Very Basic Technobeam question

[ciscored]

Hello,
First post here, bear with me as this question may be remedial. I am a sound guy, but need to change out a Technobeam.
We have 2 techno beams addressed 201 and 202 connected to a Hog 500. One of the techno beams is not acting properly so when i swap it out do I need to match the address on the new one? How do I do this?
Thanks so much in advance!


PS the problem with the Technobeam is that the lamp intermittently goes off, sometimes the lamp goes on, sometimes it doesn't. The issue can generally (not always) be fixed by simply unplugging and plugging the unit back in. Does this sound like an easily fixed issue, or is it wiser to replace with a spare that we already have?

Thanks!

 

[soundman]

Im not a Techno Beam person but I can offer some suggestions.

The addresses you gave are the user channels on the hog, not the DMX address for the fixture. If you swap the fixtures you will need to make sure the DMX address on the new fixture is the same as the old. You will need to have the fixtures powered on and use the menu to address the lights.

The trouble sounds like an over temp issue, have the fixtures been cleaned recently and are the fans working? Does the display show an error when this happens.

 

[ciscored]

Thanks,
Can you change the DMX adress in the menu on the Techno beam? (the menu with the two buttons and the red LED), I'm just hoping I dont need to change it on the hog...

 

[soundman]

Correct your setting the DMX address on the fixture. The manuel has great instructions on how to do that

 

[icewolf08]

First off, here is a link the HES support page for the Technobeam, you may find useful info there.

Second, the Technobeam uses an arc discharge lamp, unlike incandescents that just die, arc lamps have a useful lifespan. At the end of the lifespan of the lamp you often see the symptoms you are describing, failure to maintain or strike an arc. You probably only need to replace the lamp, not the entire fixture. However, if you do replace the fixture, soundman is correct, you need to address the new fixture to the same as the old through the menus on the fixture. The link I provided has a link for the manual for the fixture which will help you in this.

 

[lightman02]

As long as you change the address on the new light to match the address on the old one then you will NOT have to touch anyting on the HOG console.

 

[Grog12]

As long as you change the address on the new light to match the address on the old one then you will NOT have to touch anyting on the HOG console.

An easier solution would be to repatch the User Channel on the Hog to match the DMX channel on the new instrument...providing it doesn't conflict with other DMX addresses on your system.

I'm also not convinced that these instruments aren't conflicting with each other. ciscored what numbers are they addressed at? IE what numbers show up in the red LED panel on the instrument itself?

 

[ciscored]

thanks so much for all your help everyone, I work mainly with video and sound, lighting has always been something I knew nothing about but am now thrown into.

OK I read the manual links, I went up to the fixtures and held down "menu" the enter when I saw adress. "C100" was displayed, is that the only thing I need to change on the replacement?

On the other fixture, i repeated the same steps and it displayed "c18" is this due to the 18 channels of DMX for each unit?

Anyhow do I only have to change the new unit to "c100" or is there more involved here?

thanks again!

 

[icewolf08]

You have to set the new unit to the same channel as the old, so if the old unit was 100 then set the new one to 100.

 

[photoatdv]

I may be totally wrong about this, but I'd be sure they aren't conflicting with each other or that something else isn't conflicting with the problem one. There is a lamp-off command on one of the channels of most automated fictures. Therefore if the channel that has the lamp-off command is in conflict with something else, you could be inadvertantly sending the lamp-off command. Basically if 128 is the lamp-off comand on the fixture's 2nd control channel, and its start address is dimmer 300, then should you have a physical dimmer or a dimmer 300 programmed as a desk schannel and you fade it up to 50%, it would also send a lamp-off to the fixture.

Now, I have never seen this happen, and I don't know that much about the technobeams, but logically this seems to be a possibility. Feel free to correct me someone if there is hole in this logic.