Automated Fixtures Fried VL1000 Control Board, Varilite tech or Electrical Engineer Needed!

[RedGreenBlue132]

So I was replacing a Varilite VL-1000TI control boards (one of their early prototype red boards) with a newer green boards, long story short, the main +24v power going into the PCB was not plugged in all the way and after being on for a few seconds popped and blue sparks came out of the ground wire on the plug and now nothing comes on, no screen, no status light, nothing. The main fuse was checked and is good. When a short like this happens does every component in the board go bad, or is it just the capacitor or transformers? For those of you that have the schematics or are familiar these boards I'm looking at capacitors C246, C248, C244, C247 and transformers L1 and L2

 

[chawalang]

Going that far down to components on the MCB you would have to just get a new board or have said board sent to a shop to have those components replaced.

Haver you inspected every harness in the fixture to make sure nothing is exposed causing a short?

The plug for the 24v can come loose over time and not hold snug, a way to fix it is to snipe the plug and frankenrig it with terminal blocks from the harness to the pins on the board, you just need to make sure that the screws in the terminal block are gorilla tight so there is no arching, I have done this in a pinch.

 

[RedGreenBlue132]

I checked the harness and even hooked the board up to another light and still got nothing, so the board is definitely fried. I'll probably send the board back to VL, but I've sent boards to them before and they couldn't help me, so I was hoping I could just replace the fried components. The light itself is a very early prototype demo unit, So it has some other issues, and may not be worth fixing seeing that a fully working one only goes for less than a grand. I'll probably end up turning both lights I have into light up end tables, and selling the good components for parts.

 

[Les]

I happen to know the lead MCB tech at Vari*Lite. I can give him a call and see what he says. If all else fails, I might have an MCB I can sell you. Where are you located? I happen to have a few prototype units I am on the fence about - whether to repair or part ways. I'm wondering if these came from the same person.

 

[RedGreenBlue132]

I'm in Virginia Beach, Va. But I bought them on ebay from what looked like a storage auction guy in Dallas. I would definitely be interested in a board if you have one I can buy.