Martin Mac 250 Krypton problem - simple solution?

Spy Freeze

New Member
Hello Forum members. Sure hope you can help me. I'm am a union sound guy working in the industry for the local and only have a basic knowledge of lighting instruments. I recently purchased 8 Martin Mac 250 Kryptons at auction. I really don't have a DMX console to run them thru, but there is one at work, an ETC Element, that i am vaguely familiar with.
3 of the units work flawlessly, one needs a tilt belt after a Halloween decoration (spider webbing) incident, and 1 has a jumpy pan motor when it goes into high speed.
However, the reason for this post is that the other 3 units all have the same problem. When I run the test sequence, all 3 work fine until they get to the prism function. At that point, the shutter, or dimmer closes, and the lights appear to continue to run thru the sequence but dont respond to the corresponding movement of the test sequence. All the while I can see that the lamp is on, changing colors, etc., thru a pin hole size opening in the shutter. After a couple minutes the display shows a HOT error.
I am familiar with the service bulletin about the prism belt tension, and it seems ok to me, not too loose, not too tight. I have opened up the units and cleaned them gently with an air compressor with no change in results. The lamps do have quite a bit of time on them and probably should be replaced, but no more time than the units that are working, and all the lamps strike and stay lit.
Im feeling like this must be a simple problem since all 3 units do the exact same thing. Maybe a firmware update? Just not sure but, hoping someone here on the forum with expertise can guide me. Thank you in advance!
 
Are there any Error Messages on the Display?

Have you tried resetting to the Factory Default settings?

Troubleshooting will be limited with not being able to send DMX commands to the unit.

Are you testing the units individually or are they addressed and in line with a DMX signal?

If they're hooked up in line with a DMX signal make sure you use a DMX terminator at the end Unit
 
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Are there any Error Messages on the Display?

Have you tried resetting to the Factory Default settings?

Troubleshooting will be limited with not being able to send DMX commands to the unit.

Are you testing the units individually or are they addressed and in line with a DMX signal?

If they're hooked up in line with a DMX signal make sure you use a DMX terminator at the end Unit
Hi DMXUser, thanx for the reply. I do have, and have read the user manual. Just the HOT error starts to flash after a while. I have reset the units to factory settings. I am testing the units individually using the display on each unit. I believe they were all used together at one time. I find it odd that 3 units do exactly the same thing at the same time in the test sequence. Anything else to try?
 
When you reset the fixture was the "DMX RESET" enabled in the menu? If not, you have to follow the steps on page 27 and make the corrections in setup and run reset accordingly.

What are the readings in the TEMP Display. You should get two readings; a) Head Temp and; b) Base Temp.

Is the Fan on and is the air flowing through the fixture or is the flow obstructed?

Is sounds like more than one issue;

1) Malfunction of the Shutter, (bad sensor, bad data, bad drive etc);

2) Overheating, (multiple causes).


You should look for a cheap used DMX Board/Dongle to use at home.

It'll make troubleshooting a lot easier.

Btw, it looks like you've found the reason(s) why the fixtures were sold at auction.

But it'll eventually teach you how to troubleshoot your own gear, repair and service it.
 
Thank You again for the guidance. With my limited skills, I was only able to find a factory reset on these units. Next time I can get over to my storage unit, I will try to find a DMX reset. I have reviewed pg.27 in the manual. The lights were in a club that went out of business. I think the lights were hung and turned on every weekend for a few years with zero maintanence. They were quite gummed up, and could still use a good optics cleaning. I did clean the fans and they are working. I have a Chauvet Obey 40 I use for a small 8 LED slimpar light show. Would that be able to send DMX commands to the Martins?
 
I have a Chauvet Obey 40 I use for a small 8 LED slimpar light show. Would that be able to send DMX commands to the Martins?
Technically, yes, you could, but it would be a PITA. Look for a USB to DMX box so you can run them with software that has a profile for the Krypton 250's.
 
Correct profile in the lamp and then desk selected?
There are 2 profiles on the fixture 16bit and 16bit extended
That where I would start other than a cable issue.
Regards
Geoff
 
Correct profile in the lamp and then desk selected?
There are 2 profiles on the fixture 16bit and 16bit extended
That where I would start other than a cable issue.
Regards
Geoff
Hi Geoff, thanx for the reply! When I first got the lights, about 3-4 months ago, a friend and co worker brought over his light board and was talking about 16 and 16 extended so, im pretty sure he straightened that out. All the lights worked together as an 8 light unit in a nightclub. I will check out in the control menu that both the working lights and non working lights are set identically and get the head and bass temps.
 
When you reset the fixture was the "DMX RESET" enabled in the menu? If not, you have to follow the steps on page 27 and make the corrections in setup and run reset accordingly.

What are the readings in the TEMP Display. You should get two readings; a) Head Temp and; b) Base Temp.

Is the Fan on and is the air flowing through the fixture or is the flow obstructed?

Is sounds like more than one issue;

1) Malfunction of the Shutter, (bad sensor, bad data, bad drive etc);

2) Overheating, (multiple causes).


You should look for a cheap used DMX Board/Dongle to use at home.

It'll make troubleshooting a lot easier.

Btw, it looks like you've found the reason(s) why the fixtures were sold at auction.

But it'll eventually teach you how to troubleshoot your own gear, repair and service it.

One of the happiest days of my life was when the last batch of Mac 2ks and Mac 250s left our dock to never return. I manage the company but I'm not an LX person otherwise. I learned a lot about these electro-mechanical devices and most of the failures are at least initially mechanical in origin. Any failure that causes additional heat build up leads to premature death and there are plenty of opportunities.

Problems like tiny magnets that fall off from adhesive failure, or the Hall Effect sensors those engage that fail, or belts that jump, skip or strip teeth which cause indexing mayhem. Then electrical failures of thermal sensors, stepper motors, power supplies and igniters... optical failures...

Martin is a brand I'd only purchase brand new and sell as soon as the warranty was up.

{optional story} A local venue large enough to have live bull riding on weekends had a worker with the primary job of running Moving Light Hospital. Like Lion King or Wicked tours, every day a mover or 2 getting swapped out. The venue figured out it was easier and cheaper to not worry about dust and dirt, and simply run to fail and then clean/repair, rather than having to clean air filters every day or 2. Not cleaning filters led to early and certain failure from heat, simply because it wasn't possible to service all the units on that schedule. {/optional story}
 
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Great story TimMC, thank you for sharing! I've always seen Martin Intelligent lighting on the big stage over the past 25 or so years that I've worked there. Not so sure now since I only work at FOH, and spend very little time on stage, and nowhere near any lighting gear. Anyway, when they came up for auction I thought buying them dirt cheap was a good idea. Still do, just a pain to try to get them functional. As you say, I believe these have been abused, at least on the inside. The outside is flawless! lol
 
Hi y'all! I came across this post using Google 'cause I'm having the same issue with one of the Mac 250 Entours of mine. Everything works fine without the lamp turned on, but after about 1 minute in running the test sequence the shutter closes and the HOT error message is being displayed. The lamp itself stays on and if you peek through the shutter, you can see the gobo's en color wheel changing. If the unit is displaying the HOT message, the PAN en TILT test isn't doing anything.

I've already tried changing the Temp Head sensor and the lamp itself from a unit that is working, but that didn't fix the issue. Any ideas left?
 
Hi Aikiki, thanx for bringing my thread back to life! I haven't done anything with my Mac250's since Nov. 22. Just sat in storage for the winter. Soon I will be ready to get back at them tho. Wish someone could give us a quick, definative, easy solution but, prolly not. :confused:
 
Hi y'all! I came across this post using Google 'cause I'm having the same issue with one of the Mac 250 Entours of mine. Everything works fine without the lamp turned on, but after about 1 minute in running the test sequence the shutter closes and the HOT error message is being displayed. The lamp itself stays on and if you peek through the shutter, you can see the gobo's en color wheel changing. If the unit is displaying the HOT message, the PAN en TILT test isn't doing anything.

I've already tried changing the Temp Head sensor and the lamp itself from a unit that is working, but that didn't fix the issue. Any ideas left?
A HoT error can happen if you try to strike the lamp twice. It could be a bad lamp or the hours need to be reset on the fixture. I would try to run your test with a console not the test feature and set your ALON to DMX so that when you fire it up and apply DMX she strikes. 250s are work horses and everytime I get them back from a rental that claim to be HoT errors it’s 99% user error cause of a double strike.
 
I recently (2 weeks ago) was pulling out some of my remaining hair with a mac2k that would run for hours fine....and other times it would OT after a few minutes. Long long story short - one of the head fans was bad and would sometime startup fine...and sometimes it would bind and not turn. Turned out to be a function of the head's position when power was first applied to the unit - If the fan was facing down (head horizontal with the fan on the bottom) then it would get stuck and fail. Any other position at powerup and it was fine until the next reset or power up.

So.... Check the head fans. Lamp house fan failures are obvious and OT quickly. Not so much for the head fans...
 
Thank you all for your suggestions!

TL;DR in the last sentence.

Unfortunately since the HOT error also appears during the build-in test sequence, it didn’t make sense to me that it would be a DMX issue.

After taking the unit apart we found it to be most likely liquid damage on the logic board.

However, after a day of testing every connector on the board (thanks again Nicholas and Stephen!) we couldn’t make it make any sense since everything on the board was working like it should.

At the end of the day we started focussing again on the Light Sensor and the HOT-error.

Wat does the HOT-error mean exactly? “the lamp is too hot to restrike”.

Allright. How does the machine know it did or didn’t strike the lamp? Using it’s light sensor.

Hmm. We’ve already swapped the sensor from a working unit, didn’t work. What if we check the cable?

DING DING DING!

The Light Sensor Cable is using a 3-pin connector. In my case, one of the three cables wasn’t making contact with the Logic Board, making the Light Sensor not sense anything and made the Mac 250 think it didn’t strike the lamp.

Found a replacement cable online, plugged it in and… uh-oh. A SHER-error.

What does that mean? “there is a short-circuit and the lamp strikes without a command.” But the lamp isn’t on…

WAIT A MINUTE! The Light Sensor finally does some sensing, thinking the lamp is on.

(Fun Fact; the lights from my workplace triggered this error since it cleared when I covered the sensor. )

After that I’ve put everything back together, turned the unit on and… No more errors!

So I’d suggest to everyone finding this message in the future, and of course OP @Spy Freeze; make sure your Light Sensor and Light Sensor Cable are working and have a proper connection.
 

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