(Almost) Dead Mac 550

[IRW]

Hi all, I've had a quick search around BR and a scan through the manual and am so far non the wiser as to what this fault could be-

 

Basically all of our lanterns came down last week for maintenance of all the generics and PATing, and, after re-rigging our movers two of them seemed to have aquired a similar problem...

 

When you turn one of the the Mac 550's on, you hear the fans power up for a second or so, the display shows #### and then the whole unit powers down again.

 

The second one does the same, but instead of just turning off, seems to restart itself and powers up fine.

 

Our other two Mac 550's seem to be behaving as normal. None of the movers have been opened up over the past few weeks, but they have been PAT tested- the only thing I can come up with without taking the covers off (I'm not too au fait with the inner workings of the 550's) is that maybe someone has run an incorrect test on them?

 

Has anyone ever seen this sort of problem before?

 

If no-one can come up with any suggestions I'll be ringing Stage Electrics and asking them to pop along to have a look so obviously I'll report back when I do find out what the problem is!

 

Thanks,

 

Ian

 

edit: spelling

Edited August 18, 2008 by IRW

[Joe Bleasdale]

I had a look in the MAC 550 manual to see if there was any error messages that are #### and there are none. However I looked in the MAC 500 manual and found that there is a message saying: ****. this could be similar. The **** massage means that there is no communication between the mother board and the control panel. So it says to check all fuses, check the cable between the motherboard and the control panel, and also to re-install the software. This says to me that it could be a motherboard problem...? I would try the above anyway, as for re-installing the software you need an uploader, stage electrics will definitly have one. There is instructions on how to do it in the manual.

 

keep us all posted!

 

 

hth

joe

[gareth]

Not sure whether this is the root of your particular problem, but there was an issue with the PSUs in a lot of MAC550s - one of ours died completely, and when we kicked up a fuss with Martin (they weren't very old at the time) they admitted that there was a problem with a big batch of PSUs and swapped all of ours out FOC. Might be worth a phone call, in case that's what's causing your issues.

[tokm]

Hmm...

 

The only time I've ever personally seen these sorts of symptoms on 550s (and new 250 fixtures for that matter..) was when the voltage on the mains supply for the fixtures was something rather much lower than the fixture was set for.. ;) They just started to fire up, but then just kept resetting with #### displayed on the screen while doing so.

 

Now.. are these two fixtures on the same bar, running off the same hard power supply?

 

Have you tried taking them down, plugging them into an independent (remembering my theatre speak here :o), or some other hard power supply?

 

Are the lamps autostriking? If so, try disabling that then powering them up & seeing what happens.

 

Erm.. Or it could be Gareth's idea, though seeing as its been a fair while since there's been 550s around with that problem, you'd have thought it'd have happened before now.. But you know what its like sometimes with these sorts of things :).

 

Sorry if this all sounds patronising & obvious, but HTH.

 

Tom

Edited August 18, 2008 by tokm

[johnhuson]

Sounds like it could be that the unit in question has a problem with it's software. Not seen the exact same problem but one of ours had a spate of just sitting there with **** flashing, a re-flash of the software seemed to do the trick. Sadly you will need an uploader device to be able to re-flash the software either an MP-2 or the newer DABS1 to be able to do this.

 

Can't comment on the PSU issue other than we've never had any problems with any of ours, although ours are some of the early models so probably missed the bad batch.

Edited August 18, 2008 by johnhuson

[IRW]

Now.. are these two fixtures on the same bar, running off the same hard power supply?

 

Have you tried taking them down, plugging them into an independent (remembering my theatre speak here :) ), or some other hard power supply?

 

Good idea but they already are running off hard power- I had them rigged on the bar ready to fly and was addressing them from power at stage level before flying them out- I was using the same source to power all four lanterns (one at a time, obviously).

 

Are the lamps autostriking? If so, try disabling that then powering them up & seeing what happens.

 

No, well, it is set to, however the one that isn't working at all doesn't power up far enough to give me access to the menu!

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Not sure whether this is the root of your particular problem, but there was an issue with the PSUs in a lot of MAC550s - one of ours died completely, and when we kicked up a fuss with Martin (they weren't very old at the time) they admitted that there was a problem with a big batch of PSUs and swapped all of ours out FOC. Might be worth a phone call, in case that's what's causing your issues.

Hmm... Interesting idea, however I doubt we would be eligible for this given that the fixtures are a good few years old, and judging by the various asset stickers on the base I am fairly certain they are ex-hire stock from a certain Liverpool lighting company

 

Sounds like it could be that the unit in question has a problem with it's software. Not seen the exact same problem but one of ours had a spate of just sitting there with **** flashing, a re-flash of the software seemed to do the trick. Sadly you will need an uploader device to be able to re-flash the software either an MP-2 or the newer DABS1 to be able to do this.

 

Oh dear... This is looking more and more like I'm going to have to call in the SLX service chap!

 

Thanks for everyone's help so far!

[live]

Sounds like it could be that the unit in question has a problem with it's software. Not seen the exact same problem but one of ours had a spate of just sitting there with **** flashing, a re-flash of the software seemed to do the trick. Sadly you will need an uploader device to be able to re-flash the software either an MP-2 or the newer DABS1 to be able to do this.

 

Can't comment on the PSU issue other than we've never had any problems with any of ours, although ours are some of the early models so probably missed the bad batch.

I would second John's answer as **** is a software issue across all the Martin range, If you know someone with a copy of LIghtjockey (1024 variants) it's easy to upload via DMX or use an MP-2 quite an easy job with the right tools!

g

[Joe Bleasdale]

it's easy to upload via DMX or use an MP-2 quite an easy job with the right tools!

 

 

 

Thats the problem, the tools used, ie the uploaders, cost a fortune! I beleive the MAC 500 uploaders to buy are at least a few hundred pounds and one for a MAC 2000.... well!

 

 

joe

Edited August 19, 2008 by thetechguy92

[SoLiEn]

who did the pat testing? what tests did they run through? is it possible they chose the wrong settings and have blown something inside the unit?

[JDP]

Once again, **** indicates to me a software or motherboard issue. Usually, MP2 can re-upload the software, but sometimes its more serious - like a crack across a motherboard or major component issues.

[IRW]

who did the pat testing? what tests did they run through? is it possible they chose the wrong settings and have blown something inside the unit?

 

Two of our theatre techs were doing it- they know what they are doing so I'm fairly confident it wasn't an incorrect test- I just suggested it earlier incase people couldn't come up with anything else!

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

I had a look in the MAC 550 manual to see if there was any error messages that are #### and there are none. However I looked in the MAC 500 manual and found that there is a message saying: ****. this could be similar. The **** massage means that there is no communication between the mother board and the control panel. So it says to check all fuses, check the cable between the motherboard and the control panel, and also to re-install the software. This says to me that it could be a motherboard problem...? I would try the above anyway, as for re-installing the software you need an uploader, stage electrics will definitly have one. There is instructions on how to do it in the manual.

 

Hmm...I'm sure this post wasn't here when I was replying yesterday!

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I may have a peep under the bonnet tomorrow if I get the chance- unfortunatly we're all on a first aid course most of this week so I havn't had a chance to have another look yet!

Edited August 19, 2008 by IRW

[Kopy]

They've lost their software.

[Matt Cowles]

Not sure whether this is the root of your particular problem, but there was an issue with the PSUs in a lot of MAC550s - one of ours died completely, and when we kicked up a fuss with Martin (they weren't very old at the time) they admitted that there was a problem with a big batch of PSUs and swapped all of ours out FOC. Might be worth a phone call, in case that's what's causing your issues.

 

Just to put this one to bed the fixture has lost its software, normally you can upload new software and the fixture

will be fine, you will have to upload in "boot mode". Instructions are in the manual for this procedure, if you are in doubt phone our service department for help (01622755442). As for the dodgy PSUs Gareth mentions, there were a number of problems with this product when it was released but all fixtures should be sorted now we did extensive upgrades and recalls when we discovered these issues, so I would be very surprised if this is the cause of the problem.

[DonkiDonki]

I've had that error with Mac's before when the mains patch had got messed up and they were actually just getting pre-heat voltage from a dimmer.

They worked just fine when the mains was put right so probably not the problem your experiencing if they are definately on hot power.

[nick7076]

I'm having a similar problem with both a Mac 300 & a 500. However the fixtures still work and respond to DMX. Its just the screen shows ****

 

Its not a screen fault as I've swapped the screen on the 500, the screen only started showing **** today after working ok yesterday.

 

If the fixtures have lost their software surely they would stop working?

 

The Mac 500 also has a colour wheel 2 fault - see separate post. I'm thinking it is a fault on the motherboard.

 

Any more ideas before I send them off to Martin?

 

Cheers Nick