Availability of spares and right-to-repair

[DrV]

I have been asked to repair a couple of Apart Mask 8 speakers. They have the usual wired-in incandescent festoon lamps to protect the tweeters and these have blown. I contacted BiAmp who now own Apart and they responded 

Quote

I am sorry but we do not have the MASK8 protection lamps as a spare part.

They were, however, prepared to sell the complete crossover assembly.

Does anyone else think that incorporating an incandescent lamp into a product and then not being able to supply a replacement when it blows is somewhat short-sighted from an environmental point of view. 

Also, does anyone know where I could source two? For guidance, the cab is rated at 300W and, according to the spec, the LF is rated at 200W.

Dave 

[alistermorton]

Certainly having a part intended to fail under fault conditions and not make spare ones available shrikes me as conceptually the same as expecting users to replace an appliance if the fuse blows. 

 

What's the rating of the lamp? 

[Mixermend]

Hopefully it will use a commonly available lamp, possibly a car or motor cycle type. Do you have any markings visible on the lamp? Perhaps it will be worth posting a photo - at least we can determine the fixing, or holder type of the festoon bulb?

Importers tend to import a batch, with few, or no spares - and often with no documentation either. After a year or two the spares (if any) - will be gone - and no more will be available.

[DrV]

It's certainly not a standard festoon of the type we used to get in car courtesy lights etc. It's wire ended. Will take a photo tomorrow.

[adam2]

I suspect that the lamps may be of a standard rating. To solder or spot weld wires to an already existing standard type of lamp is trivial, To manufacture a non standard rating of lamp is more involved and expensive.

If anyone has an intact example it should be possible to determine the rating by experiment. Connect the lamp to a variable voltage power supply and adjust the voltage until the lamp lights at a reasonable intensity and colour temperature for a small incandescent  lamp, measure the current drawn at this voltage.

[Jivemaster]

The issue is that the lamp's properties (nominal voltage and current) will affect the crossover's numbers. RS has two "options" 104-806  and  655-9047 which are both 6 ish volts and MES fitting. Until you get a part number or indicated V and A then you are guessing, and changing the speaker's sound or risking the driver. This is probably why low end disco speakers have piezo tweeters (til they blow!).

I did once get some 28v pea lamps from Anchor Mil surplus that did then have a branch in Nottingham cattle market area and one A38 ish Burton/Ripley. 

[adam2]

The lamp rating is most unlikely to be that critical. It must not introduce significant voltage drop in normal operation, a six or twelve volt lamp will only drop a volt or so if glowing dimly. The current rating must be large enough to not blow during operation, but to blow fairly reliably under fault conditions.

[KevinE]

there's often a coloured dot at one end of these lamps which indicates the spec. Sometimes 12V but usually 24V, either 5 or 10W. The loop-end type are more common in american automotive applications but they're available over here too.

Eminence sell them as a crossover spare for their own boards (and I think EV too) and they have a fuse-type cap pushed over the loop at either end, but underneath they're a loop ended festoon all the same.

The connecting wires are spot welded on but with care you can solder your own on being careful not to overheat them.

 

https://www.cp-lighting.co.uk/Lamps/10X44-Ridgid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sunray]

Going back 25 years I was in this position, a mobile disco CO-OP brought in 4 with blown bulbs, they were 1*15" 400W, 2*12" 250W, 4* tweeter (3" ?) all Celestion & 4*piezo. Marron carpet & grill covered. The tweeters and piezo were protected by 2 festoon bulbs (2 tweeters and 2 piezo per bulb IIRC).

Luckily they had more similar speakers, I wired one of their good bulbs in series with all ratings of festoons available from an automotive outlet and did a simple comparison on a variable supply measuring the voltage across each bulb. 12V 18W was the closest match.

 

I used to keep a stock of 24V 45W bulbs for Bose 802's (then 12V 12W when the 45's became unavailable) where so many used to come in but they are a very different beast.

[DrV]

Thanks for all the suggestions (and the PM). I've enquired whether there's a good one available to measure but I now have some things to research. Thanks all.

[kgallen]

A timely thread, I'm potentially looking for similar for a Samson RS15HD repair.

I found these on eBay.

Visually, this one looks a match for mine. Electrical characteristics, who knows!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164098348861?var=463717597924

also

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141945024042

 

Kevin

Edited April 29 by kgallen

[sandall]

So 50% premium for adding the Peavey name

[paulears]

Still less than a happy meal?

[DrV]

That's great - thanks all. I went for the second eBay ones in the end as the picture showed a red spot which matches what I've got. Thanks to KevinE for pointing that out and to kgallen for spotting the eBay ones.

1 hour ago, paulears said:

Still less than a happy meal?

And probably more nutritious 😉

[sunray]

7 hours ago, paulears said:

Still less than a happy meal?

Personally I'd rather have food.