Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Cibie Oscar and Super Oscar Driving lights


I Love Cibie driving lights, there was a time when they were the best money could buy, maybe they still are :) everyone who needed the best driving lamp bought them, most of the worlds rally teams have at one time or another used them, LeMans cars used them......

They come in spot, drive and fog lenses. Spot has a clear lense, the other two might be hard to work out from photos so ask the owner. Early ones have a grey painted back and chrome rim, later ones are all black. The lower mount comes loose and some have been "fixed" by drilling out the original aluminium rivets and replacing with bolts, ugly but it does work. As supplied they are NOT waterproof, which does nothing for the not too flash reflector coating!!!! you need to seal them up with electrical tape around the gap between the rim and main housing (and anywhere else water can get). Why are they like this? they are French.....

UNFORTUNATELY, the plating on the reflector is not as long lasting as a lot of other lesser brands (Im being nice). Once this starts to detoriate the lamps are NOT WORTH OWNING, they are junk, you will need to buy new reflector assemblies. People say "still work ok" this translates to "the bulb works" you could be buying an expensive bulb.....


this is a good one (spot lense) This one is a dud (drive lense)

You cannot "rechrome" the reflectors, they arn't chrome for a start and the process is expensive IF you could remove the lense from the reflector, they are a ONE PIECE unit. Chrome is no where as reflective as the original coating anyway so forget it!.(they are vacuum aluminised from new) not sure if new production ones are better, hopefully they are

You cannot buy a new "lense" you have to buy an assembly and they are NOT cheap, an Oscar/Super Oscar lense assembly is about A$150 each!

I wonder why people do it but why buy something used for more than its new price? unless the reflectors are mint factor in A$300 for a new pair then add postage and the price of the lamps? bargin ? doubt it.

Funny thing is you can get new Oscars for A$270 plus postage........ so why muck about with old ones past their use by date? If you stick with the damaged reflectors, be prepaired to be shocked at the lack of light these will give you, probbaly worse than a set of $40 K-Mart specials......... I would buy new Cibie's as they are still so much better then the average lamp its not funny.

You can also buy these in shops (you know, shops in buildings, not cyber space) CHEAPER than on here, yes you might have to ring around, probably even visit the shop, give it a go it might be a fun outing.... :) you might save some money.

BUY NEW ONES!!!!!! dont muck about with lamps that are now past their best. If you found this helpfull or interesting please tick the little box below :)

Automatic Bid Increment Vs. Price Range Of The Item

Have you noticed why on eBay a $5000.00 item can't be bid up to $5000.05. Thats because there are set bid increments for each price range.

This information is great for sellers on eBay because it gives them a good idea as to where to start the auction price in order to achieve a higher bid increment.


Please see the reference below i have made for your information on automatic bid increments.


Automatic Price Range
Increment Of The Item
$0.05 $.01 to $.99
$.25 $1 to $4.99
$.50 $5 to $24.99
$1.00 $25 to $99.99
$2.50 $100 to $249.99
$5.00 $250 to $499.00
$10.00 $500 to $999.99
$25.00 $1000 to $2499.99
$50.00 $2500 to $4999.99
$100.00 $5000 and up



For example if the current bid on an item was $67.52 the next minimum bid that would be allowed is $68.52 as this price range falls in to the $1.00 increment slot.

This may change the way you think about selling your products in order to extract more money quicker with a higher starting price.

Place the XBox 360 in a well ventilated location

So many XBox 360 owners have planned a lazy afternoon of gaming bliss with their favorite game only to experience an all too common event. They've pulled up the sofa, set out the refreshments, and switched on their XBox 360, just to see that their console displays three red lights on the front panel.

What these players have experienced is known as the XBox 360 Ring of Death. It's the result of a design fault in the XBox 360 console that causes the machine to overheat and damage some of the connections between components. The console simply gets so hot that the solder on the main circuit board melts and flows away from the pins of certain chips. Without these connections, the XBox cannot operate properly, and displays the fault as the three red lights on the front panel.

It is possible to avoid the red ring of death meltdown. Since it is caused by overheating, you should do a number of things to keep your XBox 360 cool. Here are five.

  1. Place the XBox 360 in a well ventilated location. This is the key to keeping your console cool. Make sure there is plenty of room around the 360 so that heat can escape. Moving air is especially good for cooling.
  2. Keep the Xbox 360 out of direct sunlight. Direct sunlight can heat up your console adding to the thermal load that the heatsinks have to dissipate. You want to reduce this as much as possible.
  3. Do not stack the XBox 360 with other equipment. Don't stack your console with other audio/visual equipment. This equipment not only generates heat, it can suffocate your XBox preventing heat from escaping. If you must stack equipment because of space constraints, put the 360 on top of the stack.
  4. Do not put things on top of the XBox 360 when it is on. After you've put the game CD in the drive, don't put the case on the console. This will restrict airflow and prevent heat from escaping.
  5. Turn off your XBox 360 when not in use. Aside from being eco-friendly, a powered down console has a chance to cool off.
Of course, you may be reading this because you have already experienced the Red Ring of Death. If that's the case, there is still hope. There are a few repair guides available that will step you through the process of fixing your XBox 360. These are good if you are out of warranty, and don't want to face an expensive repair bill.