Getting 1st Generation Euroscan scanners
It’s a blessing to do what you love in this life! Except the proper job, everyone should do any favorite activities in everyday basis. I got extra work for me, work that will last for at least 5 or 6 months. After years of patience and persistence (ok, I was lucky too!), I found the scanner model that represents the first scanner fixture I’ve seen. Since I was too late to save the two scanners from Antiparos island, these two that I was seeing in my favorite club from 1991 to 2004, I wanted at least to recover the same model and add it in my collection.
Usually, there are some nice stories behind the fixtures that I recover. They are very old and in most cases, especially the club owners, either sell them, throw them away for recycle, or give them to the junk dealers. So if someone still has such lights, he is emotionally detached and he has a lot to say about them. So I’ve added a milestone this month! Because finally I got the most desired model, plus I met and I started a friendship with a person who really loves his job and in every corner of his establishment, has a piece of him.
Only a collector can understand how I feel! The fixtures offer six colors and six gobos, nothing special. But it’s the chassis, it’s the gobo palette (the first six gobos I’ve seen in projection) and it’s all the procedure of finding something lifeless and giving it life again. From 2011 which I’ve started my collection of old lights, I really enjoy this procedure, not to mention that it’s a cure against anxiety and all the pressure that everyone feels due hard times and everyday life.
I’ve travelled from Athens to Evoia island, to roads that I’ve missed a lot and that added more excitement to the day. The summer club Babylonia, is near the village Monodrio in central Evoia island. It’s next to a river, in a big site with tall trees and beautiful nature around. I always favor the clubs / discos / bars of province, most of them have history and because the societies are smaller, all the people know each other, the atmosphere and the energy is different there. Plus their owners are different type of people, they just love their jobs, they don’t care only to make money. I’ve met the owner in his office and we talked for about 3 hours.
There were 8 scanners in total in the summer club, before some years, the four of them were sold. Their carrier in lighting the club lasted for about 15 years and then, they were stored in to a warehouse. Their position was on the ceiling of the club in a height about 4 meters approximately. Now, their chassis needs a lot of work, since there is too much rust, especially in the back cover. I have faced similar situations with the rust, so this, doesn’t worry me at all. The good thing about Euroscans is, that the chassis can be completely disassembled, which will make my job easy. In the first generation, there are air vents only in the back cover; all the other pieces of metal are flat. Another advantage in cleaning them from rust! Its internal seems to be in a normal –for their age- condition, in comparison with the external metals.
These Euroscans were constructed on 1993. I can guess that 1993 was the last year of the first generation series production. All the other scanners I got have built from 1994 and later.
As far as their differences with the second generation are their gobo and color wheels, they have only 6 colors and 6 gobos, while the newer models had 15 gobos and 15 colors. I discovered also that there was a low cost, halogen version of that light, except the common Osram HTI 400 that I have seen myself in the past. That version I recovered, has a halogen lamp with reflector, the ERV 36V, 340 Watt lamp. In general, the chassis has the same parts with the HTI 400 version, the two Sunon fans with the special air vent, driving the air directly on to the lamp and in front of its surface (the HTI lamp needed the air to pass also through its ceramic front ring). The space is too big, so for once more, it will not be a problem for me to install the parabolic reflector, the lamp holder and the ballast for a Metal Halide lamp.
The electronics have completely different architecture from the second generation series. There are no stepper motors, but DC motors with gear box and special position sensors. There is nowhere a mechanical reset stopper, not even in the mirror, only in the small, single blade for the shutter. In the wheels, the motion is transmitted from the motors via a second gear, which on the back has that what I call “position sensor”. I don’t know its official name yet. There are three cables soldered on the back side of the gear.
I still don’t know if there is a strobe effect available in that version. But with that type of blade and motor, if there is, it will not be fast enough for sure. There is a motherboard, with a Phillips processor and other two smaller boards, which controls the Pan / Tilt motors and the Color / Gobo wheel motors. I haven’t checked yet where the shutter motor is connected. There are trimmers on the board for min and max amplitude and my speculation is that you can adjust the reset position via these trimmers. The “motherboard” has a multi voltage connector and in general, all the electronics seem to be in a good state. I haven’t plugged in any of the scanners yet. I have to start working on the first one, but before the plug in, I will have to clean the boards from dust and check the cables for possible short circuits. I will not forgive myself if a board will die on my hands, after 23 years of survival! But I really want to test them, before their disassembly. I want to see the logic of this position sensor and the trimmer adjustments, before I will do anything.
In the gallery, you’ll see some pictures of the scanners in the state I got them and the Babylonia Summer Club, from which most of the constructions and spot lights / pars, are the same for many years. The decoration has changed only once, as the owner told me.
