Control/Dimming - Strand 520i failure

[Sayen]

I have a 520i that's maybe 10 years old, and was at the school prior to my arrival (so no one thought to keep documentation or purchasing information). It worked fine for a while, and then while we were under construction it sat in a road case for a year. Now when I boot it up, it takes forever to boot (if it boots), and usually wants me to hit a key acknowledging an error, although it won't say what the error is.

Once booted, none of the faders, keypads, or soft keys work, although attaching a keyboard and using key commands will trigger a response from the dimmers. The only other symptom I've noticed is the system clock seems to reset frequently.

I did manage to update the firmware.

District vendors for Strand are going to charge $200 just to look at it to find the problem, and that's before repairs. Is there anything I can do on my own? Any advice? I'm good with computers and electronics, but I've never pried apart a light console before.



Unrelated, and because I feel like I'm starting too many threads - anyone know of a company that makes liquid gobos? I thought I saw one in use many years ago, and as it rotated slowly you could see bubbles moving through the liquid, sort of lava-lamp ish. I can't find anything like this on major manufacturer websites.

Thanks,

[icewolf08]

Note, this is not for the faint of heart (and having some DOS knowledge helps).

I would suggest booting up in DOS mode and running the 220clean program. This utility checks the OS files and cleans up extraneous information. It can also wipe show files which may be good if you have any that are corrupt. To boot into DOS you have to have a regular keyboard connected, and you hit control-break when you see the strand splash screen. You should get a DOS prompt, and you should be able to just type "220clean" followed by enter to run the utility. I cant remember the shutdown command (though it may be "shutdown"), but then try rebooting and see if that helps. I'll keep thinking about other things to try and get back to you.

[derekleffew]

Originally Posted by Sayen

...The only other symptom I've noticed is the system clock seems to reset frequently...

I'm not very knowledgeable about Strand consoles made after 1992, but this symptom to me would indicate the replacement of the PRAM battery may be warranted.

[Raktor]

Originally Posted by derekleffew

I'm not very knowledgeable about Strand consoles made after 1992, but this symptom to me would indicate the replacement of the PRAM battery may be warranted.

Should be a CR2032 battery.

[cdub260]

Something else you can try in addition to the other ideas here, is to open the board up and clean the electronics. First dust it with a can of compressed air, then shoot it with some electronic cleaner.

[pmgpriebe]

Originally Posted by cdub260

First dust it with a can of compressed air, then shoot it with some electronic cleaner.

Everyone has their own method of cleaning the insides of fixtures/consoles/etc.. Even though I used this method for some time, we had a gentleman in here servicing our gear that use to do component repair on battleships for 30+ years. A very nice older gentleman that eventually decided to retire with the stock he has been purchasing and saving for some time. He saw me do that with our compressor once and asked me if I realized what I was doing. I didn't understand at first, but then he said, "Where are you blowing all that dust?". I told him away/out of the fixture. He talked to me briefly about the small crevices and cracks that are on circuit boards and mentioned that a decent amount of that dust is blowing into places your not going to be able to get it out of. He mentioned to me that if his superior on the ships would have saw him do that, he would be in for some extra (involuntary) work. So from that point on I decided to take our shop vac and suck them out as best as I could. And then even sometimes after that I will still blow it out, lol. But! None the less, he made a valid point to me and I suck as much of it out as I possibly can before attempting to blow it out.

Just remember, to each their own! It might not even be that big of a deal to most, it just made sense to me and it has stuck with me the past 2-3 years.

[derekleffew]

We've discussed, regarding dimmer cleaning, that it's better to suck than to blow. Taking the hose of a ShopVac to the inside of any computer is a bad idea. There are inexpensive, anti-static computer vacuums specific to the purpose.

I think dousing the inside of a console with "electronics cleaner" is also a bad idea.

[cdub260]

Originally Posted by cdub260

Something else you can try in addition to the other ideas here, is to open the board up and clean the electronics. First dust it with a can of compressed air, then shoot it with some electronic cleaner.

Originally Posted by derekleffew

...I think dousing the inside of a console with "electronics cleaner" is also a bad idea.

You may be right about that derek. That's why, as I forgot to mention in my earlier reply, that I only use the electronic cleaner when I'm having a problem. It is most definitely not a part of my routine maintenance on my lighting systems. I have had good results when using a combination of the two.

[Sayen]

The battery was my suspicion, although the supposed expert I had out last year didn't notice that. I thought I should ask here before diving into a board that costs more than me (in school district terms).

This poor board was also left exposed in the room when they decided one night to paint the ceiling black, so who knows what that did to the insides. There was a lovely fine black grit over the surface of the console.

I'll report back with my findings.

[photoatdv]

Well we USED to have a Strand 430 as primary in the blackbox (also 2nd for the main auditorium, and we had a 200 as back up for the black box.)-- unfortunatly, one of our rather stupid-to-say-the-least techs decided to crush altoids on it. (He thought he could get high off altoids-- didn't work and he was coughing for days) Because of that we lost several sliders. Then the basic drama kids decided to neglect the shutdown procedure-- always. Then it crashed. Funny how the drama teacher who hadn't cared about what his classes were doing suddenly cared a lot when it crashed. "I tried to make them do it right, they just didn't listen" It's still on the floor in the light room-- quite sad.