Stuart91 Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 One of my trusty Clay Paky Shadow followspots has finally given me a problem to resolve. The spot was out at a show recently when it stopped responding to control. It worked perfectly when we first set it up, but when the operator came back to it at showtime, an hour or so later, it wasn't responding to any control. The control panel was having no effect, so we hooked up a small DMX desk to the input and got nothing from that either. Luckily we were able to limp through the gig with the shutters jammed open. Now that the unit is back in the warehouse, I've been able to troubleshoot it a bit more thoroughly. The control panel for this spot works perfectly when plugged into another spot, and the other control panel doesn't do anything when connected to the troublesome spot. I've double checked the wiring on the XLRs and there doesn't appear to be any shorts or breaks in the cable. The two other things that I notice is that the LEDs on the colour buttons are all slightly illuminated, when it should only be the colour which is selected that is lit. Also when the power is first applied to the spot, there doesn't seem to be any of the initialisation noises going on - as far as I can see the colour wheel, iris, etc. don't move at all. This makes me suspect that there is something wrong with the internal control circuitry, but I'm not sure where to start with it. The venue we were at when it failed is renowned for having very low voltage on the mains outlets that we are given - often as low as 205v when the event is underway. Not sure if this could have been a contributing factor to the failure, but the spots have been there many times before without incident. Wondering if anyone with a bit more experience of these units (or Goldenscans, which have largely similar internals) could point me towards the next step on the troubleshooting path? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard CSL Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 check the condition of the rows of capacitors on the main board , if the tops are domed replace. These act in parallel to smoothe the psu voltages, and commonly fail if you have varying power on the input side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted November 16, 2012 Author Share Posted November 16, 2012 check the condition of the rows of capacitors on the main board , if the tops are domed replace. These act in parallel to smoothe the psu voltages, and commonly fail if you have varying power on the input side. Thanks for the reply, that definitely sounds like it would be worth looking into. I replaced the Power Factor Correction capacitors about 18 months ago. The spots are old, so the capacitors on the main board may well be past their best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted November 16, 2012 Author Share Posted November 16, 2012 I haven't yet had the chance to take the board out of the spot, but I had a good grope around it and at least one of the capacitors has a bit of a bulge on it. Given the likely price of replacements, I guess I should swap them all out in one hit. If the capacitor has failed, is there then a chance that something else will have been toasted by the unregulated voltage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard CSL Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 No you are OK, this just means that the board gets unsmothed (rippled) power, and the cpu can't start up under those conditions. I had a GS2 some nights it would start, others it wouldnt, if you leave them on to warm up , you might be lucky at a power off /on situation, and it might start, but swop out those capacitors and all will work fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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