Chauvet Intimidator Wash Zoom 450 IRC freezes

[jason5d]

Chauvet Intimidator Wash Zoom 450 IRC freezes

after a some hours of use say 4 or 5 with the light on. if works normally after switching power.

any ideas what's wrong?

 

[indyld]

Any more details? DMX or standalone control?

What freezes? Fixture movement, screen/controls?

Any errors or temperature logs reported?

 

 

 

[jason5d]

It's on DMX

The fixture stops moving, light stays on but doesn't change

The screen stays on and works, so do the the buttons

The light doesn't show an error and it doesn't do logs

The light works fine for another 4 or 5 hrs after switching power

 

 

 

[timsabre]

Is there any indication on the unit as to whether it thinks it's receiving DMX? I just downloaded the manual but it doesn't say, as far as I can see.

Some units of that genre flash the display backlight if they aren't receiving DMX...

If the screen and menu system stays operational then you would think it has lost DMX for some reason. When it's frozen, can you switch it to stand alone mode using the menu system and does that make it do anything?

[indyld]

Does sound a little like the DMX is dropping out or not being processed. I looked in the manual to see if there was any kind of timeout on the fixture, but didn't see anything. Several hours is an odd time for stuff to be breaking, as heat or vibration related stuff is likely to happen much sooner. And the restart/reset fix is also a little puzzling if it just solves it straight away. The only thing I can think of is that various microcontrollers get bored of talking to each other within the fixture and lose touch, but I can't think why that would be.

Am assuming that there are other fixtures in this system that aren't doing this I.e the actual DMX signal is known to be continuous from the controller and there is no possibility of a timeout at that end. For example, the Cham Sys basic USB DMX dongle stops outputting after some hours or some weird USB controller power saving issue on a PC being used with control software might stop the DMX signal.  Obviously, this has no connection to the fixture needing a restart itself.

Edited November 15, 2021 by indyld

[jason5d]

The fixture does have DMX signal light, I'll check it the next time it becomes unresponsive. The micro controllers not talking has got me thinking, I'll try the light somewhere else in the rig and see what happens.