Apollo Scrollers

[stgjim]

Our church had a lighting strike the other week and I was called in. None of the Sanctuary lights would work, Autoyokes were down, stage led fixtures were out. It also got a multitude of audio visual gear.

Sanctuary lights turned out to be Unison processor - got loaner and sent churches to ETC back in business. Sensor processor survived OK.

Stage led fixtures turned out to be Feenore amp/opti-splitter - sent to Feenore to be rebuilt. When installed 2 of the 4 Autoyokes also came to life.

However we have no control over Apollo scrollers - which are hung in a canopy on ETC fixtures about 35' up. Documentation is long gone. When I power up the scrollers they go through the 'home cycling' and then some go to different colors - the same each time - not random. I am wondering if part of their function is to return to last color set if a power failure. If so, it would seem to point to they're not getting DMX from board.

I believe the whole mess was caused by lighting getting into the DMX circuits.

If someone could verify the 'return to last color' of the scrollers it would be an enormous help.

Thanks

 

[JohnD]

Sending out the bat signal for @Kelite or the other designated boffins from Apollo. As they say in broadcasting "Please Stand By".
In the meantime try "Apollo Scroller" in the search box in the upper right corner of this page, they have been discussed often here.

You might also consider adding actual mechanical relays to both your power and data lines for better protection from lightning strikes.

 

[Mac Hosehead]

I would suspect a problem in the scroller power supply that routes DMX to the scrollers. The manual from the Apollo site says the LED address will blink if no DMX.

 

[stgjim]

JohnD I tried looking through the search material and didn't see anything.
MAc Hosehead We might try powering up the scrollers at night and use some binoculars to try to pickup blinking. I am too old to climb up any more.
Thanks

 

[Amiers]

Start with the PSU. Older PSUs will be DMX dials which will always hold their DMX. so if the dmx board took a crap but the power section of the PSU didn’t the scrolls will scroll to the no DMX mode that the dials are set at. Hopefully you have a spare PSU to swap out and test.

 

[stgjim]

I am fairly new to posting here. I had a msg in my email of a post which doesn't appear here. Hope I'm doing this right.

I may have egg on face. I assumed the scrollers are Apollo because I remembered seeing an Apollo manual when I first started working with the lights.

An update - there are 21 scrollers in the canopy. I remember some years ago the 'bout half of the scrollers in the canopy quit working and I found a power supply that was tried and fixed problem. Thus there is no spare.

There are 4 more scrollers on the ends of the balconies that light up the organ pipes. I managed to lead over the end and see that the output of the power supply is 'y ed' into the DMX input of one scroller. Its DMX out is daisyed into the input of the second. Would assume the power is on 4 & 5.
I also noticed that the DMX address is set by dip switches

Thanks for the help.

 

[Amiers]

A scroller cable is 4 pin not 5 pin. Get a model number of your PSU and let us know and we can give you more information. However from what you said. I would say 99% sure your PSU dmx board is fried and not passing signal which makes your scrollers useless.

Quick test would be to grab a scroller and a short cable and tap right off the PSU with nothing else attached and set it up and try to control it.

 

[RonHebbard]

A scroller cable is 4 pin not 5 pin. Get a model number of your PSU and let us know and we can give you more information. However from what you said. I would say 99% sure your PSU dmx board is fried and not passing signal which makes your scrollers useless.

Quick test would be to grab a scroller and a short cable and tap right off the PSU with nothing else attached and set it up and try to control it.

@Amiers Why am I recalling a small, wall-wart sized, scroller power supply with what appeared to be an XLR 4 / XLR 5 Y cord attached?
In the cobwebs of my mind, the XLR 5 was its DMX input while the XLR 4 was its standard scroller output supplying both the scroller's power and its DMX.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[Amiers]

@Amiers Why am I recalling a small, wall-wart sized, scroller power supply with what appeared to be an XLR 4 / XLR 5 Y cord attached?
In the cobwebs of my mind, the XLR 5 was its DMX input while the XLR 4 was its standard scroller output supplying both the scroller's power and its DMX.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

I think you are correct like 70w. But it only powers like 1 maybe 2 scrollers, 3 Gobo Rotators, 3 ColorBlast and a right arm maybe.

He did say he saw dip switches though so I am leaning to a 350 or 700w TRS model supply.

 

[RonHebbard]

I think you are correct like 70w. But it only powers like 1 maybe 2 scrollers, 3 Gobo Rotators, 3 ColorBlast and a right arm maybe.

He did say he saw dip switches though so I am leaning to a 350 or 700w TRS model supply.

I'm remembering it powering 1 scroller and 1 Iris on the same fixture.
Correction: It was 1 scroller and 1 gobo rotator on one fixture. I believe we supplied two in the high bay ceiling at opposite ends of a decent sized shopping mall. They were the only fixtures we were supplying.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[Kelite]

Hi everyone, sorry I'm so late to the party!

I received an email recently from the O.P. and responded with an almost identical response that the PSU may be toast.


a segment:

"Are the scrollers capable of remembering settings and go back in case of a power drop?
It has been suggested to me that the power unit might be the problem of not passing DMX to the scrollers.
If there any way we might run some other test - from the ground?
Jim"


"Hi Jim!
Yes, I believe you nailed the diagnosis with the PSU not carrying the DMX signal to the scrollers. There may be an internal fuse within the PSU which died due to the lightning strike. I would put a meter on the 4 pin input and output XLRs (not under power, of course) and the data lines can then be checked.
Please keep me up to date with your findings!
Keith"


Jim, any luck with the diagnosis?

 

[stgjim]

Been out of town. Here are pictures. First is power supply. Second shows where power is y'ed into dmx in. Third shows dmx addressing. Fourth shows sanctuary and canopy where non addressable units are located. To understand

stand scale, the top of the organ console is 5 1/2 ft. The DMX has a separate feed doesn't come from power supply.

 

[Amiers]

You look to have something custom. That came from this.

Smart Power Supply

The SmartPower family of power supplies features dependable current and voltage output. A variety of wattages is available to fit your application space and system requirements. Compatible with the majority of color scrollers, gobo rotators and other...

www.musson.com

If you look the black wire that goes in with the white wire into the XLR connector looks like it is modified. So someone didn’t want to run a second line of DMX from PSU to PSU. Which props to the person that set it up cause 75w only power 2 scrollers. So you prolly have a lot of those bricks in the air. The best suggestion I can give is take one of the power supplies that works and buying ones to replace the ones broken then copying the pin out. You could redesign the whole system to be Unmodified with a power supply on the ground for easy access but that might cost more. You will have to price it out. Maybe try to swing cheap led pars to replace them with a wireless DMX system but I digress.

 

[Mac Hosehead]

It seems you might have a mix of power supplies. DMX is directly wired to the scrollers that have the 75W brick so if the signal line had a lightning spike then the scrollers might be damaged. In the higher wattage power supplies DMX is opto-isolated. The scrollers might be fine but the power supply might not be passing signal.

From the pictures, the scrollers look vary similar to the Apollo Smart Color line.

http://www.chipsteadplayers.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Apollo-Smart-Color-Manual-April09.pdf

There is a green DMX light to indicate the presence of a signal.

 

[microstar]

Maybe the brick is simply a 24vdc power supply (not a scroller PS with DMX). So that is why the installer wired it into the scroller XLR since the two DMX cables look like they are part of the conventional DMX system. Basically saying the same thing as @Mac Hosehead I guess.

 

[Amiers]

Maybe the brick is simply a 24vdc power supply (not a scroller PS with DMX). So that is why the installer wired it into the scroller XLR since the two DMX cables look like they are part of the conventional DMX system. Basically saying the same thing as @Mac Hosehead I guess.

That sticker looks like the Apollo horse to me. I would be curious to see where the homerun comes down to as well as the pin out.