scottie4183 Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Hello all....This is my first post on this board and I'm looking for a little help or some ideas to a problem. I am a teacher and TD for a high school in Connecticut. We do a pretty big jazz show once a year and use technobeams for our moving lights. We rent two from Port lighting and the other two we own. During the middle of the show on Saturday we lost two of our beams due to overheating. When the board up ran up to check them all he smelled was melting plastic. We turned them off and let them cool hoping to get them back for the last song but we had no luck. I haven't had a chance to look at them yet but am wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what might have happened. Any input would be helpful. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJones Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 I'm guessing being a standard moving light that they will have fans to stop over heating- therefore the fans may have stopped working, for any number of reasons-electrical fault, the transformer or power supply for the fans may have been faulty, or something may have been blocking the fans or something may fallen in and got lodged in one of the fans. To be honest, moving lights and scanners are complex things which hundreds of things that can go wrong.My ideas are a wild stab in the dark We could do with some more info?... As for were to go next, If they were your units then getsome one who knows what they are doin to check them out, if they were the hired ones then send them back to the hire company, if you were at fault then expect a hefty bill for repair costs etc cheers AndyJones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottie4183 Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 Yeah I need some more info also. I talked to the crew and we decided to leave the problem for monday as the show doesn't resume till wednesday. We are a public high school and often have to cut on stage. Dust has been a real issue in the theatre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosxuk Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 We've got 13 Technobeams, and non have suffered similar to what you describe despite them being used 12 hours daily without maintainence for a year before we got them. A couple have shutdown though because of blocked / dirty fans and since they are mostly plastic, the fans are crucial to the operation. By the sounds of it, the fans have died and they've not shutdown. If that's the case, and having seen a copy of the HighEnd spares price list - OUCH! First job, get them out the roof and open them up and find out exactly whats happened to the innards. If you're lucky then the smell of burning was something inconsequential. If there is nothing obviously wrong, you need to get someone who knows them inside out to have a look, and that is going to cost. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottie4183 Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 So we swapped the lamps in the rented beams with our own and of course it worked. What are the chances that both lamps would go within 10 minutes of eachother? Anyway there are 3 new lamps on the way through overnight mail so they will be here by tomorrow. Problem solved for now I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamtastic3 Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Could you say that this thread is a good example to relate to the on going banter in the moving heads recommendation thread about heads in schools and colleges and where the cost of maintenance lies????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 At least the OP has the budget to buy lamps! Can I suggest that while they're down you give them a bit of a clean especially vents fans etc. Oh can I also say that your a lucky man with your Technobeams,bit of a soft spot for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottie4183 Posted March 21, 2006 Author Share Posted March 21, 2006 hahaha....we are pretty lucky. We are the only high school in Connecticut with them I believe. Now if we could only get a board to run them. As it is we rent one once a year for this Jazz show that we do. Other than that they hang and collect dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 What are the chances that both lamps would go within 10 minutes of eachother?Fairly good actually. Discharge lamp life is relatively well known!It's good practice to replace every discharge lamp in the rig at the same time (assuming equal lamp life on the box - yours are 2000 hours), as then they all end up at the same age and roughly the same brightness. Plus you won't forget when they exceed rated life - don't let them get much over rated life as the fixtures they are in won't take an explosion. Doing this makes budgeting for lamps very easy - you know they all last for 2000 hours, you can estimate how much use they get in your venue, and so you'll be able to work out how many months they last. Then budget to buy a full set of lamps that often. It's usually a good idea to have at least one completely spare lamp to cover unexpected (in warranty) failures, but that's a one-off purchase. Tungsten halogen lamps are harder to work out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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