Issue with my VariLite 1000's

[KT the TD]

I have my VariLite1000's set to turn on with the lighting board (ETC ION) lately every time the start up the do a loud configue, (horrifying sounding clicking when they move) and point as far up as they will go which is not how they are set to. I also have no control over pan/tilt or the lamp. Anything else I'd need the lamp on to test. I tried eveything I can think of on the item itself as well as unpluged and re-connected every cable and made sure everything on the ION was still the same. I cannot for the life of me figure it out. I also get no error codes when I check the system.

Side note I called VariLite and got no answer. Thought I'd try here before calling again.

Advice?

 

[mikeydoesstuff]

So, to clarify, they're running through warm up with a lot of clicking noise, homing to an unusual location, and not responding to pan and tilt properly?

Have you checked for error messages AT the fixture or just through console?
When they're making all that noise on warm up are they panning, tilting, or other?

Have you tried a global fixture reset?

 

[KT the TD]

So, to clarify, they're running through warm up with a lot of clicking noise, homing to an unusual location, and not responding to pan and tilt properly?

Have you checked for error messages AT the fixture or just through console?
When they're making all that noise on warm up are they panning, tilting, or other?

Have you tried a global fixture reset?

To clarify yes they are panning and tilting up until the point of needing control from the board. No error messages on the instrument itself. I have not tried total reset only value reset on the instrument that forced a re-cal.

 

[mikeydoesstuff]

I would start with a global fixture reset, and watch the units on warm up, make sure they're really moving fully, especially with all that noise - they do some of that, but it sounds like problem 1/? could be a sesnor issue: they dont know where home is.

 

[Rob]

It sounds like either your lights or your console have lost their patch. They will 'home' on powerup as you've indicated, but if they aren't patch correctly, they will point skyward as you've described. Check the start addresses and the cabling to the lights.

 

[mikeydoesstuff]

It sounds like either your lights or your console have lost their patch. They will 'home' on powerup as you've indicated, but if they aren't patch correctly, they will point skyward as you've described. Check the start addresses and the cabling to the lights.

He's probably right... I'm looking for Zebras, sorry!

 

[porkchop]

It sounds like either your lights or your console have lost their patch. They will 'home' on powerup as you've indicated, but if they aren't patch correctly, they will point skyward as you've described. Check the start addresses and the cabling to the lights.

Agreed sounds like a normal homing sequence for VL 1k's. A quick and dirty trick to make sure the lights are receiving some kind of data is to grab the whole universe (Channel 1-512) and roll it up slowly. If the light starts to move it's receiving data and you merely have an addressing issue. If it doesn't more at all data isn't getting to the light from the console and you should troubleshoot that.

 

[chawalang]

Are these being run through a lighting network with gateways or nodes? If so has anything changed with it as of late?

 

[KT the TD]

It sounds like either your lights or your console have lost their patch. They will 'home' on powerup as you've indicated, but if they aren't patch correctly, they will point skyward as you've described. Check the start addresses and the cabling to the lights.

I'm going to have to try this, i've checked all the cables but I'll un-patch and re-patch to assure the corrective dimmers are assigned.

 

[KT the TD]

Agreed sounds like a normal homing sequence for VL 1k's. A quick and dirty trick to make sure the lights are receiving some kind of data is to grab the whole universe (Channel 1-512) and roll it up slowly. If the light starts to move it's receiving data and you merely have an addressing issue. If it doesn't more at all data isn't getting to the light from the console and you should troubleshoot that.

I'm going to try this as well, thank you!

 

[KT the TD]

Are these being run through a lighting network with gateways or nodes? If so has anything changed with it as of late?

We are running them through a wireless dmx box, nothing has changed with it but unfortunatley we're near an airprot so it oculd mess up if the airport takes more frequencies without notifying anyone.

 

[RC4Wireless]

Regarding wireless DMX -- see if the 900Mhz band is clearer. It probably is. If so, check out http://www.theatrewireless.com/product-category/rc4magic-900/.

We debuted this new system at the SuperBowl for exterior lighting all the way around the stadium. The entire place was flooded with hundreds of carefully aimed and configured Cisco WiFi zones for superb patron connectivity. No 2.4GHz spectrum left -- none. ZERO. At 900Mhz, no problems at all. Since then, it's been used in many places, including rf-hostile Las Vegas. Flawless performance in every case.

Jim
RC4

 

[chawalang]

I think my question got lost in translation.

Are you DMX lines hardline from the console or are they run via a network switch to gateways that can be controlled by remote device management. If so it would be worth while to check if the IP address or subnet mask is valid. This could be a possible issue especially if your patch and nothing else has changed from the console. If your network protocols are not set correctly per what universe you want to go where specifically, no info will get to that DMX line, even if everything is addressed and patched correctly.

 

[KT the TD]

Agreed sounds like a normal homing sequence for VL 1k's. A quick and dirty trick to make sure the lights are receiving some kind of data is to grab the whole universe (Channel 1-512) and roll it up slowly. If the light starts to move it's receiving data and you merely have an addressing issue. If it doesn't more at all data isn't getting to the light from the console and you should troubleshoot that.

So I tried this and when I got the lights about halfway up they ran through their configuration sequence again but didn't produce any light.

 

[Robert]

Well, the noise and movements sound like a normal homing sequence to me. Lots of chatter and clicking noises along with a full range of motion.
To me I there seems to be a loss of control signal or a bad patch especially since it happens to every fixture. A bad cable could do the same thing as well.
I would run a known good hard line from the console to one fixture and go through them one at a time, checking the patch and addresses as you go along.
So when you grabbed all active channels, you go the lights to move? There is a control value for reset in the VL that could have been triggered by the 1-512 channel command.

 

[Robert]

What model VL do you have external dimmer, on-board dimmer, Arc?

http://www.vari-lite.com/clientuploads/directory/downloads/VL1000_User_G.pdf