CharlieH Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Hi Guys, desperately need an answer on this one asap, by tomorrow (friday) lunchtime if possible! We had our opening night of Hairspray tonight, and all went perfectly apart from my 2 Mac 500s and 2 Mac 600s. We had them lamped on for about 30mins before the show (with the shutters open though), and we left them on during the interval (with the shutters closed). They all worked perfectly, apart from on the very last song when we were planning to have them scanning across the audience, the way most musicals end really. BUT when it came to it, they were all lamped off. I checked, and none of my team had done it. When we lamped them on again, they were on for a few seconds, then turned off. I assume that this is because they were too hot. So my question is how long would it take for a Mac 500 or 600 to cool down? If we were to lamp them off in the interval, would they have time to cool down sufficiently to lamp on again at the start of Act 2? If not, any other suggestions? As I said, I will be unable to check this thread until lunchtime tomorrow, when I have a break from lessons. I kind of need an answer by then. Sorry about the short notice, and I hope you guys can help me! Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 How are you 'lamping' them on? the lamp on DMX value on a button, or what. Macs can be left on for ages without doing this - plus, if they are cool enough to restrike, then they shouldn't be hot enough to cause an automatic switch off. My best guess is that at some point, you've simply got the lamp off command in one of your cues, or dodgy programming is simply 'dimming' the attribute channel the lamp on/off sits on. It's pretty unlikely they are all faulty, or all getting too hot a fault condition happens. Sure you don't have the lamp on command on a button or fader set to dimmer mode (or whatever your particular desk does) so the thing is responding to cross fades? I suspect it's going to be either very obvious, or very tricky -maybe you just need to run through the cues to check that at some point, the lamp off command isn't going out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jay Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 It's fine having the shutter closed during the interval that shouldnt affect it too much. With to you lamp on then it lamped itself off straight away it's strange. With MAC, if it is to hot to re-strike it wouldn't strike at all it would come up with an error when trying to strike them, could it be they have an auto strike on the unit but there is a douse value being sent on the desk? EDIT: paulers beat me to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted March 19, 2010 Author Share Posted March 19, 2010 It's fine having the shutter closed during the interval that shouldnt affect it too much. With to you lamp on then it lamped itself off straight away it's strange. With MAC, if it is to hot to re-strike it wouldn't strike at all it would come up with an error when trying to strike them, could it be they have an auto strike on the unit but there is a douse value being sent on the desk? EDIT: paulers beat me to it!Yes, that could be it but in all the rehearsals they have worked perfectly. I've never had this problem in any of the runthroughs, or in our matinee performance, but this did only have about 100 of the 400 seats filled. The only difference I can think of last night was the fact that there was an audience in, hence a rise in atmospheric temperature (it was extremely hot in the auditorium). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jay Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Think of WestEnd shows, even the smallest venue with huge ML rigs with packed houses they are fine. Have a look at your cue stack and go through them one by one around where the problem happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_the_LD Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Where are the macs plugged in? Just a thought but could one of the actors have switched them off not knowing what was on the other end? As others have said go through the stack - although it's odd that it hasn't happened before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted March 19, 2010 Author Share Posted March 19, 2010 Think of WestEnd shows, even the smallest venue with huge ML rigs with packed houses they are fine. Have a look at your cue stack and go through them one by one around where the problem happened. Yes, that's the only thing thats making me unsure about blaming the temperature. My only ideas is that there is proper ventilation in the pro circles? I have checked my cues, and they are all OK. And the lamps all worked fine in rehearsal! I will try lamping them off in this evening's interval, and see if that works. If not, I am stuck for ideas. We only have 2 more nights to go, and I really want it to work for at least the last performance! I have checked other sites, and some people say that a mover takes up to 20 minutes to cool down sufficiently to re-strike. If we have a 30 minute interval, which I could probably extend if I had to, that should work, shouldn't it? I'm getting pretty desperate here! Any other ideas would be really appreciated! And thanks for your help Paul & Big Jay! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_the_LD Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 I really don't think dousing the lamps in the Interval is worth it. I always leave movers struck in intervals and I have never had any issues. When they were lamped off were all other attributes responding as normal - such as pan and tilt? It might be worth seeing if someone in-advertantly switched them off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jay Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Bear in mind by dousing a lamp and re-striking it within an hour is not good for the lamp plus by martins manuals, the unit will not alow you to strike 8min after dousing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJones Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Instead of Dousing them, Why not use them in your preset? Use them as tab warmers maybe? But as others have said I suspect the problem lies elsewhere.... HTH AndyJones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgecaliber Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Without starting a "Macs in schools/Ladders" topic: Where are the lamps situated? If they are within eye sight it's possible to bring up the temperature of the fixture on the read out and use that as a reference. The lights are designed to work in hot enviroments and I've been badly burnt by them in the past so I don't really think that heat is what's killing them. As others suggest, it looks like they have been switched off and on or a bad program. Dodge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
collism Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 As an emergency measure (assuming the fixtures can be accessed) and the fault with the programming cannot be found - I would set lamps to on via the menu on the fixtures so that any problem is isolated to the fixture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Out on a limb here but could the lamps be nearing the end of their life and dousing themselves because of that. Have a look at the lamp hours on the units. Providing they've been reset along with the lamp being replaced then they will be a fairly accurate guide to how long they've been burning. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djandydee Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Too late now as you are "On Air" but for the record. If you suspect that "lamp off" or DMX 256 on channel 1 has got programmed into a cue then set DLOFF to OFF in the PERS menu. This stops the lamp from being doused from the desk and can only be done at the fixture by entering manual mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted March 19, 2010 Author Share Posted March 19, 2010 Thanks to everyone that has posted. I left them on in the interval, but pointed them at the ceiling and opened the shutters to try to let a bit of heat out. I also opened the window directly behind the movers. Having said this, they still decided to lamp themselves off. Yes, all other attributes were working (as far as I can tell - can't check the colours or gobos from the outside, but pan and tilt were working). We managed to send a reset command from the desk, and got them working again for the final cue, although the reseting was noisy and very distracting. I am sure that it is not the program, as it happened at different times both nights, and in rehearsals there was no problem! I checked on Martin's website, and they said that the unit cannot function over 40°C. I find this hard to believe, as I imagine a large venue, with hundreds of movers, generics and a thousand plus audience would easily top that up at grid level?! Anyway, I will probably try opening more windows tomorrow and see what happens. Good point as regards lamp life, I will check but I can't understand why it would happen at roughly the same point every performance! Surely if the lam is starting to go, then it would go and that is that. I will have a look anyway though. Thanks again for coming to the rescue - tomorrow is our last night and I want it to be perfect!Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.