Mac 250 Krypton woes

[Capn]

I have two separate problems with two different Mac 250K's. The first is I can not get the lamp hour meter to reset to zero. When I push the enter button to confirm a reset, it just exits out of the menu. When I go back, it still shows the same hours. I made sure I wasn't looking at the "total hours" that I'm assuming can not be reset.
The other issue is the color wheel isn't finding it's home place accurately. When I go to a color, say, amber, there is a little bit of blue showing at the top. The way they are set up, it doesn't look like the magnet can move on the color wheel and the sensor is on a heavy-duty arm that couldn't have gotten bent.
Any ideas O' lighting gods?

 

[Footer]

First, blow the fixture out a bit, could be something messing with one of the encoders. You might also want to try to manually adjust the color wheel, never been into that fixture but its usually pretty easy to do. As far as the lamp hours thing, no clue.

 

[Capn]

I just cleaned them not too long ago, but I'll swab the sensor to see if there might something on it. Thanks!

 

[sound_nerd]

Pop the case and manually adjust the color wheel....has worked for me in the past. Also, the lamp hours, don't you have to hold the button for 5 seconds or 10 seconds before it resets?

It's been a while, many lights ago, but I think that's it.

 

[DarSax]

And I'm guessing you've checked your board to make sure it's not the one giving the wrong information to the wheel?

 

[Capn]

I'm not real sure how to adjust the color wheel. I was thinking that it was on a gear type drive like the gobo, but it's on a continiously turning motor and just uses the magnet to find "home". Can you give me a little more info on how to adjust it?
I was thinking, too, that you have to hold the reset button, but as soon as I hit it, it backs out to the higher menu.
I also adjusted the color from the board and it made the color my other 250's whacked.

 

[sound_nerd]

AHA! I got it, you have to have the counter on the display, and then press the UP key for 5 seconds.
The color wheel try spinning it that much over, even though it's on a magnet..I can't think of anything else on how to adjust it....although one of mine is out slightly too, let me play with it some more.

 

[icewolf08]

I am surprised that no one has suggested moving the magnet so that the wheel is back in alignment. If you don't feel comfortable doing this yourself, take it to your local dealer, it won't take but 10 minutes to do (if that).

 

[JD]

The real question is why did it change in the first place?

I assume when the unit was new, it was finding home ok. If that has changed then I would suspect a bad hall-effect sensor. (little solid state thing that detects the magnate.) The other possibility is that the on-unit software has become corrupted.

Simple logic here: When something has changed, something changed it!

Those same sensors are often used in video recorders and I've had to change dozens over the years. When they go bad, they often produce a "burp" of noise after the magnate as compared to a square wave toggle when the field hits.

 

[Capn]

The real question is why did it change in the first place?
I assume when the unit was new, it was finding home ok. If that has changed then I would suspect a bad hall-effect sensor. (little solid state thing that detects the magnate.) The other possibility is that the on-unit software has become corrupted.
hits.

You are correct in that it has worked fine up to this point. Since everything else is working fine on the light, I'm thinking it is probably the sensor rather than the software. But then, I've been wrong in the before...

 

[Capn]

After taking it apart again, I discovered that the set screw was just a little loose and it alowed the color wheel to slip ever so slightly. It seems to be happy for now.