Acme Dynamo - Light not working.

[Dan_85]

Hi everyone,
I am new to this forum so please go easy on me! :-)

I have 4 Acme Dynamo scanners, which up until yesterday had run fine.

I purchased a new DMX Pinspot for use with the mirror ball and connected it to my a Starville Master 1 and it worked.

I then connected it at the end of the chain of 4x Dynamos. This then caused one of them (the 4th/last on the chain before the pinspot) to go a bit mad, with the mirror shaking side to side.

I switched it all off and checked the DMX addresses which were fine. So I tried again and the same happened.

I changed them around along with addresses too with the pinspot connected to the controller and the Dynamos after.

This then all worked fine but I noticed the 4th one had no light (movement and gobo were fine) so I assumed the bulb had blown.

Today I changed the bulb with 2 spares but none of them worked. Tried the original and spare bulbs in another scanner and they all worked.

I have checked fuses and for anything obvious but am not sure what the problem could be.

I suspect it maybe the transformer for the bulb?

If anyone has any idea or more experience with these units, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Excalibur]

Hello Daniel. First of all, welcome to the forum, and no need to ask for clemency, we're friendly folk here. Especially if you take the time to pop over to the Newbies section and say hello, hint hint. It's nice to know something about you, and usually helps us to give advice.

Second, the scanners. No good asking me about the black arts of DMX, I'm fairly clueless there. On my Geni barrel scanners, very often the fault is in the lamp holder. If the contacts wear, it can make them unreliable.

[Dan_85]

Hi Excalibur.
Many thanks for your reply, I will pop over to the newbies section and say hi.

I dont think the problem is with DMX itself, but I have not yet checked the lamp connector itself as this involves a bit more dismantling to get to the other end of the wires. Ideally I want to check the transformer too. Just wanted to see of anyone else had any ideas as to what it could be so that I can check all possibilities in one go.

Dan

[Dan_85]

I believe I have found the problem preventing the light from working.

Through process of elimination and some very careful cross wiring between the faulty unit and another, I have narrowed it down to the Electronic Transformer for the lamp.

I think I know what component inside the transformer has gone, but with 240v electronics, that is as far as I go.

I have just ordered a replacement from Terralec (last one is stock!) so hopefully will arrive next week so I can pop it in and get it going again.