Strange happenings

[light-man]

Hi All,

 

A friend of mine has contacted me to have a look at some Robe moving lights at an installation in a college campus.

 

The rig was installed a year and a bit ago (maybe a little bit longer), and as part of the rig (much smaller than originally planned due to budget cuts and the usual) are two Robe 250 spots, and two Robe 250 Washes.

 

Shortly after installation, 2 of these began to not work. They simply don't receive power, and have been tried on other outlets where they still don't power on, so it is definitely the fixture. Similarly, with the other two fixtures that do work, a fault has developed where it looks like the shutter maybe closing over, opening slightly and then snapping shut again. This cycle repeats, brighter and brighter as you wheel the dimmer up - I can't tell if the lamp is flickering or its the shutter, though.

 

Control is from a Congo Jnr, which I don't really like, however everything on there seems to be fine and I've re-patched the fixtures just to make sure they're patched properly. All the generic control seems absolutely fine.

 

I've not had time to have a good look yet, and I'm planning to get in there over the summer break.

 

I've never worked with Robes before, so my question is, does anyone have any ideas what might be up with the fixtures, just to prepare me before I look into this further?

 

Any ideas greatly received,

Cheers,

Si.

[blip2]

Shortly after installation, 2 of these began to not work. They simply don't receive power, and have been tried on other outlets where they still don't power on, so it is definitely the fixture.

 

How soon after installation did they stop working?

Was it both spots/washes/one of each?

Surely the fact that two brand new fixtures stopped function would at least be due some more attention?

 

They have fairly easy to get to fuses which are worth checking (page 5 of the manual):

http://www.robe.cz/f...0%20AT_v1.2.pdf

 

Similarly, with the other two fixtures that do work, a fault has developed where it looks like the shutter maybe closing over, opening slightly and then snapping shut again. This cycle repeats, brighter and brighter as you wheel the dimmer up - I can't tell if the lamp is flickering or its the shutter, though.

 

Robe movers tend to need a fair bit of general tlc (at the very least cleaning dust out) so if they've been sitting up in a rig for a year+ and seen use/lots of time powered on it's probably worth getting them down for a clean/sent off to be serviced?

 

edit: formatting

[brainwave-generator]

 

Robe movers tend to need a fair bit of general tlc (at the very least cleaning dust out) so if they've been sitting up in a rig for a year+ and seen use/lots of time powered on it's probably worth getting them down for a clean/sent off to be serviced?

 

 

I was about to say this.

 

College installations and similar often fail to realise that moving heads for club / concert use are often high maintenance and not suitable for just clamping to the truss and leaving unattended for their entire lifespan.

 

When I worked in a club with lots of Robe 250s we used to service them weekly, weeks when we didn't get round to it we'd get failures. It didn't help with the huge mist of haze-sweat-beer-dirt floating around the room and they were fairly old, but still, weekly maintenance, not annual.

 

I think yes the best option, honestly, is chuck them in flight cases and ship them to Robe or an authorised service shop.

[Smiffy]

 

Surely the fact that two brand new fixtures stopped function would at least be due some more attention?

 

 

I would have thought that if it was a very short time after installation, and they were new fixtures, the installation company would be duty bound to return and fix them under warranty no?

[greenalien]

Make sure some idiot hasn't connected their power connections through a dimmer channel! Doing this will cause all manner of harm.

[jono9691]

Im thinking power too,

Hook them up to a distro straight off 3 phase and a direct DMX line.

Just to check for variables.

[brainwave-generator]

Im thinking power too,

Hook them up to a distro straight off 3 phase and a direct DMX line.

Just to check for variables.

 

why from 3 phase?

 

They only need single phase power to work. What possible good would hooking them up to a 3 phase supply do?

 

http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif

[sleah]

Do they have built in sound to light or a test routine? That would eliminate DMX problems....

 

They may not, but I know some disco tat does - from a maintenence POV it's actually not a bad thing!

[light-man]

Thanks for the replies.

 

I'll give them a good clean inside and out whilst they're down over summer. I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't been touched since they went on the bars apart from when I was meddling around with various connections the other day!

 

 

I've not tested the working ones in any form of non-DMX control yet.

 

I'll double check the power situation, although there are 16A outlets for Hard Power and 15A for dimmable - its all hard wired Chillies too, so I don't think there's any case of them being connected to a dimmable line, unless it was wired wrong from the outset.

 

I'm not quite sure why the installation contractor hasn't been asked back out to check these units. I know there was recently some issues with the Congo Jnr (personally, I think it was just due for a clean out of files etc, as it was just running very slow), but ETC saw to that directly and supplied us with a clean copy of the OS for re-installation that we installed. All seems to be OK with the desk for now, so I don't think its a desk issue.

 

I'll have a good look at them, and if I can't come up with anything, I'll try contacting the installation contractors and see what the deal is.