After leaving my Space Encounters unit on for half an hour or so, I began smelling a nasty electrical burning oder. I isolated the smell to the Strobe unit when the smell did not occur while running the machine with the Strobe unit unplugged.
Upon further inspection, I could see small sparks inside the light bulb socket on the unit whenever the light bulb lit. This unit had always made little sparking noises when the bulb flashed, but I had never paid it much notice.
As you can see to the left in the photo below, the silver side of the socket was blackend - there was a bad connection in the socket. The original socket was an Eagle brand Cat. No. 752. I looked on the internet, but found no one carrying an exact replacement to this part. I gave up on this route and went to my local hardware store and bought a ceramic replacement socket for about $4.
Here is the end result with the new replacement. The screw-holes lined up perfectly. While the new ceramic socket is not exactly the same as the original - it will probably be safer and more reliable than the original plastic socket.
