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Thread: Need help with green diode in new rgb projector

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Indiana
    Posts
    92

    Default Need help with green diode in new rgb projector

    I received a new rgb projector on Monday and the green diode was not working. I determined that the driver board for the green diode was not receiving any dc power from the power supply and a helpful PL member was kind enough to send me out a replacement power supply. I got a chance to mess with it tonight. A photo of the projector is below, the green diode is the closest to the side of the projector on the right. The power supplies for the diode are the individual type and are located underneath the optics.



    Strange behavior... can anyone tell me what it may mean. I am going to mess with it more tomorrow night.

    Several folks on PL confirmed that the power supply should be 5vdc 5amp, center positive. The power supply I got in the mail today is just that (actually he sent me two of them). The physical appearance is the same and I really believe they are the exact same power supply.

    The power supplies in this laser are mounted underneath the optic table, so it was quite a bit of disassembly to get down to them. When I got the optic table off, the ac spade plug to the center power supply, which powers the green diode (odd they didn't put the power supplies underneath their respective diodes) was in fact not plugged in... must have come loose in shipping, although I can't imagine how.. it was substantially unplugged and it's just a standard computer power supply type spade plug.

    Well, assuming I had found the problem, I reassembled the laser. The driver board has green and red leds like the other two and the 250mw green diode does in fact light, but it's dim... I mean 5mw dim. And after 30 minutes of continuous power on, it never got brighter.

    At this point, it's getting late and I didn't want to get into tearing the whole thing down, so I just took the top off the laser. The green diode and driver are closest to the side, so I am able to pull the power plug out and insert another one. I took one of the new power supplies I had on hand, plugged it into the driver board for the green diode, then plugged it into ac power using an extension cord (outside the ac power for the projector) The driver board powers up with just the red led and the connected fans spin up. When I then power on the projector, the red and blue diodes do not light and the green diode pulses repeatedly (but at full 250mw brightness)...when I remove ac power from the green, the red and blue come up and operate normally.

    Strange:

    Would the projector know or even care whether the power supply for the green diode (ac) was coming from within the projector? (both projector and diode were powered from the same house circuit)

    Tomorrow night I will tear the whole deal down and cut all the zip ties and replace the power supply for the green with the new one and plug the ac plug on the projector harness into it.

    Any ideas what's going on?
    Fear Fair - Indiana's Scariest Haunted House
    www.FearFair.com

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Indiana
    Posts
    92

    Lightbulb

    A small update as to other things I tried:

    1. Unplugged blanking line for green laser from dmx board, factory psu
    connected to green driver board
    result

    blue output normal, red output super low (5mw), no green
    output that I could tell

    2. pulled power from green driver, red and blue return to normal

    3. reattached blanking line to green, factory psu on green, red and blue
    normal, green super low
    Fear Fair - Indiana's Scariest Haunted House
    www.FearFair.com

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Cool

    Sounds like you've got a pair of circuits crossed somewhere. That, or a short circuit...

    Unless you want to send it back for a refund (and probably get socked for the shipping charges), you're probably going to need to disconenct each and every blanking line and test those lasers individually. Likewise, assuming that all the lasers are good, you're probably going to need to re-wire everything (both the AC side and the blanking leads). Your call as to whether it's worth it or not.

    If you got a good deal on the projector, I'd go ahead and troubleshoot it yourself. Re-wiring the interior will give you a better knowledge of how it's put together, and make future modifications easier for you.

    Adam

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Indiana
    Posts
    92

    Default

    I wanted to report back on this. The problem ended up being the dmx board in the projector. It was really only designed for ttl diodes and these are analog. When connected via the ILDA connector, the projector works flawlessly, with full brightness on the green diode. In standalone or dmx mode, the green diode is dim.

    I am replacing the dmx board with an FB3.

    Thanks to those who offered assistance.

    Brett
    Fear Fair - Indiana's Scariest Haunted House
    www.FearFair.com

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Smile

    Glad to hear you got it working... Now post some pictures of it so we can see it!

    Adam

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