We are a studio. We have gear. Gear breaks.

I’m all for sending pro gear back to the manufacturer to be serviced, but in this economy, I also like to save where I can. When one of the four ballast boards on my Kino Ve 4Bank Ballast took a permanent nap, I decided to fix it myself.

With a quick search on the Kino site, I was able to identify the part number I needed. It took a few days to get the board (Kino made me order it from Samy’s) but once it came in, it only took about 5 minutes to swap.

I took some pictures…

Here’s the main ballast unit…

That had a dead ballast board, as evidenced by the non-op tube…

Start by removing 10 screws from the case cover. 3 on each side and 4 on top.

Here’s what is looks like inside. You can see in this picture (and the next) that I have already removed the white connectors on either end and the smaller red connector at one side on the second board up from the bottom.

To remove the board, just undo the three hex nuts. Two are on one side of the board (I’m pointing to one of them) and one is one the opposite end. DO NOT remove the small phillips head screw - it’s part of the board.

That’s all. Now, back to making movies…

- Mike