Smoking Studio Color 575s

I need some advice and perspective.

I've posted here before on these fixtures but here's a quick recap. I picked up 6 Studio Colors and 3 Cybers...all 11 years old. They were install usnits and ran for maybe 2 or 3 years before sitting idle (I was told). With the collective help of you all in this forum, I was able to combine parts to get 4 Studio Colors working, then get parts and boards for the other 2 to get all 6 working. The Cyber worked straight away.

I've used the Studio Colors maybe 6 times and based on price I bought them for they've already paid for themselves. Last weekend though, I had 3 of them go out in rapid succession. The display lit up, then showed an "S", then gradually faded out completely. And I smelled smoke. Opening them up I see that on 2 of them, the logic board is serious toast...exploded capacitors. On the 3rd, I can't tell...it's still on the ceiling...but it showed teh same symptoms. All 3 were on different circuits. So it's weird they would all toast within 10 minutes of one another.

So here's where I need advice: Should I 1.) send the boards in for repair or relacement, 2) Send the entire fixture for a thorough once over, 3) scrap 'em, or 4.) Other?

As for the perspective, I've heard that the Studio Colors are very reliable fixtures. Were these new I would disagree but they're not. And I really don't know what went on over there 11 year history. I'm committed to several shows with them over the next few months, so I need to decide what direction to go with them. Perspective or comments along this line would be huge right now.
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    Ah! I feel your pain.. and even without looking at these fixtures the force tells me I already know what happened. You had a power surge or brownout. I am willing to bet the SCOL's had the old small black caps on the boards. These were little landmines waiting to go off.:eek:
    A simple replacement of them would have prevented the slaughter of the boards. SCOL "S" and "M" models have them.
    The replacement is 470uf 50v 125deg cel. This small part is the difference between a useful long lasting fixture and a granade going off.
    If you have the old ones you are going to burn. Its not a matter if they will fail but when.:aiwebs_009:

    Once detonated the boards are usually toast with big holes in them and cannot be repaired. Buy new boards with the cap mod already done to them and enjoy a long lasting fixture that will give you a lot of service time. So my suggestion is buy a resperator, open the fixtures,(it's gonna stink to high hell) see if there are any holes in the boards (usually are) if holy get new boards from lightparts.com or HES.
    Dont feel bad it even happened to me once.
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  • 0
    Ah! I feel your pain.. and even without looking at these fixtures the force tells me I already know what happened. You had a power surge or brownout. I am willing to bet the SCOL's had the old small black caps on the boards. These were little landmines waiting to go off.:eek:
    A simple replacement of them would have prevented the slaughter of the boards. SCOL "S" and "M" models have them.
    The replacement is 470uf 50v 125deg cel. This small part is the difference between a useful long lasting fixture and a granade going off.
    If you have the old ones you are going to burn. Its not a matter if they will fail but when.:aiwebs_009:

    Once detonated the boards are usually toast with big holes in them and cannot be repaired. Buy new boards with the cap mod already done to them and enjoy a long lasting fixture that will give you a lot of service time. So my suggestion is buy a resperator, open the fixtures,(it's gonna stink to high hell) see if there are any holes in the boards (usually are) if holy get new boards from lightparts.com or HES.
    Dont feel bad it even happened to me once.
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