was just a bit off-center so I slightly loosened the 3 lamp housing hold-down screws and then fired up the light for a third time. I ran it for 10 minutes then gently moved the housing around until my hotspot was perfectly centered. I tightened down the hold-down screws while the light was still on to be sure nothing moved. I then ran it another 5 minutes. Lastly, I shut it down.

Now the problem. I went in to have dinner and came back out to start it up. The entire start-up process was normal with focus and filter homing taking place with power on. When I hit the lamp-start button, the fan immediately started up but the lamp did not ignite. The fan automatically shut down after 5 or 10 seconds probably because the system is not seeing the lamp running. I repeated attempts to start 5 times to no avail. I unhooked and re-hooked all cables but no change. I then got out my ILC/Cermax 100 – 600 Watt Short Arc power supply and hooked it up directly to the lamp. The lamp fired perfectly on the first “ping” every time for 3 times and ran 5 seconds each time before I shut it down. So I know my lamp is good.

The trouble shooting guide indicates that if the start-up process occurs with all the homing being completed and the lamp does not start, that the lamp should be replaced. But I know the lamp is good. When I put my ear close to the power supply when I push the remote lamp-start button, I can hear relays clicking. But I never hear the very noticeable “ping” of the high voltage lamp strike that I heard every time before. After all this work and fun, it just stopped working and I didn’t even do anything to cause it. 

My first thought is the ignitor has failed but I’ve never had an ignitor fail with all my multitude of short arcs. That doesn't meant it s not the culprit. I tried taking a voltage potential reading at the lamp terminals after I powered the system up – (but did not press the ignition button). Some of my arc lamp light systems provide voltage potential at the lamp whenever power is on and waiting for the strike signal. But not all do so I don’t know if having no voltage at the lamp is normal for this light.

So this is where I'm at. The manual says replace the lamp but I know otherwise. I emailed the service rep and am hoping he will have some suggestions.

Oh, forgot, I was getting 705 Watts at the lamp on my tests.


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## get-lit (Aug 15, 2013)

Nice score! I've seen a beam spot comparison photo of this light with the NightSun at the same time and this light produced a better flood. The beam profile is just like a stage light. It is less light output but the pilots probably prefer the way the brightness doesn't feather out on the edges of the beam, so the illuminated objects don't get hazed out by spill type light when looking down the beam. There's also no rings in the flood like I'd seen in the NightSun. It's much like a long FL light, while compromising CP for a hole-less flood.


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## BVH (Aug 20, 2013)

I'm not in any way, shape or form, an electronics educated person. I know how to identify lots of electronic parts but how they all work together is not tucked away in my brain. I'll admit I didn't have positive thoughts when I decided to remove the 50+ screws holding the power supply lid on but I thought I might as well watch the PC board when I attempt to start the light and maybe, just maybe, I'll see something suspect. First thing I saw was a conventional fuse. When I checked continuity initially, there was none! WOW, how lucky I am to find something. But I just wasn't getting through the amber liquid coating sprayed all over everything. Fuse was good after all. Then I went through the starting sequence to see if all 3 green LEDs stayed green thinking maybe they are trouble shooting related LEDs. Three in the Green! All good. Then, and I almost missed it, I noticed that one of the two main power wire headers didn't look like it was all the way down on its' mate. I then looked closer and I saw a tinge of brown and thought to myself, "That looks like burned plastic". Then I could see that the header was actually almost off the mate. So I tried to pull it off and it was stuck due to some slight melting. When I worked it off, low and behold, one of the 3 parallel wires had gotten very hot and indeed, burned and melted the connector inside. I carefully trimmed the connector back to its' original shape, checked continuity of the wire itself (it was good) and then plugged it back it. Fired up the power supply and hit the lamp start button and Voila! I had ignition! I have to say, I'm pretty happy with my "poking around" trouble-shooting skills today!

The 6 large bundled wires are two sets of 3 main power cables in parallel. One negative, one positive. The individual right-hand wire on the left connector was the burned wire. It was the last and only wire making connection probably for many years. It finally couldn't take it any longer and gave up. I have to check power at the lamp again. Maybe it will be up near the 800 Watts it should be. And then there's that display that's not working..........


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## FRITZHID (Aug 20, 2013)

Way to seluth thru that issue Bob!


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## BVH (Aug 21, 2013)

Some night shots. I took the time to walk about 250 feet down the street to observe the beam. There is a lot of loss of intensity at that distance. So maybe I'll get brave with the NightSun and fire it up again and take some similar shots. But not on a weekend evening again.

Overall, the beam is vary pastel in appearance. Reminds me a lot of when the VSS-3a is moved from the fine 1 degree focus to its spread beam pattern. Also, the light may not be quite focused perfectly - either not at minimum or gone a bit too far, not sure yet because I saw a very small dark spot in the center of the beam as the light first exits the front protective window. I can't control fine focus at the moment because I tightened the lens plate detents too tight on the turning shaft and they is binding. I'm going to order some new detent springs because it looks like someone used modified springs in them. One end of each of the two springs is terminated like a normal spring looks, the other end on both are just raw cuts. So as I get the tension just to the point of very little free-play of the lens plates on the shaft, if I go a tiny bit further, they bind or lock. There should be more degrees of turn between "just right" and too tight.

I forgot to mention that The lamp is now receiving between 750 and 760 Watts of power since the connector issue was fixed.














Even though it clear out, there still lots of moisture and dust in the air as you can see in the this shot.


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## BVH (Jul 6, 2020)

Here's some of the Red of Red, White and Blue.


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