Source 4 Alignment Question

[Erimac]

I have a question that I'm hoping you folks can answer. I'm working on the summer maintenance of our venue's Source 4s and I'm finding a I'm having a problem with some of my 36 degrees. They are showing what appears to be the clips holding the lens into the barrel around the edges and/or has a bad corona effect. When I endeavor to align them they only go away sometimes- even if I get the spot right in the center and it is perfectly flattened (or so it seems- it could be I'm not getting it right on the money I guess). I've checked the barrels but that does not appear to be the problem so I am guessing it is in the lamp socket or the reflector. Can anyone offer my some insight on this?

[Lightingguy32]

That means that the lamp was originally way out of alignment. Or someone is using a 26/19 degree lens in the position of a 36 degree lens. This will not work out. The only other problem may be that the rear 36 degree lens may be knocked out of alignment, open up the barrel and take a look. Other wise, it is probably in dire need of a good bench focus session

[icewolf08]

I agree with Lightingguy, you should check the lens placement/alignment inside the lens tube. You should be able to get the correct setup from ETC's datasheets on each and they are available on ETC's website. You should also check the reflectors, if they are cracked, dirty or loosing their dichroic coating that could also be casing you issues.

[ship]

I have heard of this issue before with this specific lens type. Don't remember what the outcome was. Perhaps do a search into stagecraft website in finding (if it's working) the past posts on this subject. Very sure I have heard this before, just don't remember anything about it. Could also contact ETC on it, think it is a real thing and have dealt with it also at times by way of cutting extra rubber off the rubber lens holding clips.

Than again, as with the above both also sound possible.

[Centerstage]

What you see are the retaining clips holding the reflector. This problem is inherent with the 36 degree Source 4. I've talked to ETC about it and...get used to seeing the clips.

[Chaos is Born]

Originally Posted by Centerstage

What you see are the retaining clips holding the reflector. This problem is inherent with the 36 degree Source 4. I've talked to ETC about it and...get used to seeing the clips.

This is only something i've started to see recently... I didn't see it with any of our S4's at my school, but where i work now, having to focus 36 of them in a row i'm noticing that they really have a large amount of small defects around the edges...

(side note... these fixtures also have never been benched in the space... only 3 years but still...)

[lightbyfire]

Which generation lense tube are they? There have been several revisions, some have more issues than others.

although the most common ive found was missalignment of the rear lense in cases like this. also, check the reflector, there is occasionally enough play in it to slightly turn off center, this can affect the optics, although im not sure this is your problem here.

best option is probably to fully field strip the lense tube (clean it while your at it) and reassemble.

[Erimac]

Thanks for all the advice folks. I'll try the various suggestions today and let you know how it turns out.

[Erimac]

Hmm well I did some experimenting. I swapped out barrels on various units (good to bad and reverse). It appeared to make no difference. I checked several of the bad barrels for lens and again everything appears as it does in the good ones. The reflectors all appear to be fine as well. I managed to get most of them to the point (by bench focusing them) that they only show the clips when the barrels are fully flooded- and then its only slight indents on the edge of the beam- though one or two are still pretty bad. The problem seems to be mostly in the lamp socket somehow...

[Lightingguy32]

The current source four lens tube revision is rev j. The 1993-1994 is rev B. I have played around with several 36° rev j lens tubes and have not ran in to this problem with seeing the reflector clips at all.