Source4 Problems

[OnWithTheShow]

Hopefully some of our resident experts will have some input.

I have been having a lot of problems recently with some of our older source4s. They seem to be having problems with the sockets where they will work sometimes and not others. The lamps appear to be seated properly and upon disassembly there isnt any visible problems with the socket.

[kingfisher1]

funny, we've had a simmilar proble. do they work at higher percentages but flicker/pulse at lower ones, say 20%?

[zac850]

I've had a similar problem with a few of my older Source4's as well.

Steps:
1) change lamps, who knows, it could be a dead lamp
2) try to turn on new lamp
3) cross patch to make sure power is going to the outlet your using
4) unplug
5) pull out cap, pull out lamp, and look at the socket. The holes should be shinny and copper. I had some fixtures that one of the holes got black and nasty, thusly not conducting electricity.
6) Call supplier (I use Production Advantage) and order a new cap piece to wire into the cap. Easy to wire in, never did it, figured it out in like 10 minutes.
7) Use Source4 happily for ever and always

[kingfisher1]

8) buy a pizza
9) figure out why it got broken in the first place so you cna prevent it from happening again
10) go back to the drawing board

[zac850]

Since it was asked.

I believe that this happens when the lamp base is just slightly not touching the lamp housing. Because of this, the power needs to spark and jump the however small distance to the lamp. This causes carbon? buildup and builds resistance.

You may be able to take a metal pipe cleaner and stick it in the hole and try to clean the build-up.


I'm also not 100% sure this is right. I know this can be true of Stage Pin connectors, and I am applying the same concept.

[Pie4Weebl]

when you pull out the lamps see if the base is carbonized (grey color instead of copper) if so you need to clean out the bases.

[Eboy87]

We've had the same problem, so, if it is arcing to make contact, would that explain the buzzing fizzing noise it makes? Half of our broken instruments make that noise.

[Chris15]

If the connection has been subjected to arcing for and extended period of time, it will build up resistance. So, it would follow that it will appear dimmer in comparison to a lamp of the same age that has not been arcing to make the connection.

The suggestion of using a metal pipe cleaner is an interesting one. These comments apply not only to a lamp base connection, but to any other connection that you might think of cleaning in this way. You use a pipe cleaner and you clean off the carbon buildup. You are also likely to remove some of the conductor so in fact there is less copper. Now less copper can lead to a higher resistance and the loss of metal may also mean that the tension that should be holding the connection together is reduced, making it more vulnerable to unwanted disconnection. The replacement of both components would be the best option. I recall that in the past Ship has said that putting a bad lamp into a good socket will destroy the socket and vice versa.

[ship]

Beyond this and in trouble shooting, always doing the simple first, have you isolated the problem specific to these individual fixtures?

[mbandgeek]

it could be a short in the cable too.