Miniscan HPE losing position

[norty303]

Hiya all

 

I've got a project for the winter where one of my HPE's seems to power up and reset ok, but after a short while of running it loses position on everything. Pan/tilt, colour wheel and gobo wheel and shutter as far as I can tell. So it looks like something more common than just a simple end stop/sensor.

 

Anything I should look at testing first? I'm afraid the most I've had to jump inside one so far is to replace some gobos!

 

Any advice gratefully received

[timmeh2]

Hi

 

My money would be something heat-related.

 

Can you check the PSU voltage to see if the issue lies there?

 

Failing that, maybe the something on the controller card is getting too warm.

 

HTH

 

All the best

Timmeh

[mutley]

I have found that about 80% of faults in ANY electrical appliance are power related.

 

My guess is that the power supply smoothing capacitor is drying up and causing a noisy supply rail. Meter the output of the power supply on both DC and AC ranges, when cold and then when warm. Then, as the incredibly annoying advert goes, "go compare"! (Assuming you don't have access to a handy oscilloscope to view the noise/ripple on the supply line more accurately)

 

The more AC content you have, the more noise you have.

 

If any capacitors have bulged, replace them with high temperature ones of an equivalent or higher voltage rating.

[Richard CSL]

a second for power supply capacitors, check the tops for any bulges, I have had many of these fail in the past.

[norty303]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've got some good ones I can try switching out for testing, so its a good place to start.