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    ih303 - Former HES Forum Member
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I just acquired four Technobeams and...

Just recently I purchased four used Technobeams, four Trackspots, a Technobeam LCD controller, and an Intellibeam LCD controller. I've got some questions that hopefully you good people will be able to help me out with.

First, a few general questions:

1. What's the best approach to controlling these fixtures? Should I use the LCD controllers or should I get a USB to DMX interface so I can go PC-based?

2. If I want to use the LCD controllers, is it possible to upload preprogrammed scenes to the controller from an external source, i.e. memory card? And if so, can I get preprogrammed scenes from either someone here on the forum or somewhere else?

Now some specifics:

1. I'm running one version of the firmware on two of my TBeams and another version on the other two. I tried the process in the manual to update from another machine to no avail.

2. On one of my TBeams, the colorwheel seems to be stuck in between two colors. It still rotates, but settles on the border rather than on the color itself.

3. The Intellibeam controller has a problem with the intensity setting. When I try to crank it up, it always drops the value back down to zero.

4. The positioning laser on two of my TBeams work great, on one of them works ok, and on one of them doesn't work at all. Not sure where to even start on this one.


I understand this is a lot to ask and appreciate any information I can obtain regarding these issues. Thanks again.
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    Jeff, thank you so much for your help. I talked to Chris at LightParts.com yesterday and also played around with everything a bit more so I've got a bit more info to help guide things.

    RE: Crossloading
    When I saw the word lock, it was when the fixture I was crossloading from was going through process of trying to locate other fixtures to load to. I was told I probably had two fixtures with Iris c-boards and two without which explained why they won't crossload. He told me I could tell by looking at something on the c-board, but I wasn't near my lights at the time so I couldn't check.

    RE: Fixture not responding
    I made sure the voltage switches were all set the same to rule that issue out. When I mentioned this error to Chris, he said somthing about a "Time Relay" something-or-other. (again, I was in my car and should have written it down) He said he could fix it for a couple of dollars worth of parts plus labor if I sent him the circuit board. Is this something I could test or even repair myself? A few dollars on parts makes me think they're pretty common parts.

    RE: T-Beam Color Wheel
    I'll pull the fixture with this problem apart tonight and inspect stuff. Again, Chris said it's either the sensor or the motor. Something about motors from certain manufacturers being bad. I wish I could figure out exactly what the problem is. I'd probably just pull the motor or whatever out of my other t-beam that's not working and just roll with three fully functional fixtures at the rally.

    RE: Intellabeam Controller
    I realized the whole 8-channel DMX thing for the trackspots yesterday and gave up trying to use a technobeam controller. But my Intellabeam controller is infuriating. Couple of issues on this one:

    1) Again, the master intensity wants to stay at zero. I can crank it up and see the lights fade in, but it always drops it right back down to zero.

    2) Menu => Setup has no arrow to the right of Edit/Copy to get to erase like it shows in the manual. I was thinking maybe the zeroing problem was due to some strange setting and wanted to clear it out but I don't see the option.

    3) Menu => Submaster is set to fixture four and I don't know how to clear that out. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with my master intensity problem.

    I know most of you guys use DMX, but I simply don't have the money at this point to drop on Hog 3PC or LJ. I'm trying to work with what I've got.

    Thanks in advance for your help.
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    Jeff, thank you so much for your help. I talked to Chris at LightParts.com yesterday and also played around with everything a bit more so I've got a bit more info to help guide things.

    RE: Crossloading
    When I saw the word lock, it was when the fixture I was crossloading from was going through process of trying to locate other fixtures to load to. I was told I probably had two fixtures with Iris c-boards and two without which explained why they won't crossload. He told me I could tell by looking at something on the c-board, but I wasn't near my lights at the time so I couldn't check.

    RE: Fixture not responding
    I made sure the voltage switches were all set the same to rule that issue out. When I mentioned this error to Chris, he said somthing about a "Time Relay" something-or-other. (again, I was in my car and should have written it down) He said he could fix it for a couple of dollars worth of parts plus labor if I sent him the circuit board. Is this something I could test or even repair myself? A few dollars on parts makes me think they're pretty common parts.

    RE: T-Beam Color Wheel
    I'll pull the fixture with this problem apart tonight and inspect stuff. Again, Chris said it's either the sensor or the motor. Something about motors from certain manufacturers being bad. I wish I could figure out exactly what the problem is. I'd probably just pull the motor or whatever out of my other t-beam that's not working and just roll with three fully functional fixtures at the rally.

    RE: Intellabeam Controller
    I realized the whole 8-channel DMX thing for the trackspots yesterday and gave up trying to use a technobeam controller. But my Intellabeam controller is infuriating. Couple of issues on this one:

    1) Again, the master intensity wants to stay at zero. I can crank it up and see the lights fade in, but it always drops it right back down to zero.

    2) Menu => Setup has no arrow to the right of Edit/Copy to get to erase like it shows in the manual. I was thinking maybe the zeroing problem was due to some strange setting and wanted to clear it out but I don't see the option.

    3) Menu => Submaster is set to fixture four and I don't know how to clear that out. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with my master intensity problem.

    I know most of you guys use DMX, but I simply don't have the money at this point to drop on Hog 3PC or LJ. I'm trying to work with what I've got.

    Thanks in advance for your help.
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