Cyberlights

[zonino]

Hi all,

 

I have a fair number of cyberlights doing random things on a random basis, I've never worked with them before, and the notes from the last guy basically say "first check the lamp, then, its not working because its a cyberlight"

 

If you have any general maintainance tips for these that'd be great, particularly things that go wrong (I have a number that are doing wierd things)

 

ta,

 

Stan

[jayselway]

What sort of weird things?

[Mark Powell]

List the problems with each fixture and I will get my tech guys to come up with some answers for you.

[Bryson]

Common problems include: (Apologies if any of this is teaching your granny to suck eggs..)

 

Cyberlights don't use "normal" DMX addressing, so if they don't respond at all, chances are you've set the dips wrong. Read the manual before setting the dips.

 

The setting of the stops for the mirrors is a fine art form, and if done incorrectly can lead to strange jerkyness and slipping of your positions. (90% of my Cyber problems were due to this)

 

The internal wiring looms aren't quite as heat resistant as you might hope, and older cybers that behave badly frequently benefit from an entire new wiring loom. (Not cheap!)

 

hth

[Tomo]

As Bryson says - Cyberlights have a very strange addressing system.

You don't give them a DMX address - you give them a fixture number, and you have to set them into the right DMX mode using Address dips 9 and 10.

Check the manual for details as I've not had the pleasure for 10 months.

However, if the fixtures work OK some/most of the time this probably isn't the issue.

 

If a Cyberlight works ok for a while (usually when cold) and then suddenly freaks out (random movements etc) when it's warm, one fairly common problem is that the smoothing capacitors for the "5v_iso" power line on the power board have failed - the regulator is a 7805 IIRC, and becomes unstable without the capacitors which mashes the DMX receiver chip power.

 

It's a board-level repair, but it's fairly simple if you are OK with a soldering iron.

[Rob Mann]

Hi Stan

 

A very common fault with these is dry joints. Depending on the model of cyber you own this varies. Generally the cooling for the cyberlight is very poor (in the SL it is normally very poor) and if not serviced frequently then a fault occurs. This can vary from the fixture doing something random to not even intialising. Keep an eye for this.

 

Regards

 

Rob Mann

[Frank]

Stan,

 

When you need any help with your Cyberlight please call or mail me.

 

Frank Schotman

High End Systems Product Support

frank_schotman@highend.com

+31(0)6-51157163

[mat0075]

From my use of them the things that really used to bug the hell out of me was

1) the mirror losing position, this was generally because the grub screw on either the pan or tilt were loose.

2) General random faults although this can of course come from LOADS of things the one I found to be the most common/irritating was any sorta damp getting in the multipin connector between the power and the logic board (it goes under the lamp) that I believe was fixed by changing the connectors to gold plated ones but if not WD40 works a treat.

3) Dry joints on the DMX in/out XLRs.

But like mentioned above be a little more specific and maybe we can help.

[gupster]

Most products will have one thing that is a bit of a pain or not as you would like it but my the long list of things that normally go wrong with these lights it sounds lika you should really stay away from them or do they have any plus sides??

 

Just intrested.

 

Cheers,

[hughesy]

sounds lika you should really stay away from them or do they have any plus sides??

Oh yes, they have huge plus sides......

They are stupidly bright, very high light output giving amazing beams through haze. The stock gobos are really nice and as ever with high end stuff you can buy a great variety of replacements from the manufacturer (although supply problems have existed in the past). Also the mirror is very quick, like the technobeam, so for raves and dance events you can get some really cool fast moving looks. They also have the same colour mixing system that is in most High End fixtures which, if properly maintained is very reliable and looks great.

 

Re. the coolong issue, the new Cyber Turbos, or SL's with the complete conversion done, have a pretty good cooling system now, not foolproof though. They are pretty good for servicing, huge cut-away access to the inside, although some bits are quite fiddly. High End recommend the use of some long reach tools and these tend to able to reach most things.

 

I really like Cybers but I would agree totally with the DMX v's fixture number thing. I would always allow longer than you think for setting them up. If in doubt always RTFM (Read The Flipping Manual), it's fairly concise on set-up.

 

Emlyn

[Tomo]

They are one of the very few moving spots with full CYM colour mixing, and they are VERY bright (with the right lamps at sensible hours, correctly adjusted).

 

And to be fair, they are relatively reliable under dirty power and high vibration - lost calibration often, but with open-loop control this is rather to be expected - it's the wrong fixture for a ship!

 

I used these a lot on ships and although I had a lot of problems, to be fair most of these were caused by non-existant maintenance and lamps being permitted to explode - I'm fairly sure this was what popped a fair few ignitor caps and caused the failing ballasts.

 

It's also possible to fully service one in the air - not recommended though. I had to do it because we had some that were literally impossible to de-rig - we don't know how they got up there, but we think it was done using a load of climbing gear. I'm not going to attempt to repeat that under any circumstances!

[zonino]

sorry for being slack on replying to your questions! other problems have been being fixed which have been more important (4-5 cybers out of a rig of 46, or 8 broken VL's out of 22 which I FINALLY got the parts for this week!)

 

and I agree that when they work they are a really nice fixture, but not great for on a ship!

 

and I can relate to what your saying about the climbing gear Tomo, my FOH coves fly in, and LX4 flys in... the bridge, LX1, 2 & 3 don't - thats 24 cybers which are virtually impossible to derig with the gear we have!

 

fortunately I have 3 boxes of stepper motors for them (and these are BIG boxes!) and other various spares from 2 defunct cybers left to be canibalised!

[vl nick]

What problems are you having with your VLs? (also what model are they)

[zonino]

problem was burnt out switches (VL2500's)

 

problems now being fixed as I have the switches!

 

cyberwise: 2 of them start powering up then after about 30 seconds everything stops and the fan's go, then a couple of minutes later they'll start to power up again for 30 seconds... etc, any ideas?

[zonino]

hey guys, slightly confused by this:

 

I have a cyber that starts up, it lamps on for about 20 seconds, then the lamp dies and it goes into the calibration section of the boot up,

 

so far I've swapped out:

Power-card

Ignitor

Ballast

transformer

PC Cap

 

and its still doing it, so unless one of my spares is dodgy, I haven't got a spare logic board, so I haven't swapped that out yet

 

any ideas?

 

thanks,

 

Stan