Fixing Acme Lights

[simongreen.dj]

Hi Guys, My Acme Magic Gobo Lights have gone wrong!

I have one set to master and the other as slave and then they're linked with a DMX cable. The master works for about 10 minutes when turned on and then get stuck on one gobo and stays like that all night (different gobo each time). The slave doesn't seem to be recieving DMX data at all. After lighting up for it's self test when you switch it on it just sits there doing noting!

I'm sure that all the motors and bulbs are working and I can't do much to change the settings as lots of the little white dip switches have snapped off (why do they make them so fragile?)

Does anyone know if it's possible to buy replacement circuit boards for Acme lights or have any other suggestions for what I could try. I always prefer to repair my gear rather than chuck it out even thought these only cost £149 a pair!

Cheers Si

[Richard Veal]

You can buy the boards, as I have replaced a board in a Leo before now. See your dealer but they may be un-willing to help unless you have a good relationship with them.

Not wishing to sound foolish but have you checked your Dmx Link lead is ok & have you tried reversing which unit is Master & Slave?

Could even be a sticky wheel tried to lube it?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I would say the best thing to do is to email Prolight and they will anwser any technical questions for you.

[UltraBeat Entertainment]

What settings are your dip switches set at? I've noticed these settings can be very sensitive and can change with the lightest push of a finger. Sounds like it the motherboard that's gone to me but hard to tell without seeing it.

As Richard Veal said try reversing the master and slave so that the current master becomes slave and vice versa see if you still get the same problem.

One other thing are you using any DMX controllers with them?

[simongreen.dj]

Thanks for the tips, they're not being used with a controller, just linked. I've tried swapping the dmx cable which didn't help either.

The unfortunate thing is that most of the dipswitches have been snapped off before i bought these lights (you probably get the idea about there age and condition here!) so i'm pretty much stuck with them set at they are. This is the other reason I'd like to get new boards for them but wasn't sure where to start. I'll try emailing pro light.

Thanks again, Si

[Richard Veal]

If you confident with repairing the board and installing new dip switches to try and see if that helps you can get a replacement here (http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=1114203;keywords=dip%20switch)

[simongreen.dj]

That's worth knowing. I've emailed Prolight who got back intouch with a quote of £25 per board (without the chips) so I've now got to decide whether to spend £50 trying to fix them...