Post a picture of the cable. I think they should be wired the same. I have a set and will look at them when I get home.
Senior Member
Post a picture of the cable. I think they should be wired the same. I have a set and will look at them when I get home.
Love, peace, and grease,
allthat... aka: aaron@pangolin
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Nope. Same behavior. The "working" mirror just twitches once when power is applied, regardless of dipswitch position.Originally Posted by gottaluvlasers
When I apply voltage to the signal connection on the "working" amp, the mirror moves a bit. When I apply it to the signal connection on the "dead" amp, nothing happens. However, if I apply the same voltage to solder points where the ribbon cable connects to the motor, I can get a twitch from the "dead" mirror.2. with the dead scanner unplugged, apply a VERY SMALL voltage DIRECTLY to the scanner. even maybe just a single AA battery (1.5V) just to see if the direct Voltage can move the mirror. you obviously will have to apply this V to the cable attached to the scanner. make sure it is to the Control V+ and the Control V-
all you are looking for is ANY slight movement with an applied Voltage. if it moves, than you know the scanner works. (99% positive. i suppose there could still be some sort of off the wall problem. but thats VERY doubtful).
Yes, if I attach the "good" mirror to the "bad" amp, the mirror will twitch when power is first applied. If I attach the "bad" mirror to the "good" amp, nothing happens.swap scanner channels. the scanner that DOES mover or zeroes itself out, switch with the scanner that DOESNT seem to work. again, rule certain things out of the equation.
If I'm understanding what you're saying here, I get a steady 0.78 volts across the two outer pins at each of the three pin jumpers that supposedly send signal from the program board to the amps.why dont you also just put a V meter on the output of your control signals that are leading to the scanner that ISNT moving. see if you are getting any sort of an output. i know you would need a scope to see TRUE singal amplitudes and everything, but all we are looking for is V variations and output signalling.
Here you've lost me. I just have the program board and amps that came from Lasershowparts.comdo you also have this wired ILDA?? or JUST DMX?? if ILDA, try inputting an ILDA signal from a DAC.
If there is a fuse, it's too subtle for me to see!i believe, and i may be wrong here, but i think the amp for the boards has a built in fuse on it. (someone correct me if im wrong??) check the fuse also. could be deadsky.
Thanks again for your help. From what I can see from these troubleshooting steps, it almost seems as though I have a bad motor/mirror, but I can get the "bad" one to twitch if I apply a small voltage to the motor itself, so I'm not sure. The harder I think, the more confused I get...
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Here's the pic. The connector on top shows the amp side of the wiring harness for the "good" scanner. The bottom is for the "bad" one. The brown and green wires are reversed, but since they're also reversed at the other end, I doubt that this is significant.
Senior Member
Sorry man, I am a slack bitch sometimes...
My wires are the same on both, orange, blue, green, brown, both sides. That may be your problem. Not sure it if would have smoked it or not though.
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So I think I'm closing in a bit. I decided to switch the wires in the "bad" amp-to-mirror cable and then to test continuity for the heck of it. Sure enough, I found that one of the wires was broken off near its connector. I fixed that and now I can get both motors to twitch (I'm guessing that's autocentering) when power is applied. Still no joy with the self-test, though.
However, my bigger question is this: Does the fact that both mirrors now move when power is applied imply that the amps and motors are good? I really don't need the program board as I will be building my own circuits to drive the scanners as part of the laser harp. I'd hate to go to the expense, hassle and delay of sending the whole kit and kaboodle back to China if I can avoid it.
Again, thanks for all the help you've offered - especially to those who kept beating the drum for "wiring problem." That got me at least part of the way.
Senior Member
I would not say that the amps and motors are "good". There could be something wrong even if they are centering. Now that they both do something, time for the next issue, can you not get a signal to the scanners?
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Right now, the only source of signal for the scanners is the program board that came with the set. Ultimately, I will be using an Arduino to generate the signal for one of the motors, but I haven't gotten that far with my build, so in the meantime I'm sort of stuck.
Senior Member
And your program board is toasted? I have not played with mine much, but with a few flips of a couple of dip switches I got it to draw something. There were not really good images, but images none the less.
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At this point, yes, I think the program board is gorked. No combination of dip switch positions (or even removing the ribbon cable with the dipswitches entirely) will make it go into self test. When I hook up the provided microphone and set the dip switches accordingly, I can get a few anemic twitches, but basically nothing.
Member
So it turns out that the program board was, indeed, bad. I proved this by building enough of my laser harp this weekend to be able to provide driver signals to one of the scanner amps. As I write, I am watching the scanner paint 10 nice, discrete harp "strings" on the dining room ceiling. Thanks to all who offered suggestions. With luck, lasershoparts will be sending me a new program board some time soon.
Bill
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