S4 Fresnel lamp door latch

[Mack]

Anyone else having trouble opening the lamp door latch on the new ETC Source 4's? Just bought 20 of them and, on many, the wiggly pin that you twist on the door stays caught in the slotted clip on the housing, and you have to fight to get it out. I'm supposing it's an issue with the slots, and that I can just purchase new clips and replace the ones causing me grief. It's a shame, too, since the selling point on these new instruments is supposed to be how much easier they are to use than traditional Fresnels. Anyone else have this problem/figured a workaround for this issue?

 

[Mac Hosehead]

I tried a few and didn't have any problems. This cam-clip arrangement is also used on other fixtures. If these fixtures are new then I would call ETC tech support and see if they will send you some new clips. They also might have an easy "fix".

 

[Amiers]

I’m sure if you work it some more on the ones that are sticking you should be fine.

 

[Colin]

I haven't noticed such a pronounced issue as you describe, but mine can definitely be sticky. Like Amiers says, things probably will loosen up with use. All around, I think this is the story with these fixtures - I don't regret buying them, but none of the premium features work as well as I wish they did. The claim that they've eliminated light leaks is... full of holes. Actually, that might be why my lamp doors aren't so bad at this point. I'm always opening them up to stick a flag of blackwrap in there to cover light leaking out from around the door.

 

[Mack]

I haven't noticed such a pronounced issue as you describe, but mine can definitely be sticky. Like Amiers says, things probably will loosen up with use. All around, I think this is the story with these fixtures - I don't regret buying them, but none of the premium features work as well as I wish they did. The claim that they've eliminated light leaks is... full of holes. Actually, that might be why my lamp doors aren't so bad at this point. I'm always opening them up to stick a flag of blackwrap in there to cover light leaking out from around the door.

Ha! Well, good to know. Yeah, swapping some of the clips around from unit to unit proves that that is indeed the issue. Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Case closed.