nopEda Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 Hi, I've recently begun the adventure of trying to repair Martin 500s and 600s...and 918s but haven't had any problems outof them yet for whatever reason(s). Since I'm still new tothese beasts I'll explain what has been my experience so far and see if anyone can help me from there: There is an error message...with two 500s it has been RgER.The motor felt bad in one of them so I replaced it, but that didn't fix it so I replaced the driver chip. That fixed it for thefirst start-up, but it failed again after that. So I plugged a good motor directly into the board and it didn't work properly.The tech at Martin (in FL, USA) said the board is bad, and needsto be sent in for repair. That brings me to questions about how to think about and dealwith all this, since similar things keep coming up. A bad motorcan damage a driver and mother board, but so can a short I'mguessing. How to tell if a motor is bad if it doesn't feel bad,without trashing out good drivers to find out and possibly damagingthe mother board as well? How to check and see if it's a wiringproblem if there's no visible damage to any wiring? Is a bad motorthe most common cause of such situations, or are bad wires morecommon? Where do wires most often become damaged, and whatis the least sucky way of running them when they need to be replaced? Thanks for any help getting an understanding of all this! DavidWild Bill's, Atlanta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturnx21 Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 Hi All I have just repaired some Martin 1220s and it sounds like your having similer problems!!! As for testing motors without pluging them in to a board, get a multi meter and test the resistance across coils (they should all give the same reading) You can also test the driver chips on the board by using a set of led's (I carn't remember exactly how you wire them up as martin very kindly supplied some prewired to a plug for me!!!) I found Martin (uk) to be very helpful and if you ask them they should be able to tell you what readings you should expect from your multi meter and which wires are for which coil! Hope that helps :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 Hi, I've recently begun the adventure of trying to repair Martin 500s and 600s...Here in the UK, I believe you can get a short training course in repair and maintenance of Martin fixtures - my bet would be fro you to find one of these state-side - likely save you a lot of poke & hope diagnoses...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jifop Posted October 9, 2006 Share Posted October 9, 2006 it sounds like you have a problem with your wiring loom, maybe a pinched cable or a short? it is possible that this knocked out your driver IC the first time, you may well have damaged the board by doing it again! its usually the surface mount resistors/caps near the chips that are killed That brings me to questions about how to think about and dealwith all this, since similar things keep coming up. A bad motorcan damage a driver and mother board, but so can a short I'mguessing. How to tell if a motor is bad if it doesn't feel bad,without trashing out good drivers to find out and possibly damagingthe mother board as well? How to check and see if it's a wiringproblem if there's no visible damage to any wiring? Is a bad motorthe most common cause of such situations, or are bad wires morecommon? Where do wires most often become damaged, and whatis the least sucky way of running them when they need to bereplaced? as mentioned above to check motors, meter between pins 1 and 2 on the motor and then between pins 2 and 3, add the two values together and they should equal the value between pins 1 and 3, also try this between pins 4 and 5, 5 and 6 and again they should be equal to 4 and 6. thats a simple way to test the stepper motor itself, Hall sensors are a common failure IIRC they should be about 1mm away from the sensor, too close/far and it wont read correctly, they also often get dry joints and need a little touch up with a soldering iron, rather than buying a whole new sensor board just buy the sensor from martin and solder it into your old pcb (assuming you are handy with a soldering iron) you can test hall sensors using a meter accross two pins, can't remember which but I'll look it out and let you know to test the stepper drivers, Martin professional sell a stepper driver tester unit, although you could make one also they are not very complicated, again I'll dig the diagram out if you want. this is the martin one called "Link and Driver Tester" http://www.martinpro.co.uk/service/downloa....pdf&cat=65 Cables do get damaged, alot! are your macs on the coloured ables or thin black ones? the coloured ones fall apart!I personally suggest if you do have a damaged loom just buy the new section, don't bother splicing and resoldering them, martin sell all the bits of loom seperately so its easy enough. finally as said above get yourself on a martin training course well worth it. good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanko Posted October 9, 2006 Share Posted October 9, 2006 G'day, The courses are very much worth your while, as the basic content can be used to help solve problems with a range of moving light brands. The course I believe is called Martin University Level 1, which covers repair and maintance of fixtures on site, it is 2 days, one day practical, stripping fixtures down, rebuilding them, fault finding, and understanding the fault, followed by repair. The second day is theory of moving lights, and the inner workings of moving lights. Well worth a look! Tanko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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