melting gel in one performance

If I remember correctly gel shield (no matter dichroic (glass) or standard plastic) has a side that conducts and a side that is an insulator. Take a ohm meter and probe both sides, right now I can't remember which side it is that is supposed to face the light and which side it is supposed to face away, but I remember that after you do the conductivity test, the conductive side is what matters.


Righto!

And the conductive side faces the lamp, protecting the plastic behind it-
 
and as I have said if it is facing the other way, you might as well say bye bye to both the gel and the gel shield, I have had that happen to me before. Hey kelite, have you recently heard from a school (vestal senior high school that is) about a fried smart power scroller psu that died from an unknown cause under warranty?
 
and as I have said if it is facing the other way, you might as well say bye bye to both the gel and the gel shield, I have had that happen to me before. Hey kelite, have you recently heard from a school (vestal senior high school that is) about a fried smart power scroller psu that died from an unknown cause under warranty?


Sorry to respond so slowly, I wanted to check with each of our tech guys about this issue. So far we haven't heard from this school, but would like to get the details as soon as possible to get them back on their feet.

Thanks for the heads-up!
 
Most likely the psu got sent to SSSL (not an apollo dealer) for repair (doh!), but I do know the tech which installed it wanted to claim that it was a wybron PSU that failed in our audit, even though I know that there is no way you could use a Wybron PSU to power an apollo smart color. Other than that I think that the PSU is either on the way to you now, or it is sitting in the back of a UPS truck that still hasn't moved to our high school to drop it off. Other than that the scrollers have been working great (they are a tad on the noisy side when running at high speed though).
 
<there is no way you could use a Wybron PSU to power an apollo smart color. >


Well.... yes and no.

The Wybron ColoRam PSU will certainly NOT power scrollers from the other makers. On the other hand, The Wybron Forerunner PSU WILL drive Smart Colors scrollers as well as a number of other makers' scroller, rotators, etc.

So perhaps this may not be an Apollo PSU after all? Someone will have to get a visual and see what the silkscreened legend on the top of the unit says.
 
Sure, no problem. I just need to know your real name and shipping address and I'll see what I can find for you-


(Remember that US Mail, UPS and FedEx deliveries are no longer gauranteed during the Christmas season due to the high volume of packages. I'll bet it is on the way, just a bit slower than usual...)
 
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Hey, guys, sorry for the late response. Thanks for the advice as well.

First off, the instruments in question are four s4 26 degree units. Unfortunately, we do not have any color extenders, or top hats (or even barn doors for the fresnels for that matter). I had a talk with the ME and we seem to agree that the worst offenders were probably bench focused wrong. since moving the HS to the closer slot, two of the units have barely melted through in several consecutive runs. also, we found that in several long scenes, the designer had had those instruments at full, so we reduced that by 30%. when i get in today i will have a look and see if that made any difference.
 
If I remember correctly, I believe that the early 26˚ Source 4 lenses had the uncanny ability to be focused in such a way that they could melt gel almost instantly. I know you can still do that with some of the 36˚ units, but I do remember doing it with 26˚ as well. It is quite possible that changing the sharpness of the focus could help you as well.
 
I am beginning to think that those fixtures need a good bench focus session, they may be peak configured and that is what is allowing them to burn through gel like there is no tommorrow. Other than that I can't think of any other reason, if it is a source four, the 750HPL lamping of the unit may make gel burn out a bit faster, but not much faster.
 
If I remember correctly, I believe that the early 26˚ Source 4 lenses had the uncanny ability to be focused in such a way that they could melt gel almost instantly. I know you can still do that with some of the 36˚ units, but I do remember doing it with 26˚ as well. It is quite possible that changing the sharpness of the focus could help you as well.



That's been our experience also Alex. We had placed a fogger in the demo room with a 26* S4 to train some of our art people regarding atmoshere working with dots and radial patterns. We could watch the focal point of the fixture converge right at the gel frame when focusing the unit. THAT was a very telling experience (let me tell you)!

Between a proper bench focusing session, 30% dimming, and an adjustment to the focus- you should be in great shape Pyrus!
 

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