Showtec RGB theatre spot

[smalljoshua]

All great info guys but the OP was 3 years ago. I resurrected this topic to see if anyone could help with my problem.

 

Still, keep all the information coming, it's all good! :(

 

Josh

[Don Allen]

Josh, sounds like you have dry solder joints. more common where external connectors are mounted on pcb's so vibrations and flexing of the connector on the pcb can cause the solder to fracture. With the unit unplugged and cool, open it up and use a magnifying lamp to look at the pcb. Especially any large pins associated with connectors. A dry joint will look like a miniture volcano, with the wire or component pin sitting in the middle with a gap around its edge where the solder has moved away from the wire. dry solder joint

[Robin Pratt]

I expect Don is probably right, they are quite prone to that sort of fault. In fact we used to stock the things, but due to the number of problems customers had with them, I don't think we'll be doing so in future.

[RGB Spot]

Resurrecting this one on a slight tangent here, I've got two of the aforementioned units and both have developed similar faults to one another.

 

I can go 3 or 4 shows with everything fine but sometimes when I power them on, the fan comes on as normal but that's about it. The display doesn't come on and the units don't respond to DMX or any button prodding on the back of the unit. 95% of the time powering them down, giving them a quick tap with a precision instrument (or a long pole) and powering them back up fixes the problem. The other 5% of the time I have to take the back off, push down all of the connectors and reassemble, this fixes the problem almost every time.

 

I've got a feeling that it's a dry joint on the Screen and Micro PCB (which is right below the fan if anyone knows the units) but I don't want to go poking around in the wrong place when I need these units working.

 

If anyone's got any experience of these units or just general fault finding suggestions, it'd be appreciated.

 

I got the same trouble on Saturday night

 

I have just opend the unit up and found that the sides have split out on the side of the IEC power conector where the fuse holder is so losss of conection

 

The IEC conector is only rated at 6.3Amps can not handle the load when used on sound to light needs to be replaced with 10Amp type

 

Andy

 

 

 

Many Thanks

 

Josh

[smalljoshua]

I have never used them on Sound to Light and for me, this wasn't the problem.

 

I have since re-soldered every connection on the board (as per the recommendation) and been fault free since.

 

Josh

[bullfrog]

Hi

 

I'm not sure if there is a place to post useful information on this site, however someone may find my experiences useful, with regard to the Showtec RGB Theatre Spot.

 

We purchased 8 of these units around 2007, they have developed several faults over the years. So I'd thought I'd share a list of faults and their fixes.

 

Occasionally when a bulb blows it takes out the associated triac, so when you fit the replacement bulb, that bulb comes on at max brightness and won't go off.

On the power board the triacs are as follows, TH1 for the blue , TH2 for the Green , TH3 for the Red. This is a BTA12-600B triac. 12Amp 600Volt. They are mounted on a long heatsink , this heatsink can also sometimes flop about causing the legs of the triacs to crack/snap, so I now glue gun this heatsink in position, whenever I have to service these things. The 5volt regulator which has a small heatsink can also flop about and sometimes shorts to wire link J18, this causes intermittent problems with the control of the RED lamp. So again I glue gun it, to prevent it flopping about.

 

The other problem I've had is that the processor on the logic board, that's the one with the 3 pushbuttons, and the led display, starts to come out of it's socket, probably due to what was once called heat creep back in the 70's. As the processor heats up the legs expand, when it cools down they contract, after enough cycles the chip could litterally pop out of it's socket. This used to plague computers of the 1970/80's era. Anyway you have to remove the 4 screws holding the circuit in positon to get at the processor which is on the 3 button side of the board. You need to remove the sound to light volume control knob to release the board, don't loose the 3 push buttons while carrying out this procedure, and then press down on the processor in the socket, you will sometimes hear it give as it goes fully home.

 

Finally One fault I've not yet fixed, the colour filter sometimes cracks under the heat, presumably as I've occasionally used 230V rated bulbs in a 240V country and are therefore running them slightly hotter, if anyone can assist in obtaining replacement filters for this application I'm all ears. I've noticed the blue filter seems to be worst effected.

 

Anyway I hope someone will find the above information useful.

 

Bullfrog

[smalljoshua]

As the sage continues with my use of these lights, I've just had one open, once again, only this time to find that I need a new lamp holder for one of the lamps due to arcing of contacts at some point. I've had the unit apart and can't find a single part number on the part in question.

 

Does anyone know where I can get a replacement from? It's the one with the asymmetrical pins.

 

@bullfrog: Thanks for your post it was most informative and has helped no-end.

 

Many Thanks

 

Josh

[RGB Spot]

Hi I have used 5 RGB theatre spots for the last 3 years and only had 3 bulbs fail on me. thay have 3 x 500w bulbs in each unit and thay give more of a flood type light but can control the light with the barn doors.

 

how "white" is white? not pure white, I have been very happy with them

 

And may be up fore sale soon

 

Andy