Automated Fixtures - Clay Paky Stage Color Lamp Won't Strike

[Capn]

A lamp in one of my Clay Paky Stage Color 1000's won't strike. It will respond to all the DMX commands (tilt, pan, color, etc) but the lamp won't come on. I've checked and even replaced the lamp and checked for continuity from the lamp socket to the PC board and all the wiring seems to be fine.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions of what to check next?

Thanks, I appreciate your help!

[soundman]

SOP is to swap the ignitor and ballast with know working ones. I have had issues with the thermal sensors near the lamp housing failing. Sometimes its the wiring other times its the sensors themselves. Wiggle the wires and check continuity, if the sensor is open under normal conditions you have found the issue.

[Capn]

SOP is to swap the ignitor and ballast with know working ones. I have had issues with the thermal sensors near the lamp housing failing. Sometimes its the wiring other times its the sensors themselves. Wiggle the wires and check continuity, if the sensor is open under normal conditions you have found the issue.

Thanks for the info!
My fixtures are the earlier version so there is no documentation online for them, just the later version that does cmy mixing. Thus, I only have a wiring diagram for the newer one and am not sure where the ignitor or ballast are. I did, I believe, find the thermal sensor and it does have continuity. Do you know what the ignitor or ballast would look like?

Thanks again!

[TimMiller]

Every wash that claypaky has made has color mixing. Are you sure you have a stage color 1000. The stage color 1000 does not have an arc lamp, it uses an incandecent lamp, the fixture has an internal dimmer. A wash would be totally useless without color mixing.

The ballast is mounted in the base of the fixture. If it electronic it will be a circuit board with a series of triac's on it. (looks like the inside of an amp). If it has a ballast, it will be a big transformer. The ignitor is mounted in the arm.

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The ignitor is basically a stepup transformer. It puts out about 15kv (15000 Volts) IT HURTS A LOT. You want to be very careful. The ignitor will have a wiring schematic on it. You will want to meter for voltage across the output of the ballast on the ignitor, and not the ignitor to the lamp.

[Capn]

Every wash that claypaky has made has color mixing. Are you sure you have a stage color 1000. The stage color 1000 does not have an arc lamp, it uses an incandecent lamp, the fixture has an internal dimmer. A wash would be totally useless without color mixing.

The ballast is mounted in the base of the fixture. If it electronic it will be a circuit board with a series of triac's on it. (looks like the inside of an amp). If it has a ballast, it will be a big transformer. The ignitor is mounted in the arm.

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The ignitor is basically a stepup transformer. It puts out about 15kv (15000 Volts) IT HURTS A LOT. You want to be very careful. The ignitor will have a wiring schematic on it. You will want to meter for voltage across the output of the ballast on the ignitor, and not the ignitor to the lamp.

Sorry for the confusion. In trying to not babble too much I left out the detail that my lights do RGB and not CMY.

Thanks for the info! Just what I was looking for!

[soundman]

Not all ignitors will be in the arm, I had some Robe 1200s that had it in the head, confused me a bit but its a shorter wire run that way. Every ignitor I have seen has three terminals on it, if that helps.

[TimMiller]

I know in every moving head claypaky i have worked on the ignitor is in the head. Which model of clay paky do you have, since it has an arc lamp, the 300 or the 1200? I am extremely familiar with the 1200's (I have 5 units sitting in my garage).

[Capn]

I have what must be the first version of the stage color 1000. I say that because it does RGB color mixing and the manual on claypaky's site shows a completely different display panel and does CMY. The document title says rev. 1 in it.
There is a pc board in the bottom of the unit that says "dimmer" on it. There is a wire-wound transformer looking thing mounted on the board. Could that be the igniter? Sorry, my electronics class was oh so long ago. ; )

[TimMiller]

The fixture that you have does not use an arc lamp, it uses an incandescent lamp and an internal dimmer. What lamp do you have in the fixture? If you lamp is not comming on the dimmer would be the problem. There is a switch on the front of the unit that allows you to switch between RGB and CMY.

[icewolf08]

The StageColor 1000 is NOT an arc source fixture, it uses a 1kW Tungsten-Halogen lamp. If you are using a fixture with an arc lamp it is either going to be a StageColor 575 or 1200. By the same token, if you really do have a StageColor 1000 and you are trying to put an HMI lamp in it, it won't work. If you are using the correct lamp and it won't come on then it is probably a bad dimmer cube (SCR) in the fixture. Below is the product brochure for the SC1K.

Also, all of the StageColor line are equipped with CMY, as RGB mixing is totally ineffective from a single source (subtractive vs. additive mixing). You can however set the fixture to RGB mode as some people think that way, the fixture just translates that to CMY values and creates the colors using CMY wheels.

Another thing to note is that all the StageColor fixtures: 575, 1000, 1200 appear to all come in the same body, just to make life confusing. However, if your fixture has an amber "GTC" (as Clay Paky calls it) wheel then you have either a 575 or 1200. So if the branding has rubbed off the front, it would be good to ensure what type of fixture it actually is.