I own my former high school's 1970's era 3Kw
incandescent Kliegl Dyna Beam with
Boomerang, and it's in mint condition including the
Roscolene gel last used in it. As big as a small moter cycle and no doubt as heavy. Don't even make that lamp any longer.
I normally service our gear plus 1000Q, Club Spots and Midgits for the local schools and clubs. Yearly maintinence is the key to all, but I have seen some 1000Q fixtures with welds that
snap at the
yoke mount or broken castings for the
lens mounts. Easy enough to fix or replace. Note on taking apart a 1000Q, should you need to slide something off the
rail, use a metal scribe to
mark where it was before you remove it. Otherwise, focusing is a bear. While a dealer for Strong, I'm yet to service any of it's equipment.
For inventory use at work,
City Theatrical/ETC-S-4
Leko on a stick.
Lycian 1271 and 1272. 2kw Xenon
Lycian 1290 and the
Lycian M-2. Might be getting some 3Kw Xenon
Lycian 1293 fixtures this summer also.
Wouldn't mind the extra punch for my yearly football stadium show. That given it's a pain in the rear in the first place to install a
Xenon lamp - only a limited amount of people are allowed to install them thus more often than I would like it's me, thus my yearly show plus some.
All unfortunately I'm by default often the person to service or supervise in, though I bow down to one of our crew chiefs in general knowledge as the real expert for how it works beyond it's wiring, or the electronics repair/moving light repair area for knowledge about making them
strike an arc. Them little electronic parts get me all the time. Good thing
Lycian has a compitent staff that will walk you
thru a repair.
The 1271/2 are getting old and have normal lubrication and replacement/burnt up part issues as a constant thing. Some of the reflectors get interesting after a few years of use. Overall, good reliable fixtures.
Lens changing on them can be less than easy but that's it's own after market upgrade. The
ballast (weighs a ton) in common to both on the other
hand had a huge overhaul in a few wee design flaws in the design. Now they are good to go. Some
voltage drop and lots of heat realated issues to the internal wires, much less the
shunt switch to it likes to break. This in addition to color frames all around that at times need some grinding to their lock mechanism to make them engauge.
The 1290 other than it's pulley
system slipping off it't guide
track in transport is very reliable. Never had a gernade go off after I installed a lamp, but it happens infrequently more so with some "qualified tech people" than others. A scratch in a lamp will cause it to explode with a big noise and lots of concussion.
Much less that 6"
Cathode cable normal to this type of
Xenon lamp must be at all times 1" from any surface of the
fixture. Otherewise there is enough
current to arc to the frame and melt down that
wire feeding the lamp as path of least resistance. Luckily, no matter the brand, they all use the same threading into the lamp for it's cable. Once someone explodes the lamp, save that cable.
Just don't
drop the
Cathode cable
nut while installing. Once it falls, there is about a 99% chance it will fall down the hole for the squerrel fan, and only the most dainty of female hands than can get the
nut and lock washer out than short of taking apart the
fixture.
Yea, lots of experience both in buying $400 to $600.00 lamps to these fixtures and in working with them. At one
point, some show was lifting a
fixture up to a
scaffold tower but forgot to strap the
fixture to the lift. It fell and no matter what I did in making it work, we still had to
send it back for over a few $K worth of re-alignment and replacement
reflector. Luckily
Lycian for fixtures as expensive as a car will
send out free replacement fixtures to replace the ones you
send back for service. At that
point, it was just a question of shipping a
fixture that needs four people to lift overnignt.
Oh the other
hand, it's one heck of a
Gobo projector. Long story about glass
pattern gobos for Prince I was in default doing a show for given the tech at the time installed it but forgot to
bench focus it. Still they have one heck of a beam projection. Unfortunately
Lycian does not have a glass
pattern gobo holder so I had to invent one.
Our M2 Follow Spots are beginning to have problems now that they are a year or more old. First and almost constantly it was the
heat shield lenses popping off. The High Temperature
RTV Silicone used to attach the
dichroic glass to the stamped metal frame at times just is not a good bond and the
lens pops off. Found another just this week.
Had one come back with some burnt up
iris leafs. Luckily it's the same as used on a
ETC or
Altman Leko as far as
Iris design and while a pain in the rear to replace, for two leafs needing replacement it was cost effective. We have spares of the
stock iris leafs. The
Iris than got a general cleaning and spray graphite coating. Good as new or better.
All ballasts went
thru a total replacement for something that would work with
voltage drop issues, than a second upgrade to them. Get around 96v, and it causes problems in the striking of the arc. No doubt as it should but has been found to be the case in some instances.
Had a M2 on my work table this week. What a pain in the rear given the electronics and it's cause - won't
strike an arc even with new lamp and
ballast.
Never found the issue and it struck right up in the end, but I did find some issues with why some of the lamps in them are breaking in a specific location as now found to be a
heat shield touching the lamp issue. Next week all fixtures will be set up and a minor adjustment or re-engineering will be done in the shop with vendor tech support awaiting our
call for what to do. Somehow the lock mechanism for the lamp the
heat shield is attached to has slipped in now allowing the
heat sink to touch the lamp and break it. Two +/- $300 dollar lamps last week blown in the same way, this week I learned the cause.
But in studying why this
fixture would not
strike a arc, I had to go to school in how to take apart the
fixture. It's a component based light and in theory easy to take apart. Once I got down to the
ballast assembly in not finding a loose or burnt up
wire otherwise as cause for it not to
strike an arc, I found a difficult problem.
The moment I dropped that
ballast, I found something sliding within the assembly. We are talking about a box for the
feeder cable
strain relief, a plate that mounts under the
fixture and a
circuit board with all types of things mounted to it.
Easy enough to remove the
ballast assembly, but a very complex electronic
ballast. Metal parts were sliding around somewhere inside it, and given all other parts were now exposed, it had to be the box the cable gets it's
strain relief from.
Opened up the
strain relief fitting on the
wire feeding it, took out a flash light and saw a screw, a
brad that normally mounts a
gel to a frame and a 4"
cable tie within this little box. How such things got in there I have no idea given a 1" hole in the bottom of the
ballast plate the
wire comes out of, but they did need to get removed.
Pleeding as it were with my boss did no good in me just sending it to the electronics repair area - that has more experience with such
circuit boards. The only way to get at this little box that housed the
fixture cord was to remove it from the under follow spot plate. Unfortunately by way of wee
bit of design flaw, it was screwed to the plate by way of four screws top (inside) mounted to the plate - and under the the
circuit board and it's various capacitors
etc. Absolutely no way to get the screw, and other gack out of the
strain relief box under the
fixture short of taking apart the
circuit board assembly above it. Everything is attached to the
circuit board and it's all attached to the metal plate under the
fixture.
Tried playing the "wrong union man" excuse in these components needed to get at the
wire way mounting screws attached to the
circuit board that in intimidation would need to be removed, but it did not work with my boss. "Do your best."
Luckily after removing like 20 screws both mounting the
circuit board and other components to the bottom plate, it was for the most part now free. Just a question of lots of things to remember in re-assembly. I got lucky in my boss's assumption that it can't be that difficult in it not being that difficult in reality. Won't admit the difficulty
level on the other
hand once I did have access to this cavity that housed the parts to remove. Instead of threading the
strain relief for the feeding
wire, they also had a
nut on it meaning that you should avoid taking the
wire strain relief to the
fixture apart, much less should it come loose as normal, you also need to completely take apart the
ballast to tighten it.
Just one little electrical box that serves no purpose other than to mount the
strain relief and it's a few hours of work to get to. wee
bit of a design flaw in otherwise much easier to surface mount and reverse the screws mounting it.
Anyway, never found the source of why it would not
strike an arc, but I'm tinking a
screen over this patricular hole in addition to the 1290's squerrel fan hole would be a good idea.
Lycian as a company I most deal with is good, and certainly the details I deal with are with hard usage type issues, but they will work with you on the upgrade. All companies will work with you on the upgrade or repair, it's just the company I most deal with in repair.