Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I've use a friend's White Lightning Ultra 600's, Ultra 1200's and Ultra 1800's several times over the last 10 or so years and have found them to be fantastic lights to work with. Today I found a used Ultra 1800 for a rather reasonable price, but didn't test it out very well before buying it. It seems that no matter what the power setting is on the slide switch, it only gives off a full power strobe. Also, the modeling light does not light up, much less track. I removed the upper and lower covers and looked around inside and did not find any signs scorching, puffy capacitors, or evidence of tampering.

Can anyone tell me if there is a simple, known fix to this type of problem, or am I better off sending it in for a service?

Thanks!
Ron

for the model lamp, be sure you are using a known good bulb. with the bulb removed, the light powered off, and unplugged, look inside the socket and locate the metal tab. Pull up on this tab, reinstall the bulb, plug it in and see if that fixes the problem. Also, make sure the model lamp switch is in the on position.

This also assumes nothing is plugged into the RJ11 jack, and all commectors inside are clean, straight and not touching anything.

Otherwise, the unit will need to come in for repair for the model lamp and power adjust issues.

Thanks for the quick reply. Bending out the center contact of the modeling lamp socket did the trick for getting the modeling lamp to light up. However, the power of both the strobe and the modeling bulb are still at full tilt no matter what the setting of the power slider switch is.

It seems that I will have to send the unit in for repair of the power adjust issue. I do not have the protective shipping cap, so would it be best to send it without including its strobe lamps?

Thanks again,
Ron

you can do that since you know the tubes are good. Also, are you sure both tubes are firing? If not, then we dont know if the tube works, which means you can get it back, and it still not function, because one tube is bad.

Hmm, well, I have been assuming that both tubes are firing. I read the procedure for testing the tubes by setting the unit to the lowest power and firing into a mirror and watching for a full ring of light. Since the power selection feature of my unit doesn't seem to work, I'm hesitant to look directly at the tubes in a mirror on full power. Is there another way to test them? Is it safe to pull them out one at a time to test them?

Ooops, after rereading the testing directions, it says pane of glass, not mirror. Still the same, is there another way to test?

Thanks,
Ron

I typically take a photo with the ISO and aperture all the way down. Any ND filter and or pane of glass that would reduce the light reaching the ensor would be ideal (do not diffuse, as that will not let you see the individual tubes). By using the camera, you will not see the flash (as the mirror is up and the view finder is blocked). By using a window, much of the light is transmitted into space, with only a portion reflecting back to the camera. Also, if you can't see the lights reflection, the camera won't see them either.

Wow, the camera idea would be great, but I'm one of those crazies that still uses film :-/ I fired it at a glass door and can confirm that both tubes light up. That said, I'll be shipping it without tubes in it and will order a protective cap in addition to my repair bill. I'll try to get it in the mail to you guys within a couple of days. Thanks for all your help!

Ron