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ianknight

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    Currently self-employed.
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    Ian Knight

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    http://www.serviceguy.co.uk
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    Coventry,UK.

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  1. @Geo23 Good to see some Mini 2's still doing their thing πŸ˜„
  2. @NW1 I saw the announcement on FB - well done for keeping a community venue going πŸ™‚ As @kgallen has said - the Fat Frog is handy for running stuff side by side but it can only control 12 fixtures. If you're 'donating' things like MAC's in to venue then I would urge you to seriously consider replacing the Fat Frog - whist it's certainly possible to run two controls side by side, it can get complex & frustrating for inexperienced users so I'd try to bring them under one desk ASAP. I'm a little out of touch with the current 'de rigeur' desk but having sold desks in the past as well as lit with them - do take in to consideration that it might not always be you plotting shows and playing them back so pay close attention to any desks UI & whether it can be configured for less experienced users or not. You should also have half an eye to what happens at 6pm Saturday night when you power everything ready for 'the half' and the desk gives it's last gasp - what will you do for backup? Choosing a desk that's used by other venues nearby might be handy in such circumstances... If you're not happy serving the current racks or desks (and you might not find someone local who is) - then I can help too. Good Luck with the venue πŸ˜„
  3. @Tbird From past experience - the chances of getting a goodwill refund are negligible to non-existent. Unless the pyro was out of date when you bought it, then LeMaitre won't entertain the idea of a refund & they'll likely pass you back to the dealer that sold you the the smokes. Bear in mind that this was the company that when dealers tried to exchange sealed boxes of pyro that time expired during the pandemic because ho one was buying pyro - they weren't helpful apparently. 😞 They will rely on "You should have read the instructions to remove the bung therefore you weren't using the item correctly so not our problem" - the dealer you bought from (if not LeMaitre - if they do direct sales these days) will likely not want to take back any opened boxes of pyro either. Things were different 6 or 7 years ago when Elaine Frost was Sales Manager & she was very helpful because she believed in the brand.
  4. @sunray - it was intended for all the folks reading this thread to hopefully inspire more folks to reach out to help schools & to suggest that they shouldn't presume what the answer will be when they offer to help. πŸ˜„
  5. I've seen this from both sides - I worked for 19 years with an install company & then a couple of years in a school (just before Covid happened) & it's bizarre to see how different schools handle it. When I was installing - some schools wouldn't let us near without clearance whether they had someone to accompany us or not - some just gave us a cheery hello, asked us to sign in and left us to it. The school I worked at had an 'approved contractor list' which largely meant pre-approval but they also took DBS details from 'new faces' or had technicians accompanied if no clearance (and it's hard for small/solo contractors to get a clearance in their own name) - sometimes (I was site staff) we were told to leave them to it and get on with our own work! I think my point is - if folks want to offer to 'volunteer' to help out a school then go ahead and do it - don't assume that they will want DBS (or conversely that they will accept your offer - some site managers & head teachers are picky) - they'll be glad of the help in most schools. Don't push it though - don't get upset if they have someone accompany you, don't assume that because the equipment is 'top of the line' that they know how to use it - the drama teacher who left 2 years ago specified that & didn't show anyone how to use it before they left because... Have the mindset of "I'm helping a neighbour..." and go from there - you'll make new friends most times & they might even ask you again and offer to pay - hopefully most schools will offer you a cuppa whilst you do your thing.
  6. I think it's the "Owh no - we can't ask anyone for help because they'll charge the earth for just coming in the front door" syndrome? @Mylo There's plenty of folks here on the Blue Room (and other socials) who would be happy to call in for a look & to give some advice for the cost of a cheery "Hello" & perhaps a cuppa but no one's going to offer unless they know where you are in the UK - you might even find someone very helpful & just around the corner, I suspect also that your school is now 'panicking' because it's the school Christmas concert next week & after not bothering with lights last year - parent power is now looking for some 'atmosphere' this year. I've had 5 enquiries since this last week for desk repairs, replacement power supplies & so on but it's almost now too late 😞
  7. @partyanimallighting - that would be my approach about changing over - empty the tank then run the machine for 5 minutes or so to flush the remaining fluid in the internals then fill with the oil based fluid and and run for another 5-10 minutes to get it circulated. After that - maintenance & servicing - I used to just ensure the machine was run regularly especially during quiet hire periods - the oil is a light oil so whilst it leaves a residue when the haze settles on surfaces it never seemed to clog the insides like a glycol based smoke fluid will in conventional machines. I think some of that is due to the fact that the haze fluid isn't actually heated - it's forced to decompose/mist by the compressed air. It might be feasible that once a year - you run some conventional cleaning solution i.e. a mix of distilled water and white vinegar through the machine for 5-10 minutes to clean it's jets. BTW - this last part makes sense in my head but I'll leave it to someone used to repairing or maintaining these machines to come up with better.
  8. CTS used to have one of these in hire (and originally the original compressor based version too) & we never got good results in the new version with water based fluid (much to my boss upset because of the cost of the oil based fluid) & using water wasn't an option in the original. I refilled the machine with oil and after running it for 10 minutes or so to flush the remaining water it worked like a dream and gave that fab haze these machines produce -easily better than the Unique but not many folks liked having a compressor on the side of stage in a quiet theatre. I'd swap to the oil fluid personally...
  9. @gaspipe58 that's the same problem as I have on the 520i that I've been looking at i.e. the LCD Displays don't display anything. According to @Kazeja when I eMailed him - there's some resistors on the mainboard (not the PC mainboard) that might have failed & need checking. I'll look out his eMail over the weekend and send you a PM. The button cell I don't think is a battery but the consoles ID chip but again @Kazeja will know better - that was the component that I believe Strand insisted was removed during the part exchange/upgrade deal they offered to get folks off 430's on to 500 series. I tried to get myself a second hand 430 from WhiteLight via Peter Threadgold (we were quite friendly - he used to work with my ex boss) but he said that although they had a 'skip full' the iD chips had been removed at Strands insistence. This might explain why there are so few 430's left? And the monitor in the wrong output thing? Yeah - done that a few times too - a real heart stopper isn't it? ** laughs out loud **
  10. I have a box full of fader caps, keycaps and button caps for the 500 series (original & updated) so once you know what you need - drop me a PM and a picture of the existing ones so I can match them.
  11. Winner, winner - Chicken dinner! (sorry been chatting too much with my nephews lately) πŸ˜› That's fab news - nice one! πŸ˜„
  12. To be honest - I wouldn't worry too much about software as long as the hard disk is intact - the three 'scrap/spares' 520's I bought a few years back all booted when powered. If the only issue is a failed motherboard or PSU I'd wager a sticky bun that the hard disk will be fine, the desk will boot and you're away. Push comes to shove - I've got one hard disk not spoken for in one of the 520's I have - I wouldn't have a problem loaning you that to image your drive - there are likely still many software tools that will make short work of imaging an IDE Hard drive πŸ™‚
  13. From memory - you will need a motherboard with a 16 bit ISA slot to take the riser card that connects the PC part of the desk to the desk processor - some mainboard manufacturers leave them out to make more compact motherboards with more logic/better graphics/sound & more RAM on them. You'll also need a floppy drive interface - the desk is running MSDOS 6.22 underneath it all and it only knows about floppy disks, hard disks via IDE & VGA Ports on D style connectors - the serial port & parallel ports aren't necessary but depending on the state of the trackball you may want to plug in a mouse (either serial or PS/2). The older more reliable the motherboard the better really - GeniusPro can't use a lot of extended memory - gets confused with ramdisks (got a couple of faded tee shirts around that) and don't expect faster performance by fitting a fast processor - it all gets dragged down by software timers & waiting for interrupts - you'd be just generating heat and noise from coolers.
  14. That sounds like it could be the Intel mainboard failed or simply the PSU failed - the latter is a 'standard' type of PC PSU so easy to try a replacement, if it's the mainboard then it will be trickier to source a replacement as it's a Pentium 2 - I have no idea what would happen with a newer PC mainboard. If it were 'just round;' the corner it might be worth it to see if it can be revived but it might prove to be a paperweight as you say - it's a shame but that's where we are 😞
  15. @GOODN537433 Sadly Zero88 don't take kit in for repair these days in the same way that they used to 😞 I do however repair Zero kit and am an authorised independent service centre (I can do warranty repairs too) - I also have spares around for LeapFrogs... Is it the original LeapFrog or the version that runs ZerOS? Hopefully it's not a LeapFrog 96 as transport can be problematic without a flight case. I'm in Coventry - if you want to carry on a conversation about this - then eMail me - ian at serviceguy dot co dot uk
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