OK so today we are trying a new
opto on one side and see what happens tonite . . Fortunately, being a touring situation I only have enough time to try one thing at a time LOL today the
opto tomorrow the 4ft jumps between the units, next time reloading software on the
console, day after that software on fixtures. Trying everything.
Someone had asked what the
fixture are doing specifically. Well, they
power up fine every day we
dome focus points (just fine) they sit for about 3 hours in
open white the show starts about 15 minutes in the dousers close and the go into a color
roll and a
soft reset will not stop it. If you need more information let me know but that is about what they are doing consistently. I personally think it may be a glitch with the programming thay may have been caused by a
power spike, surge,
etc. that is not correcting itself.
I'm a
Martin service tech, among other hats I wear...
I would not reload the software until you've eliminated some other things first. In all my years (12-ish) of working with MAC500's and the like, I think I've had software issues perhaps twice.
To me, it does not sound like a
power issue from what you describe, though I could be mistaken. Generally, if the fixtures are underpowered, you may see a **** symbol, if memory serves, or the fixtures may pan and tilt, but they won't
strike. If they are overpowered or underpowered, I can't see that you would be seeing this specific behavior you are experiencing. It's been a while since I've worked on MAC500's, so memory may not serve me as well as I would like it to. It certainly doesn't hurt to check the
circuit though, if you're qualified/capable of doing so safely. Is the
fixture twofered to another, or is it on its own
circuit?
I would be interested to hear if you can make the behavior go away in the troublesome fixtures by readdressing them to known good
DMX addresses and physically moving them to position and plugging them in where a known good
fixture is, in your rig. If that does not work, and you put a known working
fixture (not a spare from your
stock, but one already in the rig that you know is working) in the position of the bad
fixture, both physically and with the same
DMX address, what happens to it? Does it exhibit the same issues? If so, then it sounds like it could be a data issue.
The behavior you are describing *sounds* like one exhibited when there are
hall sensor errors on the
gobo or color wheels. You move a wheel, the shutters close, the color wheels and
gobo wheels just spin...and spin...and spin. (Then they time out after a while, I think...until the next time you move the wheel with the sensor issues) I'm not sure what your experience
level is, but I'd be happy to try to talk you through a few basic troubleshooting techniques, if you're comfortable taking the
fixture head covers off and examining some bits inside.
Off the top of my head, it could be that you're missing a magnet off a wheel, the magnet is not aligning properly with the
hall sensor, the magnet is too far away from the recommended distance between the two (2 or 2.5mm...I can't remember off the top of my head), or the sensor
jumper wire is loose or disconnected. Just because the magnet may pass directly under the
hall sensor with the minimum distance, still doesn't mean it is aligned properly. If the motor is a step off either side of that magnet, then it won't trigger it. Someone mentioned that the
fixture may work fine until it heats up, then the magnets don't
play nice with the sensor. This is definitely a possibility.
One other thing you can do relatively quickly along the sensor/
feedback line of thinking...go to your display menu and turn off the
feedback for the color and
gobo wheels. SPEC --> EFFb --> Off (Enter). Then test the
fixture again. If this allows your "bad"
fixture to work properly, then you can be pretty sure the issue was in the
feedback circuit somewhere (some kind of issue with the sensors or their circuitry). I would not recommend operating in this mode, because if you've programmed the
fixture blue, and the wheel gets lost and confused, you could end up in red.
Once you've eliminated a sensor issue, data
line/cabling issues, and
console issue, my only other thought is that there is an issue with the
DMX transceiver in the "bad"
fixture...I have one particular
fixture on my work bench that will take hard-line
DMX all day long...in and out...but if I feed it any kind of wireless
DMX into that string of fixtures, and it is in the middle of the
DMX chain, it goes crazy. It's going to get some
PCB work done in short order to fix it...
As I suggested above, and in my last post about the subject, I think you should start by removing a good working
fixture that is already in your rig, plugging your "bad"
fixture into the same place that the good one came from, and readdressing the "bad"
fixture to match what the good one's
address was, then test it.
I hope some of this helps...
Good luck!