Altman 65Q Fresnel socket replacement

Kai Sadowski

New Member
at my High school, we have a bunch of altman 65Q fixtures of which the socket for the lamp is corroded, and they need to be replaced. does anyone know of any video tutorial that may show how to properly replace these?
 
Brand sometimes matters in that there is clearly two different mounting hole patterns for P-28s lamp sockets. If the Bryant socket mentioned fits the Colortran it should also fit the Altman amongst other brands and it would also fit them. Otherwise it's not hard to re-mount a centered other mounting hole. Modern of what ever brand I do not remember have a different mounting hole size at the most important thing to be aware of.

Nice and well done set of tips that have only a few faults. First if the lamp base is bad, the wiring by way of bad base will probably also need to be cut back or replaced. Second, dependant on the type of base which might be as part of micostar's post, some lamp sockets have wiring pre-attached to the lamp socket, some don't. That could be important for say a 1KAF Altman Fresnel - if the pre-crimped wires go to a high temp. barrier strip. Honestly don't remember. Mostly the lamp base will fit or if not easy to center and make fit no matter what brand or model for a Fresnel. For a Leko, at times a more small OD lamp socket might be important, and for that reason I hold a reserve stock of older smaller OD P-28s lamp sockets. Most won't need to worry about that.

Website does not go into much detail about the "used" condition of the wire/conductors going into the new lamp socket screw terminals or to replace the insulator pad with the new one. As I say.... "put a perfectly good lamjp into a bad lamp socket...." the same would be the case in putting bad wiring into a good lamp socket.

Let me go into that perfectly good lamp socket concept a little more as important please. Every time you at least in study of dual ended 1.2Kw moving light lamps, put a perfectly good lamp into a bad lamp socket, it fails 100 lamp hours sooner in a cumulative type of way. I have literally tracked lamps installed at 500 hours going "bad", down thru 100 hours and less "bad" when the same clueless lamp changer has had to visit the same fixture multiple and increasing times, but never wondered about why the lamp was going bad... often outer pinch failure due to bad lamp socket. A lamp could be arch welded to the base or have a Osram tattoo and arch welding on the base of the lamp, as with huge heat damage, and that as if fuse outer pinch (crack) failure as the cause of why the lamp stopped working... yet they keep installing a perfectly good lamp into it. (Fixture wiring also at this point is normally toast so even if they at some point change the lamp socket, it won't fix the problem.) (Ballast often than starts to go in the next step.)

Anyway, back to a P-28s, on the web link there is nothing really about how to wire up the replacement lamp socket properly, when to cut back on or replace the wire. Be careful not to loose the screws is mentioned - what size are they for replace them if corroded? Replacement of mounting screws is a normal thing. Normally 4-40x1/2" and go stainless steel, but there is I Believe 6-32 variants out there with the newer bases.

Attachment of the old wiring and are they crimp terminal and high temp insulated or bare wire under the screw terminals implied from how to from the website I am more concerned about.

The website cites a clearly bad lamp socket given a fin broken. Again I stand for about 90, or at least 50% of lamp sockets can be resurfaced and become again perfectly fine.
 
I haven’t found a good replacement medium pre-focus socket since the Bryant became unavailable. Altman has an HPL upgrade kit. Were I fixing up 65Qs in 2017, I’d go that route. The HPL will probably stick around as other lamps are discontinued, and it makes it easy on school admin. to only stock one lamp type.
 
I haven’t found a good replacement medium pre-focus socket since the Bryant became unavailable. Altman has an HPL upgrade kit. Were I fixing up 65Qs in 2017, I’d go that route. The HPL will probably stick around as other lamps are discontinued, and it makes it easy on school admin. to only stock one lamp type.

I bought some Bryant 3742 sockets from Barbizon in February of this year, around $32 each. I had ordered some Sun-Lite 9BP-01 MPF sockets from Production Advantage, who say it replaces the Bryant 3742, but the mounting holes do not line up the same and had a cheaper feel.
The HPL upgrade kit is a good idea though. I had forgotten it was available.
 
I bought some Bryant 3742 sockets from Barbizon in February of this year, around $32 each. I had ordered some Sun-Lite 9BP-01 MPF sockets from Production Advantage, who say it replaces the Bryant 3742, but the mounting holes do not line up the same and had a cheaper feel.
The HPL upgrade kit is a good idea though. I had forgotten it was available.

Is the center contact flat, or cupped? I have had nothing but failure from MPF sockets with cupped center contacts.
 
Is the center contact flat, or cupped? I have had nothing but failure from MPF sockets with cupped center contacts.
The ones I have are cupped from the factory. Which (agreed) is the problem in the first place as the smaller buttons on new lamps make inconsistent contact. I have replaced some of the bases in the past (although I can't remember the manufacturer. I can find out if you need the info), and it was pretty straight forward. Undo the focus wing nut so that you can pull the focus carriage through the lens opening. You can then get at the screws to release the electrical wires from the base and then undo the base from the carriage. Reverse the procedure to install the new one. It was pretty straight forward. Careful you don't over tighten the screws installing the new base. You never forget the sound of cracking porcelain.
 
Cupped socket contact a problem... Interesting and brilliant in working with some lamps and especially not others. Which goes into P-28s lamp base design for lamps which should as per a ANSI lamp be brought up in standard of both lamp and socket design. Mark from Osram are you out there in being closest to answer to this problem on P-28s lamps?

I think this very important as with the mounting hole problem of lamp sockets.

Personally yesterday I was trying to get 100x BA-15d lamp sockets quick of a specific type of hickey angle bracket mounting design. Both Leviton and Buhl discontinued many versions of the lamp socket I wanted. Levition has discontinued the entire line, but at least Bultronics was able to save the day thru another maker. Kudo's! Last email with a photo of the lamp socket I was looking for was a PO# for the lamp sockets, what ever the cost, I need at least by the 20th - 100x of them in something which would work. Provided it was for DC low voltage so almost no draw or heat - which limits some types of BA-15d lamp sockets, "I'm going home within the hour to work on a PSU... let me know what you find and consider this an order." Price was fairly cheap at my discount factor and normal for type type of lamp socket in price. Great work on their part in researching and getting a lamp socket not presented on their website as a special order I already got conformation on shipping of.
 

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