The other day I noticed one of my trackspots not working. I cheked the power supply fuse and, sure enough, it was blown. When I replaced it and plugged the fixture in, the new fuse blew within 2 seconds. Just to be certain I tried it one more time (fuses are cheap), with the same result. I opened the fixture up to see if there were any obvious dead shorts, but everything looked good - no burn marks or bare wire. I don't think the problem is the board, but I could be wrong. The fuse blows so quickly, I think something must be wrong with either the voltage selector or the transformer. The problem is I'm not sure which. The selector looks ok, but I know that doesn't mean much. To visually inspect the transformer I'll have to unwrap it - not something I really want to do. I was wondering if anyone out there knows of an easy way to determine which is my culprit?
[quote=pkingiam]The other day I noticed one of my trackspots not working. I cheked the power supply fuse and, sure enough, it was blown. When I replaced it and plugged the fixture in, the new fuse blew within 2 seconds. Just to be certain I tried it one more time (fuses are cheap), with the same result. I opened the fixture up to see if there were any obvious dead shorts, but everything looked good - no burn marks or bare wire. I don't think the problem is the board, but I could be wrong. The fuse blows so quickly, I think something must be wrong with either the voltage selector or the transformer. The problem is I'm not sure which. The selector looks ok, but I know that doesn't mean much. To visually inspect the transformer I'll have to unwrap it - not something I really want to do. I was wondering if anyone out there knows of an easy way to determine which is my culprit?
I am not familiar with Trackspots, but in other high end stuff (IBeams) of the era, the power board has discrete bridge rectifiers on it, and if one of those goes, it will take fuses just like you describe. It has been my experience that a tranformer is typically the *last* thing to go . . . So, if you can unplug the power board from the transformer and test again, it will tell you if it is the board or not. Rectifiers typically don't give much in the way of visual cues that they have failed . . .
[quote=pkingiam]The other day I noticed one of my trackspots not working. I cheked the power supply fuse and, sure enough, it was blown. When I replaced it and plugged the fixture in, the new fuse blew within 2 seconds. Just to be certain I tried it one more time (fuses are cheap), with the same result. I opened the fixture up to see if there were any obvious dead shorts, but everything looked good - no burn marks or bare wire. I don't think the problem is the board, but I could be wrong. The fuse blows so quickly, I think something must be wrong with either the voltage selector or the transformer. The problem is I'm not sure which. The selector looks ok, but I know that doesn't mean much. To visually inspect the transformer I'll have to unwrap it - not something I really want to do. I was wondering if anyone out there knows of an easy way to determine which is my culprit?
I am not familiar with Trackspots, but in other high end stuff (IBeams) of the era, the power board has discrete bridge rectifiers on it, and if one of those goes, it will take fuses just like you describe. It has been my experience that a tranformer is typically the *last* thing to go . . . So, if you can unplug the power board from the transformer and test again, it will tell you if it is the board or not. Rectifiers typically don't give much in the way of visual cues that they have failed . . .
