faulty ledj/cpc gear

[Lampy Craig]

back in october 2008 I bought 4 ledj spectra battens and 4 ledj stratos wash fixtures from CPC.

I used them with no hassle at all for a two week tour of little toilet type venues where they were great fun to use. For the money I paid for them they are really bright and you can get nice colours out of them as well so I was impressed and really pleased with my new little toys!

 

I then put them away in my garage for a couple of months or so.

 

When I got them back out, three of the wash fixtures and two of the battens no longer seemed to receive data from the desk(they still work in manual and stand alone modes). Of course I did all the usual testing and the desk and cables were cool so it's definitely the fixtures that have developed faults. I reckon they were built on a friday afternoon myself when somebody was thinking about bigger and better things about to happen at the weekend!

 

Now any sensible person would of phoned cpc and asked them to sort it. well not me I put them away and completely forgot about them. So now I wouldn't mind getting them sorted but as I've had them so long I am not too sure as to whether or not cpc would replace them or see that they are repaired.

 

So I'm thinking that the best thing to do is to fix them myself and was wondering if anybody has had simillar problems with the same fixtures(someone else must have bought some as well as me). And what you figured out was wrong with them? As I'm yet to open one of the units for myself to take a look. Any help/opinions would be appreciated as it'd save me a bit of time nobbing about trying to fix lights of which I'm not too keen on the idea of as I could be down the pub in that time.

 

Nice one

 

Craig

http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigmccleary/

[greenalien]

I then put them away in my garage for a couple of months or so.

 

Was your garage heated? Were the lights in damp-proof containers? If not, damp, condensation and corrosion are real possibilities, especially if any of the venues in which they were used had fog / smoke machines, as the residue from these can make any water vapour in a cold atmosphere more likely to be attracted. We've also had an unusually cold winter, could be that you've exceeded the minimum temperature for the fixtures and they've simply been damaged by sheer cold - the type of electronics that are particularly likely to be affected by this is anything like an EEPROM chip that needs to retain programmed information - they don't like being frozen.

 

There have also been several reports of similar fixtures having problems with their DIP switches, might be worth giving them a quick go with switch cleaner.

 

However, they may still be under warranty so I'd suggest contacting CPC first.

[Lampy Craig]

Cheers for your help, but they wouldn't of got cold or damp as I packed them away properly, so I can't see that being the cause of it.

 

The wash panels don't have the dip switches either, its a little digital display with a coulple of buttons underneath that you use to navigate through the menu.

 

I reckon they all must of come over in the same batch and someone in the factory was day dreaming while they built them.

 

Suppose I'll have to rip them apart for a little look.

 

Nice one

 

Craig

http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigmccleary/

[musht]

Condensation can get trapped if you seal them up, silica gel packets, postal supplies places, are a good idea for long term storage.

 

Dry joints would be first guess, specially now with lead free solder, re touching aceesible joints possibly worth a try.

[KevinE]

Could be something as simple as a PIC come loose or tarnished in its socket.

[Chris Beesley]

Probably best to drop Geoff or Dave an email at Prolight (LEDJ) http://prolight.co.uk/contact-us as they may be able to answer the question directly. If not let me know asap.

[Lampy Craig]

If this may help anyone else that has brought stuff from these ranges, I've just ripped 'em apart and have found that in the Stratos Washes it's burnt out resistors after the DMX input that are to blame. Would of thought it's due to a short somewhere or maybe they were just made with dodgy resistors.

 

and in the spectra battens it's the dip switches that are causing the grief. if you can jam pin ten halfway between on and off then they sort of work, but with a random intermittent strobe, which is handy!

 

Craig

www.flickr.com/photos/craigmccleary/

[Brian]

Nice to know that you got it sorted and that it's not CPC's or LEDJ's fault.

[Lampy Craig]

I would of thought that it is their fault? seeing as though 5 out of 8 fixtures no longer work after only 18 months!

 

Surely lights are not sold to only be used for 18 months then their components fail after being used only on 20 or so gigs(if it was one or two then maybe I could understand it but over half sort of takes the micky a bit dosen't it?), especially led type fixtures which usually last for years without giving the user any grief.

 

They've been looked after by myself and never mistreated so it can only be that the components or something else (build quality for instance) were/was a bit dodgy.

 

Obviously in this case (as I'm sure not all their gear is going to fail after twenty days of use as people wouldn't buy it at all), I've just been a little unlucky buying ones which were faulty and not noticed the fault for a long time due to using them so little.

 

As I said they all work perfectly well in manual and sound to light modes so it's obviously not anything that I've done as the fixture would probably not work at all if it was due to me damaging it.

 

Nice one

 

Craig

[Simon Lewis]

Craig,

 

if I found "burnt out resistors after the DMX input", I would be looking for faults and problems external to the luminaire, as well as potential problems inside it. But then again, I'm not a lampie...

 

Simon

[Lampy Craig]

as I said in my first post "Of course I did all the usual testing and the desk and cables were cool so it's definitely the fixtures that have developed faults".

 

The first thing I checked were any external factors. Mainly because that's the easy bit before you have to start taking lights apart.

 

Nice one

 

Craig

 

 

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just had a conversation with a couple of mates of mine who run a disco company in Oxford. They have the same lights(bought at around the same time) and have come across the very same faults.

 

Bit of a coincidence heh?

 

It doesn't affect them too much though as they run their lights nearly always on sound to light and very rarely with a desk so have just carried on using them as normal.

 

So I'd suggest to anyone else that may of bought these lights, that if they start giving you grief, check the resistors and the dip switches first of all.

 

Nice one (and hope it helps somebody)

 

Craig

www.flickr.com/photos/craigmccleary/

[Ynot]

as I said in my first post "Of course I did all the usual testing and the desk and cables were cool so it's definitely the fixtures that have developed faults".

 

The first thing I checked were any external factors. Mainly because that's the easy bit before you have to start taking lights apart.

Hmmm...

I suspect he meant possible external electrical factors, or (as has already been mentioned) other external issues such as damp ingress at some stage.

 

From your OP, it looks like you used them 18 months ago for a couple of weeks, then put them into your garage for storage for a couple of months. Have they actually been in your garage since November/December 2008, or have they been used elsewhere? The times you quote are a little disparate...

 

Either way, if stored, there's every chance some ambient moisture could have been trapped and over time done some nasty work on these resistors. Not the manufacturer's fault. We've just had a bl00dy cold winter and cold can do a lot to break down half-decent solder joints - possibly a construction issue, but under normal usage may not have been a problem.

If you'd been using them regularly then the constant moving during transport can also weaken joints etc. Not mfrs fault.

 

I note that it's been 9 days since our resident CPC rep, Chris, gave you a couple of contact names to try at Prolight - did you get round to doing that before you 'ripped them apart'? If so what advice did you get?

 

At the end of the day, these are budget items and as such won't have the build quality of an industry workhorse fixture. And in 18 months, LED kit has improved quite a lot.

So the adage about getting what you pay for as always rings true.

[Lampy Craig]

Trust me, all possible external electrical factors(by a proper sparky in the venue where they were used the last 4 or 5 times) have been checked and it was not any sort of damp ingress(they were only ever on a dry stage or well stored).

 

thanks

 

Craig

 

 

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yeah, I tried the names at prolight, one bounced back the other sent an out of office auto type reply saying not back till 31st march. Thats why I took a little look myself(Bit impatient I know ,didn't really rip 'em apart with my bare hands! used my teeth instead).

 

I understand the get what you pay for addage as well.

 

that's why I posted this in the first place(as well as treating the lights with kid gloves while using them). I was worried that kids trying to start up little disco systems may have bought the same lights as me so thought that if I was to ask for opinions then other people (without as much knowledge) would also be able to see what the problem was with their own fixtures. And as my friends at the disco company have come across the same problems, then I suppose it sort of justifies me doing it.

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[Brian]

Any chance of a photo of the damage?

[Lampy Craig]

Wish I had the time!

 

No sorry, I'm mad busy on gigs all week, so I won't be at home to take them apart again and photograph them for a while.

 

Cheers

 

Craig

 

 

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I should of taken a quick picture with my phone when I took the fixtures apart, but unfortuneately I rarely think that far ahead.

 

Cheers