SAATI 450 LED bulb

[cclaud3]

Ok, so my 38 month old FX LED that uses a SAATI bulb is not working 100%. About 1/2 of the leds are firing. Quoted ~$2k for replacement bulb. Anyone else have to replace their bulb yet?

[Sbrem]

Well, that sucks; no, ours hasn't shown that yet, but we haven't had to run it in 6 weeks. Our is about 15 months. When did you start to notice it happening?

Steve

[cclaud3]

A couple of months ago. I had to burn screens while my screen guy was doing something else. I lifted the blanket right after the bulb was turning off, I thought I saw a weird pattern as the bulbs still had some glow, but didn't investigate. Since I've been burning all of the screens for the last few weeks I investigated it closer by snapping some pics so not to look at bulb while on.

Screens are still burning but I've had to add some time.

Good news from about an hour ago, that Doug @ Douthitt (didn't but the unit from them) got me in contact with SAATI and it may just be 1 of the 2 ballasts which is not an expensive part. Need to bring in my meter and see if we're getting proper voltage. Should know tomorrow or Monday.

[bimmridder]

Another example of how wonderful the guys at Douthitt are. He sure as hell didn't have to do that and he'll get nothing (except more of my respect) for stepping up.

[3Deep]

Good deal, that's a costly bulb

[markdhl]

Thanks Dave!  Yes, we do offer the best support in the industry.  If anyone can get that led working, it will be Eric @ Saati.

fyi .. this is why we caution everyone about the units like the laser direct to screen that bulbs "never need replacing" because they will and when they do they will make that bulb seem inexpensive.

Nice to be appreciated!

Mark Diehl
mdhlexp@aol.com
313 515 8635

[avogel]

We went through this same thing when ours was about 2.5 years old. Under warranty, thank goodness! It took 3 lights and a couple ballasts before we got the problem solved. Definitely check ballasts and wiring first.

[cclaud3]

Ok, so it's the chip which is $1200. Now to decide on replacing the chip or getting a different unit. Confidence is low... thinking that this could be an issue every couple of years.
This is one of the earlier units that had failures due to the cooling design. Guess we were lucky that it lasted about 3 years.

M&R starlight
Douthitt Novac
M&R Trilight
others?

We don't have the depth for a projector style halide setup, but can fit a 40" deep or less unit by 6 or 7 feet.
23x31 screens.
99% waterbased.
We are using a CTS so no vacuum or glass is needed.

Any recommendations.

[DannyGruninger]

We have been using the V Lux made by Exile. The unit has been the best LED we have tested here at DPH but we have not tested a lot of LED units to be fair. For us it provides great workflow with our DTS. We have been using ours for several months and on average(pre covid) we would burn around 150 screens a day. Most sbq emulsions WITH diazo are around 8-25 seconds on this unit.

[Colin]

The V-Lux is definitely a good unit.

If you want to skip LED and go back to metal halide, find a 3-5k unit.  Anything less than 3k is around the same quality as LED imo.

[1964GN]

We have been using the Douthitt NOVAC 5k for the last 6-7 months and it's been fantastic.

[markdhl]

Also, since no glass the light LED or our Metal Halide can easily be hung from the ceiling so floor space is not an issue. 
add welding curtains to contain the light.

No better light than the olite metal halide. We sell new and refurbished one OR will refurbish an old one that you find and ship to us.

The Novac and Dmax (and available with pass through design) are the deluxe way to go for highest quality.

Mark Diehl
313 515 8635
Douthitt Corp
mark@douthittcorp.com
www.wax.ink