Mac 500 colour wheel fault

[rlower]

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas…

 

One of our Mac 500's is having trouble moving BOTH of its colour wheels.

 

On the lighting console (pearl 2004), when using the encoder wheels to control the colour wheels everything seams to be working fine. However, when changing colours using palettes the colour wheels move very slowly making a "flutter" sound. Colour wheel 2 has more trouble than wheel 1, and the fault only occurs during certain colour changes.

 

So far I have checked all connections from the motherboard onwards, and everything seams ok. The motors are fine.

I'm thinking maybe a motherboard fault? Anyone had a similar problem?

[DrV]

I doubt that you're looking at a problem with the MAC. If you are managing to provoke the fault by changes in the way you move from one colour to another then surely the problem lies with the way the DMX values are changing. I don't know how to drive a Pearl 2004 but it sounds as though you've got some sort of slow crossfade in use.

 

The flutter sound will be due to the way the stepper drivers work. Whenever you are between the dead centre points of stepper phases you get all sorts of whistles and noises from the motors due to mechanical resonances beating with the chopper waveform.

 

I know it's stating the obvious but have you tried simply swapping the addresses on the MACs to see whether the fault moves with the address?

 

Dave

[Impact Pete]

Hi I had a similar problem on a mac 300 wash, after I cleaned the colour sensors near the wheels it decided to work perfectly.

 

It's a long shot but if it's not DMX and you have tried another light on that address etc. then its worth carefully blowing away any build up of dust on the sensors.

 

Hope you sort it

 

Pete

[timmeh2]

...when using the encoder wheels to control the colour wheels everything seams to be working fine. However, when changing colours using palettes the colour wheels move very slowly making a "flutter" sound. Colour wheel 2 has more trouble than wheel 1, and the fault only occurs during certain colour changes.

 

Hi

 

I think you've just answered your own question there. If the wheels are working fine on the encoders but not on the palettes, I suspect you have a programming error.

 

Check that the wheels work by using the control pad on the Mac, then you definately know its the desk.

 

All the best

Timmeh

[rlower]

My original thought was a programming error/DMX problem however I have tested another 500 with the same address and the fault doesn't move.

I'll check today with another console to make sure.

The I've also cleaned the fixture and the fault is still there.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

[rlower]

Ok, so I've everything running setting and running on our Pearl 2000 and the 500 seems to be ok.

I'll wipe the 2004 and reprogram, but I don't understand - If I match the DMX addresses on the fixtures surely they should act the same?

 

I still think its a fixture problem, but I'll run the lights at our club night this evening with the 2000, and see how they go.

[rlower]

Ok have it all sussed...

 

Answer - The 500 has CPU software version 1.3

In the 1.5 update the there is the following bug fix:

 

"Bump from fixed color values (145 - 184) to color scroll values (0 - 144) in DMX tracking mode could cause slow movement on both color wheels."

 

Turns out all our other 500's have the 2.0 software. The LD who last programmed our 2004 was using some fixed colour values in his palettes. For example he had value 145 saved as his ctc instead of 144, hence the slow movement.

 

All I need to do now is borrow someones software upload device!