Hi, About a year ago I bought a discotech GOBO FX Light from some bloke on ebay I know I get what I pay for, but as I don't do this for a living and just for fun I didn;t want to fork out alot of money. Anyway! It never really seemed to do much from the start and I just thought that was what it did. So it got consigned to the garage. However, the other day I decided to take it apart and see what was going on inside. The Gobo part had a screw that was too long holding in together stopping it turn completley around. I have taken this out and it works for a few seconds then seems to get stuck and only moves again when I turn it off and on.

Any suggestions would be appreciated as I am having a party tomorrw and wouldquite like it to work for then.
to me!

P.S It also gets really hot after only a few minutes, is this normal ? It has the correct type of bulb and the fan works.

Thanks.

Does the "too long" screw seem to touch anything on its way around on the gobo wheel?

Some gobo wheels work out their position (eg: makeing sure they start on the same gobo each time at power up) by having a screw/bolt sticking out of the gobo wheel, which makes contact with a microswitch when the gobowheel (and bolt) telling the unit exactly where its go to. eg: Gobo 1 is now in front of the lense.

If the screw/bolt that you've taken out was one of these postitioning bolts, then the wheel will probably spin for 3 or 4 complete spins then stop and scratch its head thinking "I'm lost".

Switching off and on again will restart the wheel spinning as it lives in hope of seeing the bolt making contact with the positioning microswitch.

If the software chip in the light is programmed so that it doesnt do anything until its worked out the position of the gobo wheel, then it wont move on to "perform" until it feels the contact switch being nudged.

One common problem with these micro/contact switches is also that if the wires get melted, damaged or loose, then again, the unit never senses the switch being pressed, and again, the unit wont "move on" to the next step.

Is this light sound activated? Could it be all is well, just waiting to be triggered by sound?

Cheezy
Nightsounds

Hi,

Ah....lots of little switches huh? Sounds like it might be DMX?

Does the unit look a bit like this wee beastie?



If so, then the specifications for the light are:

DMX controllable color & gobo projector,
11 colors, 1 bitcolor + white,
11 gobos fixed to colors,
20 beams,
rotation speed
direction control
DMX 512, Master / Slave system,
255 x 360 x 180 mm
7,7 kg,
ELC 250 W 24V


You'll most likely have either 8,9 or 10 small switches (known as DIP switches) in a row. These usually set the units DMX address eg: 100, 130, 200 whatever. and there are usually two round 3 pin XLR connectors on the back (one IN, one OUT) for using the unit on a DMX controller.

Most DMX lights have a default option, so that if you set ALL the DIP switches to OFF, (or on some lights all to ON) then the unit gives up waiting for a DMX signal from a DMX controller, and starts working on its own - sometimes in time to a loud music source nearby (or tapping a hollow part of the casing).

Yep, that is pretty much it but mine is probably older.

In the past it did move to loud music but now the motor seems to be sticking, you can see the poor thing trying to move around slowly then it just gives up.

It is working now !!!!

Not sure what I did, but it works.

T
for all your help.


Just need to work out how to put ithe case back together

Leonna

Super news...now whats your address for the invoice?


Just kidding (of course)... this is what DJs United is all about.

I think after all that it was just a combination of switch settings and loud enough music.

Although I did need to get into it as the little swively mirror bit had fallen off so needed to put that back on - need to get another little screw thing that Gary was talking about to keep it in place.

I wonder if I should put the long screw back?

Just on a technical note, DMX lights these days rarely initialize by operating a microswitch with a bolt on the gobo shaft. The 'reset' cycle slowly runs the stepper motor shaft bolt hard into its mechanical stop where it 'stalls' until the microprocessor can safely assume the wheel is in it's home position. You can safely stall a disco-light stepper without damage. That's why DMX lights go 'ting-ting-ting' when you power them up. That noise is the motor(s) repeatedly hitting the stop and then jumping back 3 steps (steppers are generally 4-phase).

The studio grade Clay-Paky scanners etc and most disco-grade moving heads tend to use hall-effect magnetic feedback sensors or fork-opto's on their pan-tilt motors but these have much more powerful belt drives which might otherwise be harmed by stall-parking.