ianknight

I don't know if it's still there but there was a big feck off siren mounted on a mast at Broadmoor Hospital in Crowthorne. Every Monday morning they sounded it (at 10am I think) to test it was working - the first time I was staying at the then GF's parents and it sounded, it was eery.

he siren was intended to let locals know if one of the 'patients' escaped.

19 hours ago, RLES Music Man said:

I'm an amateur theater teacher with 27 years of music teaching experience.   We have a Philips Strand Lighting 200 Plus 24/48 console (64341).  We have Jr. Broadway production coming up on May 4-6.  I started to train my tech crew on the lighting we would need for the show and we can't get the Sub Master to turn up once we program something.  All lights seem to be working in the Single Scene (SS) setting/function.  The recording process seems to function correctly, but after turning all lights down in SS and switching to Sub Master there is no light response.

To be honest its very strange because that is the overall problem.  It has responded occasionally.  My first attempt after erasing a pervious show is what alerted me to the problem.  After erasing I attempted to record our first scene by myself.  It recorded but then as stated above it would not turn up under Sub Master setting.  I erased and attempted again and still nothing worked.  I did not erase that one scene and just left it as it was.    That is when I took my crew in and was going to "teach/show" them how it "should" work.  Somehow it was successful for three kiddos.  They each created a light scene and recorded it.  They even worked under Sub Master.  So I thought the glitch had fixed itself.  So I taught them how to erase and we started all over.   That is when it malfunctioned once again.  We created a scene, recorded, went to Sub Master, and got nothing!  It did work briefly one time but it did not come up all at once it faded in gradually.  But then it stopped responding all together.

Any troubleshoot ideas would be greatly appreciated.

AS @kgallenhas suggested - it might be a battery issue, never had many issues with 200 series desks to be honest but they are about the age now when batteries will begin to fail & so much of the internal lookup tables that the desks software uses internally are likely to be in battery backed RAM.

It would be interesting to know if you can leave the desk powered on for a couple of hours, do a "Reset All" (it will be in the system menu somewhere) & then try creating scenes - if it's a battery issue then I would expect the issue to 'disappear' whilst the desk is powered up (if you follow my train of thought).

I suspect that your desk is going to end up on someone's workbench for a battery change & PCB clean up though 😞

@The Boogie Man Fab news! Well done - another saved from the skip 🙂

47 minutes ago, The Boogie Man said:

If anyone is wondering why I am bothering with a 90s board over a modern rack unit for my show, it is because these type of boards can do midi using the keyboard notation on my comp as well as using the velocity (1-127) to set the scene levels. 
Most of the modern boards (in my price range) that I have seen only receive note on messages.

This is one the main reasons the Lightmaster series was popular with small bands and so on - there isn't a comparable cheap desk available these days with those features 🙂

13 hours ago, sleah said:

The underside of the mode switch doesn't look too healthy, plus it looks like the grand master slider (& it's neighbour) is seperating.

Could it be as simple as the grand master slider not making contact so effectively staying at 0 regardless of physical position?

Yeah - that could be a possibility from the looks of it too 🙂

@The Boogie Man
The DMX only uses 2 wires and a return to transmit data so your adaptor should be ok (presuming that it's wired correctly - Pin 1 to 1 - 2 to 2 - 3 to 3   --  3 pin XLRs don't go in sequence...)

The battery looks like it's been changed at some time so you might be lucky but you'll only know by removing the PCB & checking the underside to see what state the tracks are in. Otherwise, internally the desk looks in reasonable condition for its age 🙂

1 hour ago, The Boogie Man said:

Ok, so first check is the battery, will do.
Is there any other problem that might be the reason for no DMX output?
I can see chases playing on the desk and I can access the different parts of the desk. 
It all appears to be doing something, I just carn't see any of it outside of the desk.
Cheers and thanks for the replies.
 

If the battery is knackered & the RAM is corrupt - the internal DMX patch tables may be corrupt so the processor might not be outputting DMX? If the desk will enter Super User - do a Reset All (which will set defaults) & then try the outputs.

Failing that - the DMX transceiver might have failed or been popped - haven't got my schematics handy on this machine but it's likely to be chip that's available still or I have a scrapper XLS that probably has one.

Thanks @Glyn Edwards 🙂

@The Boogie Man
First 'position' with faults on Lightmaster is check & replace the internal battery  - many of theses desks have been happily used for years without any thought to replacing the battery. Once the desk is open to check the battery - you will see whether or not the battery has leaked - if it has then it's very likely the desk is terminal... The chemicals inside the battery tend to creep along the copper tracks from the battery (but under the solder resist) so causing corrosion damage which can be tricky to track down and repair.  The internal battery maintains the RAM inside the desk which is used for internal lookup tables, patch tables and so on so if the internal RAM is below it's nominal operating voltage then errors like the one's shown will appear - sometimes if you leave the desk switched on & do a Super User reset, the fault clears temporarily.

The Lightmaster series was one of the unsung heroes of the Zero88 range (it got overshadowed by the Sirius) & I get the impression from the enquiries I get that there's still lots of them about & they're very loved - in fact I replaced the battery in one for a customer a week or so ago, wash down the front panel & it's almost like new. It would be worth opening the desk yourself (if you're confident) or getting someone like me to do so in order to check the battery - you might well be lucky and just have a dead battery 🙂

15 hours ago, kgallen said:

Check with @ianknight, as you’re passing Coventry on your way back south, maybe there are parts you don’t want you can share. 🙂

That sounds iike an excellent idea @kgallen - there are some parts on the Frogs that are worth holding on to - not so much the 520i's. @JustinPentecost if you want drop stuff on me on your way home - we could arrange something - PM me if you're interested in that 🙂

10 hours ago, kgallen said:

Central Theatre Supplies in Brum not got anything? @ianknight would have a view on what they might carry.

Are Lancelyn still going in Oxford? (Might be sales only though).

CTS Still have radio mic kits to hire but my understanding is that their policy now is to supply them without capsules but you buy headworn capsules as part of the hire - because of CoVid & cross infection risks.

The other alternative is Kirk at KW Leisure - he uses Sennheiser kit & will deliver - if you want to eMail me @Ynotthen I can pass you a phone number for Kirk - all round good guy to deal with (in fact I replaced him at CTS originally!)

10 hours ago, marktownend said:

OK, I've recently had a few issues with some of my 50cm mirrorballs (one self destructed when it got damp and shed far too many facets to be worth repairing, another is just looking really rough as loads of facets are sticking out at weird angles and it's clearly about to self-destruct, and a third self destructed this week by rolling itself off the admittedly slightly precarious position I'd put it in whilst I delved in the bottom of the box to retrieve a few facets that had come off).

So I thought I'd splash out on some replacements, but have been shocked to find they now cost over 4 times as much as when I got them in 2008. Now I realise prices always rise, but an inflation calculator shows a rise of 50% since then, not the 300+% inflation that mirrorballs have been subject to.

Anyone know if this is specific to mirrorballs (potentially to do with increased transport costs for a large lightweight item), or am I just out of touch and all LX kit has soared way above inflation? I used to add a 30cm mirrorball to small orders from various suppliers if it helped take it over the threshold for free delivery, but don't think I'll be doing that now!

Sadly (as with many such items) they're imported on the whole from China & supply chains are creaking under the strain of reduced production levels because of CoVid lockdowns & from longer transit times (again because of CoVid). It would seem a lot of UK/EU suppliers are being presented with higher prices themselves by their suppliers as a result and those rises will get passed on. I suspect prices will end up back around where they were in the mid 90's before Chinese imports becamse de rigeur 😞

On 12/14/2022 at 5:03 PM, whitehousejamie said:

Hi folks, in the slightly quieter time of January I intend to do some maintenance on all of our smoke, haze and snow machines.

When not in use for extended periods, is it best to run the machines completely empty before storage or leave fluids in the system? Also what is the most effective cleaning mix that will be suitable for standard water based machines and snow machines?

Many thanks 

I used to leave fluids in our smoke & haze machines when I worked hire at CTS on the basis  they wouldn't airlock & the glycol probably wouldn't freeze in a cold warehouse so pipes & blocks would be ok. Snow machines used to get washed out with distilled water & left empty - they sat on the shelf for the next year anyway...

Just be careful with hazers - some were starting to us mineral oils again (one of the Antari machines springs to mind) so probably best left alone but wrapped in some 'tat' to insulate them from the cold if the store isn't heated?

11 hours ago, sandall said:

As they share directors with Zero88, & were presumably swallowed up by Eaton & then Philips (now Varilite) at the same time, it might be worth asking the guys from Zero88.

There is some technical support available for LightProcessor stuff at Zero88 but Keith is now on holiday until after Christmas - Edward might be able to help but he might well be snowed under (pardon the pun) with all sorts of support questions. If you're in no hurry then an eMail to Zero88 Support might be the best bet rather than call them?

14 hours ago, labby said:

Hi all, I'm looking for a fixture file for a stairville HL-x90 fixture. I'm trying to patch them to a Chamsys quick 30 desk but the fixture isn't listed. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Perhaps eMail the support folks at Chamsys with a copy of the fixture manual & they'll build a fixture profile for you? They're a UK based company so I doubt they're turn round and say "Sorry guv'nor - you're on your own..." 😄

13 hours ago, chuffer said:

Thank you all for your responses and sorry for the delay in replying. I suspect Robolights have the very solution that looks like it will fit the bars we have. I have yet to find out who the manufacturer was but will try again.

Robolights are the manufacturer I believe - their moulded system was also used by MTX for their IWB's - if memory serves Doughty also used the system. MTX will deal with you direct - it used to be the case that Doughty would only supply via one of their dealer network.

14 hours ago, KevinE said:

However I want to save a backup in my 'D' drive which is my files store. But, I can't navigate to it in W10 File Explorer. It does not appear. 

It is there in my 'recently used' section, and I can right-click and 'copy' it, but when I try to 'paste' it in my D-drive, I get an error 'file not found'.

It also won't appear in a windows search.

Is there a work-around or is it just an older file that (yet again) W10 can't cope with?

Regardless of the file format - Windows 10 should still show the file even though it doesn't understand the format i.e. it does the same with .TGA files for me too, it won't show previews in explorer but still creates useable files. This might suggest that there's something else wrong that's causing your Drive D to not appear - Windows 10 can be very flaky about drives it believes to be damaged - it will use them but moan like hell about it, I suspect this creates the sort of problem you're seeing.

If you can use your Drive D outside of the Martin program - try creating a folder on the drive for your saved files & create a shortcut or drag it to it on your Windows desktop then try a copy/paste in to that folder. Having created a 'link' to a new folder, Windows might be fooled into behaving properly.

Windows also gets erratic when updates are pending installation - I don't know why but it does - one of my machines, it turns off networking for some updates when it's waiting for them to install 🤔  Thank goodness Zero use linux as the base for ZerOS  - I hate to think how flaky Windows 10 IoT might get.

13 minutes ago, sandall said:

That's rather sad. They were still listed last time I looked (obviously longer ago than I though🙁).

It is sad -  noticed it dropping off the price list about 18 months ago - now a legacy product 😞

Some dealers may have odd ones in stock or hire stock - whether they're happy to sell off though...

Luckily I have 3 (don't ask me how!) in my loan/slave stock 🙂

9 hours ago, sandall said:

If you're looking for "prison grade" why not go for something like Zero88, rather than cheap Chinese.

 

Except Zero88 no longer offer a demux 😞

It might be possible to find Demux 24's on eBay as used/previously enjoyed or their might be a dealer with one left on the shelf as 'new old stock' but you won't get one 'new out of the box' these days 😞

(Don't be tempted to buy a used Demux 48 either unless it's been well looked after - they don't age well if the battery has leaked at any point 😞)

14 hours ago, bigsparks said:

Just in case anyone else is following this post these lamps do not fit, just a little to large. 

A 3mm led dose fit nicely so I'm just going to add a 1k resistor to the lamp supply cable inside the pack.

Owh bugger - sorry about the bum steer with that one 😞 

Glad that you're on to a solution though 🙂

If memory serves - it's this one?

https://www.rapidonline.com/barthelme-21331480-sub-miniature-lamp-t1-3-4-14v-1-2w-bi-pin-57-6592

The plastic sleeve helps locate the lamp in the switch.

It's been a while since I used to hire Audio Technica (and sell them) but the 200 series only has 3 frequencies to use and they were preset at the factory so can't be set on the fly so I doubt they have used them all together (and that someone even sold them two racks of 4).

They might have used them together but only 3 at a time but even so - something doesn't ring true. Someone might be confused and they're actually 2000 series which were frequency settable but even then - the individual frequencies had to be chosen carefully to use 8 and they wouldn't be licence free.

Depends how much effort you want to put in if they're not a regular customer but somethings not right with what they've told you/

6 hours ago, Ynot said:

Still not entirely sure what exactly happened to scupper that status...

Mis-management presumably, as that's a surefire way to kill a successful company

 

Products were too pricey basically and the 'innovation of buying a desk with 125 channels and paying extra to unlock fixtures as they started to appear on-stage or more channels put a lot of folks off - especially in the face of ETC and Zero88 with the Frog range or Chamsys? The Strand Lantern range was awful - the SL was a nice lantern but it didn't age gracefully at all, the Quartet range was also miles behind what Selecon or CCT were offering in terns of price of performance (yeah - ironic eh?).

Strand became the IBM of theatre - if you could afford it, then you spec'd it (if the ETC folks didn't get to your project designer first) otherwise you bought Zero88 and CCT or Selecon & came in on a reasonable budget. It's a shame really because Genius Pro did the job really well - the per channel pricing model didn't work and the 300 series made a nice compact console but again it had per channel pricing 😞

13 hours ago, Stuart91 said:

It's an interesting move. Probably sounded sensible when someone proposed it in a boardroom. 

TBH when I hear "Vari-Lite" I automatically think of moving/automated lighting. It'd be a bit like deciding to put the Sennheiser brand on mixers. 

 

My thoughts exactly - the focus groups must have thought it a good idea but the 'traditional' buyer of Zero88/Strand/Selecon kit won't straight away think "We need a couple of new fresnels - I'll look at Vari-Lite" because Vari-Lite are what they see on big concert stages. If anything then uniting all the control and lanterns under a new name or perhaps even Strand Lighting rather than distinct brands might have been better for marketing.

Its also interesting that Strand Lighting LLC (the US company) has filed for bankruptcy - my understanding is that most of Strand technical support was still in the USA so how that leaves Neo & Strand 200 Plus(?) customers in the future - perhaps Keith Rogers will end up with more on his plate? 😛

Something like this perhaps?

eBay linky

I doubt the original cable would have been built especially for the Hog but was likely to be an off the shelf assembly - it simply saves the manufacturer time and money/

2 hours ago, Barney said:

Hi all,

I have two Robert Juliet Buxie followspots in a venue, one of which failed to strike just before a dress rehearsal. Managed to get a Foxie to see us through the week, but now need to look at getting the Buxie fixed.

Have tried cross-plugging between the two Buxies, and it seems to be a failure of the ballast (not the lamp, not the fuse). Can anyone recommend a company to look at repairing the ballast? I am based in the Midlands.

Many thanks,
Barney

It would be worth a call to Central Theatre Supplies in Birmingham. They used to sell Robert Juliat followspots and should be able to source spares from Ambersphere. The only issue you might find is stock/availability of spares sadly 😞

Talk to Jo Beaumont-Ward or Ian Roberts at CTS

7 hours ago, sunray said:

Removing battery allows most of the buttons to do something, basically the left section in 'nearly there' but the channel LEDs  are still lit and flickering. I don 't currently have any lights at home so can't see whats happening on the O/P.

It sounds as though the processor itself might have died or isn't resetting properly 😞

It might be time to call it a day and propose replacement, the cost isn't going to be outrageous if you go "Like for like" (I would look to HighLite - they will likely have stock in Holland).