Elation opti tri pars not working

[Mr. B]

Greetings
We have 32 Elation Opti Tri Pars in our high school theater that are about 5 years old. About 2 months ago one of them stopped responding. The address doesn't light and it gives us an intermittent red single flash of the LEDs. Yesterday (6 DAYS TO CURTAIN) two more started doing the same thing. We have separated them from the DMX system and there is no change. Any insights?

 

[Amiers]

Bad power?

Pull down the suspect fixtures and power them from good clean wall power. If they work the. You got to many daisy chained.

 

[rsmentele]

Also, where are you located?
I've had the power supplies on these die before.

 

[Mr. B]

I'm in Belen, New Mexico

We have tried powering a single unit on an isolated outlet. LEDs in the control panel didn't even come on. .....

 

[rsmentele]

Sounds like a power supply, I'd call either Elation or another service center. 5 yrs old means no warranty, so you might be able to fix it yourself if you feel comfortable. Otherwise, Full Compass has a full service center that you can send it to.

Here is a link to a replacement power supply (I make no guarentees that this is in fact the issue)
https://www.fullcompass.com/prod/51...01-power-supply-pcb-assembly-for-opti-tri-par

Feel free to call Full Compass Service to ask their opinion too
https://www.fullcompass.com/service.php

 

[Amiers]

I'm in Belen, New Mexico

We have tried powering a single unit on an isolated outlet. LEDs in the control panel didn't even come on. .....

That’s sucks. I would stop using whatever you are using for power for those fixtures. And see if there is something wrong with the power. If not sounds like you got an unlucky hit of power surge or one to many brown outs.

PSUs are pretty easy to replace. The hardest part is cracking them open and not stripping or breaking the screws.

If you do rip one apart please document and picture everything and post as you go for the rest of us. It’s like solving a murder.

 

[cbrandt]

I've seen a lot of those fixtures on our repair bench, and almost every single one was the power supply. I don't know why that's the failure point, but it seems to be quite consistent.

 

[Amiers]

I've seen a lot of those fixtures on our repair bench, and almost every single one was the power supply. I don't know why that's the failure point, but it seems to be quite consistent.

Not to bash to hard. But underrated components, poor airflow, sloppy QC.

I mean look at that thing.

Now granted the price point that they offer is well off. Low power so you can pretty much daisy chain as many as you want.

Personally I would say you got the life outta these fixtures and some. I would make work what you can for the show. Do a little refocus and spread out what works.

Then after show closes start looking for some new fixtures. MAYBE buy one PSU board and see if you can revive one. If not atleast you aren’t stuck with a bunch of PSUs.

 

[JD]

They look to use 6 electrolytic caps. Look for any dome or distortion to the top metal. Chances are, one of these is going bad, and probably the same cap in every unit. If you are good at service, I would change the caps out one at a time, starting with the 47mfd 400v cap. I suspect you will find there is only one that's the weak link. Once you find that one, stock up on the part and change them in all the units. I'm sure the other working units are close behind if they are from the same batch. 15 minutes and a $2 part may buy you another 5 years.

 

[Les]

Are those Rubycon caps? If so, I'm impressed. That is a dense PSU though, so I wouldn't be surprised if heat is killing (drying) the electrolytic caps. They sure weren't messing around with the hot snot for vibration dampening. Nothing is flapping around in the breeze there.

Yes, I watch EEVblog.