I-Cue goof up

regaskz

regaskz

Member
Hi all,

Today I fried a brand new I-Cue.

To explain the set up, the space rented 5 Wybron CXI scrollers powered by a Colorado II supply at 120V and 600W. The I-Cue takes 24V DC. I plugged the I-Cue into a color scroller powered by that supply, I didn't know the better. The I-Cue began smoking profusely. Once I contacted Roscoe, I discovered this was because Wybron uses a proprietary 4 pin XLR set up with the 1st pin taking the power, the second and third taking data, and 4th is ground. I was informed this is not industry standard. Thus I ran power down the data line which = smoke.

I had a buddy of mine take a look at the circuit board - he said the IC and the breaker are fried. I got a quote from Roscoe for a new board - yikes. Would it be easier (or effective) to try and find the serial humber for the IC?

The plan is to take it into a rental shop on Monday to see what they can do for it in terms of repair - also to get a professional opinion. I hope if they can repair VL4000s, they can handle an I-Cue.

Is that even worth it? Should the new circuit boad just be ordered?

I do now have a correct power supply (Apollo Smart Power 75). I am a high school student with aspirations as a LD and/or electrician - our department faculty is very heavily based in the acting aspect and not the technical side - I'm somewhat on my own here. Any help or advicd that could be offered would be so very much appreciated. I have attatched a picture of the portion of the circuit board that was singed.
 
You applied power with reverse polarity. The damage is not limited to those two items. Some of the damage is visible and most of it is not. I have years of electronic repair experience, and I would probably just box it up and ship it to Rosco. It'll be cheaper to replace the circuit board than the labor to try and located all of the damage and the results will be more reliable over the long haul.
 
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Wow, that sucks and is exactly why USITT is so hell-bent on the standard for DMX 512 (not that this is related in any way).

If it is only the IC and breaker, that would be a cheap fix - IC's aren't expensive any replacing one isn't too hard either. That somewhat depends on if it's through-hole or SMD though. As @FMEng noted, the damage could (and probably does) extend beyond those components.

I would see if Rosco will honor any warranty. Though doubtful, I wouldn't ruin my chances by trying to fix it yet. If it comes down to a new board for $1,000, maybe you'd might as well investigate a repair if you've got the time and inclination. But I wouldn't until you find out where Rosco stands.
 
Question: how did you not fry the CXIs? Or are they actually powered via a ColoRam II Power supply (not Colorado). Because AFAIK the CXI requires a ColoRam PSU as the ColoRam and CXI were the only Wybron units to use non-standard pin outs. All other "accessory" or "scroller" power gear that I have run into uses the standard 4-pin pinout (Icues, irises, scrollers, etc).

That being said, you didn't really say how much replacing the board would cost. If it is less than half the cost of the icue, I would just replace it. If it is more than half the cost of the icue, just buy a new one. Then in your spam time you can see if you can track down and replace the ICs and such on the old board. If you do, then you have two units.

Here is the thing about small electronics repair. While the board as a whole may seem expensive, if you found someone to rebuild your board, it may end up costing just as much as it requires way more labor. Replacing the board entirely may take all of 10 minutes, but rebuilding a board could take hours. At the average repair rate, it isn't worth the time.

On other thing to note. In a setup where you have ColoRam or CXI scrollers and other 4-pin devices, you can't actually use the same cable to connect them. While all "scroller" cable has a data pair and a power pair, Ram cable (pinned for Wybron) has the pairs connected to different pins. The wire pairs are not the same gauge and not the same impedance. So while it might work for a while, it is best to use properly pinned cable for each application. Thus it is important to mark Ram cable differently than other 4-pin accessory cable.
 
Les said:
Wow, that sucks and is exactly why USITT is so hell-bent on the standard for DMX 512 (not that this is related in any way).

If it is only the IC and breaker, that would be a cheap fix - IC's aren't expensive any replacing one isn't too hard either. That somewhat depends on if it's through-hole or SMD though. As @FMEng noted, the damage could (and probably does) extend beyond those components.

I would see if Rosco will honor any warranty. Though doubtful, I wouldn't ruin my chances by trying to fix it yet. If it comes down to a new board for $1,000, maybe you'd might as well investigate a repair if you've got the time and inclination. But I wouldn't until you find out where Rosco stands.
Click to expand...


Looks like the board costs $450, a new I-cue is $750.
 
@icewolf08 yes, sorry I meant a Coloram II power supply. I work occasionally with Chauvet Colorados and it was after a long day at the theater - sorry.

I think we are going to go ahead and replace the circuit board. When I called Rosco they gave me a $450 number. I think we are going to get them to FedEx it from CT.

@Les, we don't have the cash to have "projects" unfortunately. Maybe in the future!
 
I hope it's just the board, because for the extra 300$ you can be up and running. Then just label the cables more better so you don't make the same mistake twice.

I'm sure it has happend to most of us. My first magic smoke was an Apollo Color scroller. We were having problems so I pulled it down cleaned it throughly put it back up plugged it in and poof. Come to find out i reseated the ribbon cable wrong and well like I said poof.
 
I have done something similar with some ColorRanger scrollers; in my case the 75176 and some series resistors gave up the smoke. That's not too bad to fix.
/mike
 
@n1ist I attatched a photo of the visible damage. Can you identify what the IC's serial number could be?
 

Attachments

  • I-Cue board.png
    I-Cue board.png
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It's the IC in the center. We tried to scrap off the melted plastic to read the numbers, but it started to crumble.
btw...im one of regaskz's lighting minion
 
That looks like a triac. Looking to see if I can use the visible part of the number to get a match. Do you have the schematic?
 
Definitely a voltage regulator, 78xx pinout. My best guess is MC7805CD2T. You can get that at Mouser or Digikey. In a pinch, you could even re-form the leads of a 7805 in a TO-220 package, Radio Shack 2761770, if you still have one around.

It is very doubtful that you powered up with polarity reversed; D7 and D8 would protect against that. Feeding 24V up the data line may have also taken out U12 (75176; it is the RS485 line receiver) .


/mike
 
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THANK YOU! it looks like the one! time to shop around to find it. digikey says they are obsolete.. and come in packs of 50...
 
I just had a thought - Would it be possible to make an adapter that takes the Wybron pin config and outputs a rearranged pinout for a standard fixture? Like just swap the power and data on one of the connectors? Or is there something else I'm overlooking like compatibility or voltage?
 
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