iank99

I too now have an enchanted floppy disk of changing - I've had to muck out the unicorns & scrub the dragon down to get it (and no - that's not code for anything @kgallen )

I think you'll find any newer fan will be quieter because the bearings are new. The important thing is to match the overall size of the fan & it's voltage - there's probably a label on the noisy fan that will have a part number that can be googled. You will probably see listed as accessories for the new unit - the wire grill that Keith showed - some decent side cutters will remove your old grill & the existing screws will hold the grill and fan in place or replace with suitable nuts & bolts

Yep - it's the same board - if you want to use the printer interface you need to solder a connector in place - it will also need it's system ID setting so it knows that it's in an Illusion - Keith will know the magic buttons to press to do that

Justin - I PM'd them too about me paying carriage for the two Frogs as 'last resort' but I suspect if they can get them out the door without faff - they'll take your hand off I'd certainly be interested in the Frogs for spares - the 520i's not so much (I have 3 already!!) and would be happy to have you drop them off at my workshop - drop me an eMail ian at serviceguy dot co dot uk to arrange that (you can probably ignore the post I just made on The Blue Room about this)/ If you want to take a reclaimed floppy drive with you to experiment - I'd be happy to do that too.

Sounds like an Illusion 120 - the first iteration of the series - if it has a MemPac, so very likely an STMain 1 motherboard. From experience, it's darned hard to corrupt the onboard ROM and the desk should boot however, as Keith says it might be that the battery has leaked and eaten some of the PCB or it could just be that the STMain has died (it does happen). If you have access to a Frog or Jester - try the PSU from that - I have seen weirdness with failed PSU's where you get power but it's got AC waveforms on the output or the output never really initialises (they're switch mode PSU's). The desk doesn't need a Floppy to boot - only to save shows or update the operating software so try leaving the floppy disconnected initially. I have spare floppy drives about that came from Zero desks (so there shouldn't be issues with initialisation on the Bios) if you need one, I'm not sure I have a working STMain 1 from an Illusion though - but being honest, it's a 20 odd year old desk - I wouldn't spend much effort on it, it might be handy for some spares reclamation though.

I would suspect that the bearings in the fan are beginning to wear, so I'd simply replace it (or get your local service centre to replace it) - it will be a generic 'off the shelf' muffin/computer style fan so easily obtainable from most electronics suppliers. The fans are built to a price (and bought wholesale by Zero88), in the millions of units using relatively low cost materials for bearings so they will age quicker than the rack itself. The longest part of the swapover will be transferring the power connection on the fan I suspect

Depending on the age of the desk (you call if a Leap Frog not a Solution so it might be one of the early ones) it sounds like the onboard BIOS might need updating - I can't offer an explanation of why it's started misbehaving though but I did have a Solution with similar issues last summer. Essentially the original BIOS causes issues on ZerOS starting with ZerOS 'failing' to be able to allocate resources to itself - this was a fault that was identified early on the swap over from Leap Frog as a name to Solution and there is a BIOS update to cure it. Your desk needs to see a service centre/agent I suspect..

This is me via an Incognito window too :)

It looks from your image that the desk might be moved around regularly? In which case I'd be tempted to open it and ensure the Compact Flash drive is seated properly on it's connector - there's no retaining clip on it & it's feasible that it might have worked slightly loose, a gentle push to reseat it might be enough... I'd also change the internal battery whilst you have the case open - just in case or if you haven't swapped the battery lately - it's a CR2032 so commonly available. It would also be worth trying a boot without the keyboard attached, they do go bad & it might be drawing too much current from the onboard USBHub (but to be honest - this is a rare error these days).

@GaztechI have some of those faders in stock along with the fader caps and I have flash buttons for salvage on a Lightmaster & Sirius (though to be honest I've never tried to clean one internally) - I suspect that first 'try' would be to remove the cap, push the activator down & a quick squirt of Servisol might do the job. If you want to eMail me ian@serviceguy.co.uk then we can sort something between us, .

From experience, the actual fact is that most "vintage" lanterns will survive PAT but not the person doing the test unless they're a theatre specialist - the normal PAT person will throw a wobbler at the old round pin plugs, no fuses in the plugs, no decent earth on the patch cords & be unable to properly test a theatre lantern. The only likely pitfall will be if you have old Strand Patt lanterns is that P28 lampholders are getting difficult to acquire so keeping them going is tough - not so much the newer bi post lamps. David is correct - you should be considering some LED lighting but the cost of swapping the whole rig over isn't going to work if the school have to fund it, the kit might be cheap (do NOT buy the cheapest - its false economy) but the infrastructure/power changes are not - a rough ball park would be around £250 per fixture when you cost i the fixture, an electrician and so on - that's using the existing wiring. It would make some sense to buy a handful of LED's to use for flood lighting to replace any conventional floods but replacement LED profiles aren't cheap & you always need a profile sooner or later. The desk replacement is going to be an issue too - you'll want something a 'naiive' user can operate without notice & this counts against PC based software so you're looking at something like FLX S but ideally the FLX because it gives more faders to control lights rather than just scenes - however, not cheap even with a decent discount. As you seem to be coming round to the idea of cleaning the existing kit - have the desk checked & serviced (it will likely need a new battery and perhaps at least one fader replacing) and check the dimmers are OK. Take a note of the numbers on their displays - the DMX address and do a factory reset on each then reset the addresses is all that Beta 3's generally need in a school installation. I can service the desk, David & Kevin can vouch for the quality of my work & I'm sure they could recommend a decent supplier of spare lamps, replacement plugs and so on to service the lantern stock. It will also be cheaper in the short/medium term whilst the school considers replacement - get some external advice & a couple of quotes from reliable suppliers for this - they WILL appreciate the schools situation.

As one of my friends commented - ironic in the 50th year of Zero88

Are the lights "intelligent" i.e. do they move around or have LED's that light up to change the colour they produce? If they're conventional lights like fresnels & profiles that take a lamp then they will be connected to some form of dimmer and that will have the address you need. Usually the dimmer address will be set via an LCD Keypanel, front panel rotary switches or internal DIP switches. If your installation is the latter then a simple 1 to 1 patch might suffice to get things running e.g. DMX channel 1 is patched to Desk Channel 1, DMX 2 to 2 and so on.

What make are the LED fixtures? Are they "name" brand fixtures or chinese produced? I've had experience previously with Chinese fixtures that don't comply with the DMX standard (just enough to be DMX) and they will work happily wth controls & other fittings from the same factory but not with kit that does comply fully - like Zero88 kit. It also doesn't help if the fittings havre a 'Master/Slave" mode - this often means that the fittings are regenerating DMX however they see fit. The cynic inside me says that the chinese do this so that you 'have' to use the LED's with their controllers... Sadly, the symptoms are never the same but mostly can be flickering, colours sticking on or other DMX kit in the data chain not working. The only way around it is to either use a DMX Buffer that regenerates the DMX signal not just amplifies it so that the waveform is crisp, timings are spot on and the signal conforms to standard - usually the £40 buffers won't do this. The longwinded fix is to run two separate cable runs - one to the LED's & the other to your dimmers - you can use a buffer just after the desk to split the output but it's important not to have the LED's and dimmers on the same data chain. You should also as 'good practice' ensure that you have good mains earth integrity on the fittings, desk & dimmers - mains earth is also very often 'technical earth' or nought volts - if it floats high between the kit then that can also cause issues (it also needs to be noise free). Your data cables should only have pins 1 to 3 connected, they should not have any link between pin 1 and the case of the connectors (it still does happen and can itself cause issues) and the desk & fittings should ideally be on the same mains ring/spur so they share a common earth. I'd place a sticky bun on the issue not being the AlphaPack but the LED's or other fixtures on the chain from experience

Having just had another mouthful of coffee and read my post back - it's fair to point out now that "legacy" now covers everything up to the current product range and I'm also authorised for warranty repairs on current kit.