Focomat Ic correct plug voltage?

[Anton Lukoszevieze]

can someone tell me the correct plug voltage and amp fuse i need for my Focomat Ic?
I have connected a 250 V /13 amp fuse plug to it and it keeps tripping out my fuse box.... I am hopeless with electrical things.
Any advice gratefully recieved. I have googled, consulted the manual to no avail. Power is UK power.
Thanks

 

[John Koehrer]

Any bare wires touching in the plug? Tripping a breaker means there's a short circuit somewhere.
Could be at the plug, lamp or in the connecting wire somewhere.

I have a llC and most of the wiring is under the baseboard, is the lC the same?

 

[Saganich]

My Focomat IIB had some shorting issues and my IC wasn't too much better. Check all the wiring as there is nothing special about these power wise I believe.

 

[AgX]

230V and 16A is what a whole mains circuit yields over here. You hardly can overload such under household circumstances, unless you turn your living into a halogen photo studio or start a commercial power cutter...

A Focomat at 230V would drain about 0.3A .

If the plain fuse is tripped (what seems the case in your case), you got a shortcircuit somewhere at your Focomat.
If the residual current switch is tripped, you got a hot earth connection at your Focomat. (Early Focmats likely will not even have a protective earth though.)

 

[Hilo]

Like the others say, the wiring of your 1c needs to be checked.

I got a IIc base board the other day and from the pictures the wiring looked very clean and intact. But as soon as I began to touch it, the isolation simply fell off . . . it had dried out. The wiring of the later Focomats is very simple compared to the wiring of the earlier versions. To make things very simple you can only renew the wire going down the column and run it straight into your timer. You lose the switch on the side of the base board, but we don't really use that if you are using a timer.

 

[Anton Lukoszevieze]

Thanks everyone. When I move the cable attached to the bulb, with the power on, the bulb flickers then trips the fuse board in my cupboard. I unscrewed
the bulb attachment and looked at the wire, the earth (green/yellow) blue and brown all seem to be in place and not really touching each other....
So?

 

[Hilo]

From what you say these wires must be touching each other somewhere else then. But before you go on, can you show a picture of your 1c head, the plug that goes into the column and your baseboard?

It will probably be a good idea to rewire the enlarger's head first, from inside the socket to the plug. Like you I am not very smart technically, but I have done this. You must be extra careful to dismantle the older 1c's Bakelite socket, because it comes with three tiny springs and three metal pieces lose inside the springs. If you do not know this they'll shoot out everywhere . . . I also know someone who is good at this kind of stuff and he can give some ideas here.

 

[Chan Tran]

I assume that this enlarger only need power for the light bulb and nothing else right?
I would remove the bulb and check for short circuit.

 

[Anton Lukoszevieze]

Thank you everyone, in a bit of a dash...! Will report back.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Just do what everyone else has done and rewire it. You just need a wire going to the bulb. You don't need to rewire the whole thing. It is simple to do. If you don't know how one of your friends will.

 

[ic-racer]

it keeps tripping out my fuse box....

That is pretty serious. You might want to quit while still alive.

 

[John Koehrer]

Like Patrick said, simple to do.
UNPLUG FROM WALL!
Remove the light socket and replace it with new, there will be two crews in the area where the bulb goes.
connect a new wire to the socket and run it directly to a new plug. That's it. regular straight screwdriver and
something to strip a bit of wire like a sharp knife is all it should take.

Make sure there are no wires touching each other and that should be it.

 

[Anton Lukoszevieze]

thanks everyone for your advice and don't worry, i have switched the power off.....