Automated Fixtures VL 2500 Spot Issue

[KLM]

Hey, everybody!

We have 6 VL 2500 Spots at my venue, and one has consistently had the same problem. After about 6-8 hours of use, it rehomes itself. It also wipes all of its settings and its address. The first time it happened, it immediately snapped back to its proper address and what it was doing, but lately it will recalibrate and display no error codes, but the menu will not respond. Sometimes the menu will show vertical lines instead of numbers. It always starts up just fine the next day.

My crew and I have experience changing lamps, belts, motors, and other simple parts like that, but this problem has us a little stumped. We all went down to a rental house in Las Vegas and got a crash course in repairing these fixtures, so we feel fairly comfortable working on them, but we just need somewhere to start. Since we bought the fixtures used and they are no longer under any kind of warranty, my boss would rather we tried to fix this problem on our own.

I feel like this must be an overheating issue, but all the fans appear to be working fine. Could something be wrong with the "brains" of the fixture?

Any ideas on what could be going wrong would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

 

[JD]

Sounds like a temperature related crash on the logic board. Could also be the power supply that feeds the logic board. If the caps have dried out, the supply might be putting out enough noise to crash the processor. Try swapping the power supply with a known good unit. (Not the E-ballast) If the problem stays with the unit then you have a logic board problem. Usually caps go "funky when cool", so the fact that the unit works cool sounds more like logic, but "usually" is not "always."

 

[KLM]

Wow, thanks for the speedy response! I will try this asap.

 

[agbobeck]

We had a similar problem with our VL2500s. It was the power supply


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[agbobeck]

I have posted on here before about our wonderful pair of MLs. When we first purchased these units 2 years ago, we had an issue where one unit would in essence "crash" (like a computer). We thought we fixed this problem by replacing the power supply, but during our fall show the same unit again "crashed". I tried contacting Varilite phone support and they said the issue was the display cable. I am not sure he understood our problem fully as the issue seems to be more than an LED display failure. if anyone has any suggestions, I would like to be able to get these units repaired.

 

[randiculous]

I have posted on here before about our wonderful pair of MLs. When we first purchased these units 2 years ago, we had an issue where one unit would in essence "crash" (like a computer). We thought we fixed this problem by replacing the power supply, but during our fall show the same unit again "crashed". I tried contacting Varilite phone support and they said the issue was the display cable. I am not sure he understood our problem fully as the issue seems to be more than an LED display failure. if anyone has any suggestions, I would like to be able to get these units repaired.

We have 4 VL2500s in my shop and one of them has this same "display/crash" issue. It began with the display reading out in funky symbols and lines and freezing up after extended use, but over time the error has come up with shorter and shorter usage and also has had a few bigger crashes with rehoming and such like those above described. When the issue first started I called VL and they mentioned a possible problem with the display cable, and if memory serves, it's related to the light heating up the cable and causing interference of some sort. However, it's gotten worse over time and we still haven't solved it. We HAVE discovered that running the unit with the base shell removed doesn't seem to cause the problem, so we're thinking it may be temperature related.

I will check the power supply on the unit though, as it seems others here have had some luck with that, and I do believe our units are getting into that golden age where a good Cap replacement throughout would be helpful. I will report back if I have any success in getting ours back up and running smoothly.

 

[Les]

I'd probably have a look at that display cable first... Seems like the cheapest and easiest possible solution so you'd might as well get it out of the way.


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[chawalang]

I would agree with what JD said. I have had this issue happen before. It is either the heat/ electrical noise from the power supply or the main processor has become unseated over time due to heat on the logic board.

The power supply wont show any issues as far as dousing when this happens those power supplies are super tuff. I have only had to replace three in 12 years. Unlike a MAC 2K board or a cyber board you cant do a chip crunch to reseat all the chips.

Are the fixtures running on power from the buildings infrastructure? Or is it off a PD from a company switch or Gene?

The reason I ask is when I saw this happen I was working on Cruise Ships so it was crappy powe constantly. When I got VL certified Todd Kessler told me this issue doesnt happen often but its usually because of dirty power. Like on a ship or in a country like China or Columbia that doesnt have the best power grid.

 

[agbobeck]

Our fixtures are running off of our strand non dim modules. I'll look more into the display cable


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