partyanimallighting

I had 4 of those UV cannons in the warehouse but they were just way too old, too bulky and took up too much space so I basically gave them to a youngling who's getting into lighting. To replace them I took 6 RGB PARs with individual diodes and replaced all the red, green and blue diodes with different wavelengths of UV. I think from 380nM up to 410nM. Works for me 😁

KevinE, the pump terminals are not polarized ie: + and - and when the 120VAC feed was connected to the pump one way from the motherboard, the pump would not work at all. Reversing these wires somehow solved the problem. indyld, I'm clueless as to why the reversing of the wires worked. I've never encountered the issue before and when I'm testing machines with no output, I normally first check for continuity across the heater block to confirm it's not blown/burnt out, then I check continuity of the 120VAC wire feeds from the motherboard to the heater block then I apply some AC directly to the pump to see if it's working. If everything's OK, then I power up the pump again with the fluid line in the reservoir so see if there's a proper flow of fluid through the heater or if there's a blockage. Normally, a direct AC feed to the pump powers it up regardless of which wire, LIVE or NEUTRAL is attached to which terminal.

I think it makes more sense to use a follow spot for your application. Purchasing one moving head for occasional one off applications seems to be a waste of funds.

Thanks for all the responses so far! indyld, as per your scolding from another manufacturer, "Applying 230 volts directly to the pump does nothing for the diagnosis.Please assemble the device completely and then check whether the pump is controlled by PWM voltage via the circuit board." But if the pump works with direct AC applied at least you can confirm that the issue is with the motherboard and not with the pump. And what about cheaper models of fog machines that use a simple setup of a wired remote (120VAC) and a thermostat to switch between the pump and the heater? This simple setup functions in these cheaper machines and I don't believe I've encountered polarity sensitive pump terminals in these scenarios (I could be wrong). As DrV said, the diode changes the sine wave but what happens in the case of these cheaper machines? Does this type of simple wiring run the risk of damaging the pump? Operating voltage here is 120VAC @ 60hZ. I only discovered the issue with the reversed terminals by meterng the voltage at the pump terminals and I got 120V with the FOG button depressed but no fog output (albeit with the terminals in the wrong position). I then tested with an incandescent lamp connected and that worked fine (no diode). That's when I got the bright idea to reverse the pump terminals and the pump then worked. Old school ways 😀

Thanks alistermorton, I discovered the problem but I'm still baffled. The pump functions perfectly with external AC power, no matter which terminal the AC hot or AC neutral go to. However......this is not the case with the AC feed from the motherboard. On testing, the pump refused to fire but when I reversed the live and neutral feed from the motherboard to the pump terminals, it functioned as it should. I know that there is a diode built into the armature/coil of the pump and this may be why the AC feed will only function on the respective terminals, live to live, neutral to neutral, on the pump. I don't recall encountering this problem with pumps in the past but the wiring polarity on other machines is defined via a thermal cutoff/protector/switch which slides into a groove on the pump's plastic housing. Martin and Antari pumps use this type of thermo protection to prevent overheating of the pump but these Chauvet 1600 models don't carry it. My new question is, if this diode defines a polarity for the pump terminals, why is direct AC not affected? Is this because of circuitry built into the fog machine's motherboard?

Hi KevinE, yes, pumps are the normal issue when there's no or low output but the pump is fine and powers up when an external 120VAC is applied. These newer pumps are a lot better than those older SP-12A and SP-35's of the past and most times a simple O-ring swap-out normally brings a faulty pump back up to fully operational function. The fog machine itself is fully functional....up to the output stage. It goes through all processes correctly, relay switches 120VAC to the heater, thermocouple sensor from the heater sends signal to the motherboard, temperature climbs steadily in the display, signal LEDs change color as expected......then nothing.

Hi all, It's been a while since my last post but I've been stumped by a couple Chuavet Hurricane 1600's for a few days now. The units themselves are a fairly neat DMX capable model, small but with a good output. Their major issue is their low fluid sensor, which consists of an optical sensor that the fluid line passes through. Once an air bubble enters the tube, the "blue flashing light of death" appears. My solution in the past to this issue was to bypass the sensor completely by bridging the wires on the sensor harness. No more blue flashing light. If the machine runs out of fluid and the pump burns, it's my fault and my fault entirely and I can live with that as it's my responsibility to keep the machines topped up when in use. Anyway, on to the problem. These two machines have a pump trigger issue. On start up the relay clicks and 120VAC is sent to the heater block. The "HEAT" reading on the display climbs steadily and the motherboard signal LEDs do what they're supposed to do, go from RED (cold), to PINK (warming up) to flashing BLUE (almost ready) to solid BLUE (ready to fog). But when I press the manual fog switch there's no output. So far I've tested the two optocouplers (817 and 3021) and the readings are OK. The DC output on the DB107 is fine and L7805 and BTA16 seem to be fine also. I'm just not getting the FOG switch to trigger the pump (the switch also tested OK). I'm assuming that the BTA16 triac deals with the high amperage heater block alone and the 7805 is supplying the required voltage as the display and motherboard are working fine otherwise. Some feedback as to what I should be looking for would be great. Clearer pictures can also be posted. Really hoping to get some feedback/assistance here.....

Chinese? I bought outdoor rated RGBW LED PARs from Longman Lighting in 2013. For the past 11 years I may have changed 2 power supplies, a couple diodes and a couple amperage control boards. Still in service, still going strong.

Hi DRV! Thanks for the response. The plates are not connected directly to the SMPS but via a 6 wire harness (R/G/B/W++) feeding the four individual color channels that are driven by the LED PAR motherboards, most of which utilize 9910C LED drivers. The original SMPS installed is 28V 5.3A and as you mentioned I'm now drawing 7.5A at 24V across the 18x10W plate. If it is that the plates are receiving only the maximum 5.3A from the 28VDC SMPS I'm fine with that because their output is sufficiently bright without any pulsing/flicker. The lower current draw will also extend the life of the diodes (am I correct here?). I've already done the plate swap out so I'll have to open up a unit again and take an amperage reading from the SMPS 28V+ to the motherboard with my meter and see what the current draw is like. According to what you've said above, if I'm drawing ONLY the maximum 5.3A from the SMPS I'm fine. If the current draw is higher in my readings then I run the risk of overloading the SMPS. Makes sense or is there anything else to factor in?

Hi all, I'm just throwing this out there seeking some feedback. I have a few 14 x 10 Watt outdoor rated LED PARs that have been really problematic over the years that I've used them. Diodes have died consistently on all eight units and they constantly require repairs via RGBW diode replacement. Most times they do not come back from jobs without at least one failing me. In my opinion the issue is a poor quality diode/diode plate and I decided to resolve the problem once and for all by replacing all the diode plates in the units. Here's where the question/query/inquiry comes in. The 14 x 10 watt plates were all replaced with 18 x 10 watt plates and lens plates and the replacements fit perfectly. However, the 14 x 10 watt utilizes a 28VDC power supply whereas the 18 x 10 watt requires 24VDC. Instead of replacing the eight 28VDC power supplies with the required 24VDC power supplies, I simply reduced the SMPS voltage down to 23.5 ~ 24VDC via the onboard requlating potentiometer and each and every unit now works fine, no blown diodes to date, no overheating issues like in the past. Does anyone see an issue with adjusting the 28VDC voltage feed downwards to 24VDC? Reducing the voltage would send the amperage up slightly but I would think that would be insignificant. The only issue I could foresee is that, if the pot fails or shorts, the output voltage could revert (spike) back to 28VDC and possibly burn out the diodes. Are there any issues I should be aware of?

Anyone willing to chip in with some advice here? I firmly believe there's a lot of residue in the tank despite all the rinsing out with distilled water that I did before. I filled the unit with water and shook it violently then flipped it to empty the old water based fluid and whatever residue and there was a lot of gunk in the tank. I repeated several times but maybe there's still residue and I believe that, during operation, the unit outputs haze from the oil based fluid and then the filters pick up the residue and clogs up, diminishing output. When the unit stops, I'm thinking that the residue falls off the filters and output increases until the filters clog again. I'm guessing here and I don't really want to open a unit I'm not familiar with without some guidance from one of you experts. I found a picture of the tank nozzle with filters.

Thanks for the advice Richard CSL but I've basically abandoned ship on these units. Too old, too cumbersome, too problematic and sourcing parts is a PITA.

Hey all, I got the oil based fluid and completely emptied the water based fluid from the hazer and ran it empty for a while to remove the rest of the water based. I then topped up to the recommended fill line with the oil based fluid and started up. The unit took a while to start to produce haze but then the output died completely whilst the compressor was running. I shut down and started up again and same thing......some output, not great......then output dies down. Any external solutions/remedies to this or should I attempt the tear the unit down completely to clear what might be a clogged line? I've never opened a compressor based hazer before but I'm thinking that, if I'm getting output, I can ignore the compressor side of things and focus on the tank side although I'm not sure how it works. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi indyld, you're absolutely right. There's the definite possibility of a faulty ignitor or ballast (I've confirmed that it's not the thermo or lamp in the one specific unit I'm testing) but to be honest, because of the age of the fixtures (20+ years since first launched) and a total lack of literature available online re: troubleshooting, known common issues etc I'm ready to abandon ship. There is also a lamp detect PCB that could be a major suspect but my reason for pointing a finger at that mainboard was due to the fact that the "HOT" error message came up while the heat sinks were actually quite cool soon after lamp strike and I'm assuming (due to a total lack of knowledge of the unit) that some sensor on that mainboard might be erroneously triggered or a faulty lamp detect PCB could be causing the error message to be triggered. The last time I opened up a similar type of unit would be some 10+ years ago and those were Elation (Robe) Power Spot 250's so my memory is really quite hazy too (as I recall, it's a large toroidal transformer feeding the ignitor then the lamp through a lamp thermo). I did speak to someone in the only rental company in the island that had SmartMACs some 15+ years ago and he told me that they were dumped many many many years ago due to incessant issues, especially with the gobo trapdoor not closing properly and the snap lock malfunctioning/breaking but to his knowledge they didn't have lamp issues/error messages with their units as I'm having with these. And he did rightfully state that, to his recollection, if a unit was repaired, some other issue would appear and the cycle would never end. Availability of replacement parts seems to also be a nightmare and it honestly just doesn't seem feasible. I think I'm done. BUT!!!! I really do appreciate all the feedback I received during this attempt.

Well, I finally got some time to do some further testing and I swapped out the old lamp with the new and started up. The unit went through it's "RESET" and homed successfully. I then struck the lamp and after I would think less than a minute, the "HOT" error message popped up, even though the housing itself was not even warm to the touch. So it's definitely not a lamp issue but probably is a fault on the motherboard located in the tilt arm. Once again, I'm reaching out for some ideas or feedback as to how this issue can be resolved before a dumpster comes calling.