Martin Atomic 3000

Sean

Active Member
Hey all....

There seems to be confusion--both on my vendor's part, and mine about the Atomic strobes. Looking for someone to settle the disagreement.

Can the same fixture be used with 120v and 208v? Are they the same fixture with different lamps (MAX-7 vs. MAX-15)? Has the design/power supply changed recently?

The manual seems to suggest that the LAMP makes the difference, but it's also oddly translated from Dutch.

I figured I'd call Martin's US office on Monday, but in the meantime.....

Ship? Anyone that use these fixtures often the time care to comment?

Thanks!

--Sean
 
not my area of expertise but i would look on the back to see if it has a power input options (like a little red slide switch) this is how you change the voltage on some things.

sorry i couldn't help further.
 
The unit is auto sensing but you do need to change the strobe tube. I have only ever used them in 208v. Direct from the manual:

The auto-ranging power supply automatically adjusts to any 50 - 60 Hz AC power
supply from 90 to 260 volts. No adjustment is necessary. Note that the MAX-15
lamp does not operate below 125 volts.
The current required by the Atomic 3000 varies according to lamp type, power
mode, and usage. To avoid overload, allow one 16 or 20 amp branch circuit per
fixture to operate the MAX-15 model at full power. Two fixtures may be placed
on a 16 amp branch circuit if they are operated in low power mode or use the
MAX-7 lamp.
Use 2.5 mm2 (13 AWG) or larger power feed cables and keep runs as short as
possible.
 
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IF you go to
http://www.martin.com/spec/composit...s=on&photo=on&region=US&lang=0&product=atomic
and you look carefully you will see that at the top of th spec is shows the power supply is auto ranging BUT you then need to change the lamp from a 7 to a 15 to go from 120 to 220.
Martin sometimes is confusing
Sharyn

Oh, I know the above.

My concern is that I have both vendors AND rental shops telling me they cannot supply the 120v fixtures because they don't have them. NOT the lamps--the fixtures.

What I'm trying to figure out is if there IS only one fixture, or if there are in fact different versions of the Atomic floating around. Or, has there ONLY ever been one fixture that took two lamps?

--Sean
 
The unit is auto sensing but you do need to change the strobe tube. I have only ever used them in 208v. Direct from the manual:
The auto-ranging power supply automatically adjusts to any 50 - 60 Hz AC power
supply from 90 to 260 volts. No adjustment is necessary. Note that the MAX-15
lamp does not operate below 125 volts.
The current required by the Atomic 3000 varies according to lamp type, power
mode, and usage. To avoid overload, allow one 16 or 20 amp branch circuit per
fixture to operate the MAX-15 model at full power. Two fixtures may be placed
on a 16 amp branch circuit if they are operated in low power mode or use the
MAX-7 lamp.
Use 2.5 mm2 (13 AWG) or larger power feed cables and keep runs as short as
possible.

But, also from the spec sheet:
Electrical
AC power (MAX-7 model): 100-120 V nominal, 50/60 Hz
AC power (MAX-15 model): 200-240 V nominal, 50/60 Hz

Everyone is telling me that there are different MODELS of fixture. I think that since Martin sells them with lamp installed, they call the same fixture by two model names. I'm looking for confirmation of that.

--Sean
 
There's only one fixture. There's a personality setting that allows both 110 and 208v use, but there's significantly less output at 110v. If you need a 110v strobe, you might try finding a Diversitronics unit, which runs a little better at 110v.
 
There's only one fixture. There's a personality setting that allows both 110 and 208v use, but there's significantly less output at 110v. If you need a 110v strobe, you might try finding a Diversitronics unit, which runs a little better at 110v.

My "problem" is that I have two venues that share some equipment: Foggers, Strobes, etc. The newer space has 208v available; the older one does not. Since I'd rather NOT go the route of building "backwards twofers" to get 208v out of two different dimmed circuits (yes yes, I know), I want to make sure that the equipment can be used SAFELY in both spaces.

I already have 4 or 5 AF1000's. I've just purchased 5 Atomics to augment the one Atomic I already had.

--Sean
 
OK, just looked it up. There are two different Models. They are:

Atomic US ; RfP, 90-120V/50-60Hz which is only for your Max- 7 (US Model)
Atomic; RfP, 125-260V/50-60Hz is your auto sensing Max-15 (World Model)

When ordering specify you want the RfP model (Which is what most people use) and you'll be all set.
 
Howdy I have two Atomic 3ks. They both are the 120v version with the MAX-7 bulb. I would like to covert them to the MAX-15 bulb. I know the MAX-15 needs to run at 208v I saw the PSU is a auto ranging input so could I just buy a MAX-15 bulb pop it in and plug into 208v?

Also one of them seems to be lagging some on the strobe rate when not in blinder effect. I have heard that it is caused by a bad Main board. Is that right or could it be the bulb.
 
The Max-15 lamp is only good for input voltages from 200-240V. The Max-7 lamp is only good for input voltages from 100-120V.
By swapping in a Max-15 and powering via 208V you get the 3000W lamp powered properly.

As for lagging strobe check all your settings via the User Manual located here.
 
The Max-15 lamp is only good for input voltages from 200-240V. The Max-7 lamp is only good for input voltages from 100-120V.
By swapping in a Max-15 and powering via 208V you get the 3000W lamp powered properly.

As for lagging strobe check all your settings via the User Manual located here.

Ok that's what I was wondering is if I put the MAX-15 bulb in and just plugged into 208v it should work fine. It says on the unit 120v MAX-7 only so I wasn't sure if there was a difference inside between the two bulbs. In other words I didn't want to buy the lamp put it in and just fry my Atomic by plugging into 208v.
 
Ahh.. Are we sure about this? These strobes work by firing the lamps directly across the AC line coming into the unit. It would seem to me that the duration of the cycle of gated power would also have to be changed. (Possibly a software setting in the controller.) To achieve the same brightness on 220 the gate window would have to be 25% of the window for 110. Could be that the unit auto-adjusts based on incoming power, by I would call support before trying it.
 
Right from the manual.
"The auto-ranging power supply automatically adjusts to AC power from 100-120 and 200-240 volts nominal at 50/60 Hz. However, a MAX-7 lamp must be installed at 100-120 V and a MAX-15 lamp for must be installed at 200-240 V.
The current required by the Atomic 3000 varies according to lamp type, power mode, and usage. To avoid overload, allow one 16 or 20 amp branch circuit per fixture to operate the MAX-15 model at full power. Two fixtures may be placed on a 16 amp branch circuit if they are operated in low power mode or use the MAX-7 lamp.
Use 2.5 mm2 (13 AWG) or larger power feed cables and keep runs as short as possible."
 
There's a bit more to it. the MAX-15 lamp is physically longer than the MAX-7, so you need to replace the existing MAX-7 lamp socket brackets with these shorter ones:

Lamp Socket - left
Lamp Socket - right

Then you need to change a jumper on the main board:

Atomic voltage jumper setting

Older boards do not have the jumper pins installed, but have a jumper wire soldered in place for 100-120V operation, which you will need to remove for 200-240V operation. These older boards also label the jumper "P2" instead of "PL113" on the silkscreen, but it is in the same location.

Good luck!

-Irwin
 
I'm looking to rent some strobes for an upcoming show. The rental house I'm looking at (not a ton of options around me) told me that their Martin 3000 Atomic strobes needed 220V power. I looked up every version of the Atomic strobes that I could find and they all claim 100-240V auto sensing capabilities. (here's the page for what the house claims they have http://www.martin.com/product/product.asp?product=atomic) Do they just not know what they're talking about, or is there a model with strict 208-220V requirements I couldn't fine?
 
RTFM:
The auto-ranging power supply automatically adjusts to AC power from 100-120 and 200-240 volts nominal at 50/60 Hz. However, a MAX-7 lamp must be installed at 100-120 V and a MAX-15 lamp for must be installed at 200-240 V. The current required by the Atomic 3000 varies according to lamp type, power mode, and usage. To avoid overload, allow one 16 or 20 amp branch circuit per fixture to operate the MAX-15 model at full power. Two fixtures may be placed on a 16 amp branch circuit if they are operated in low power mode or use the MAX-7 lamp.
 
Well I was not aware of different lamping options. The more you know... Thank you.


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I'd like to chime in, while there is only 1 fixture, with an auto-sensing power supply, you are supposed to switch between the Max-7(120v) and Max-15(208v) lamps depending on what voltage you are planning on using. That being said, you can use a Max-15 lamp at either 208v or 120v, the only difference being at 120v you will get a significantly lower output from the lamp, as you are under powering it. I would not ever try to run a Max-7 lamp with 208v, but the other way around is ok, just doesn't look that good.
 

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