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So Jim Wilson and I had to perform an exploratory on the audio power conditioner at the Imperial Theatre. I thought I'd post some pics. oddioguy will remember Jim coming in looking for some fuses...

Just so you know, you couldn't fill a thimble with what I know about power. We were just doing what we were told by PDI.


Imperial's main entrance.


And the plate off that big boy for those who know what they're talking about.


Jim next to the power conditioner.


And it's plate.


















A shot of one of the cards with the blown fuses... Still don't know what's wrong. The fuses were a symptom, not the problem.


"What's that say? If you can read this.... back up slowly..."


The auxilliary power for those where the conditioner is not enough... And it's plate...



Questions?... Comments?...

The last I heard, Jim was still waiting to hear back from PDI about what to do next. Basically one output leg is running hot, around 131 when we last looked, meaning the conditioner had put itself in bypass for some reason. We found blown fuses, but as I said, they were a symptom, not the cause.

My understanding is that these are very specialized rigs, and not just anyone can work on them, but that could just be one of those... "authorized techs only" kind of deals.

Did you chech the semi's on this card? (The ones mounted to the heatsink.)
Looks like a likely spot that would blow fuses



If you want to check your progress, try sticking your tongue across the terminals marked "600V". That'll let you know if you've restored primary power or not...

Looks like 3 identical cards, one for each leg?
I assume you swapped cards from another leg to see whether the fault moved with the card?
If so, you've narrowed it down to card level, and are back to the aforementioned semis as likely culprits.

oddioguy wrote:Did you chech the semi's on this card? (The ones mounted to the heatsink.)
Looks like a likely spot that would blow fuses

That card was one that was replaced at some time prior to the current troubles... No pun intended.

You'll notice that the one furthest to the right on the heat sink appears to have been replaced at some point, before the card was removed from service altogether.

There appears to be one card for each of the three output legs. and only one has the blown fuses. Is it safe to assume that the cause would be on the card with the fuses, or would it be as likely to be coming from another area?

oddioguy wrote:Looks like 3 identical cards, one for each leg?
I assume you swapped cards from another leg to see whether the fault moved with the card?
If so, you've narrowed it down to card level, and are back to the aforementioned semis as likely culprits.

We haven't gone that far. We were just following with what PDI was telling us, and they had asked for photos to see some of the specifics... if you can believe that. My only concern with swapping cards, would be if it could be blowing more than just fuses... Is this valid, or am I being a scardy cat?

That's why I suggested swapping the known bad card with a known good card. If the problem moves with the card, then the card is indeed your problem. All you gamble is a few fuses.

oddioguy wrote:That's why I suggested swapping the known bad card with a known good card. If the problem moves with the card, then the card is indeed your problem. All you gamble is a few fuses.

D'oh....you're one post ahead of me on this...

Wow... that thing has some huge ass resistors... those big swirly brown things, I assume.

If you guys are getting stumped, and are in need of a troubleshootin' type electrician, you could call my old man... Roger Gosselin,
he freelances on his on clock nowadays and his specialty is marine, industrial, commercial etc... and he's quite good at what he does... not just sayin' that cause his my dad and all.

phone 738-2754
cell - 333-9534

rogoss@rogers.com

Hey Malcolm....anything new transpire with this?

weatherstation audio wrote:Wow... that thing has some huge ass resistors... those big swirly brown things, I assume.

(snip...)

I can hear the conversation now....

WSA - "Hello order desk? I'd like to order some big swirly brown things, please."
OD - "Certainly sir. We currently stock both swirly and non-swirly brown things. What value would you like?"....

I could be wrong but if you contact the guy at PDI, I believe it was Woods, he'll probably tell you that the main problem was the load originally on the system. Aside from the panel being feed to it, the lighing dimers are also on leg 2 & 3. We brought a guy from Halifax in to work on it and there was a board that needed to be replaced as some programming.

This was the whole reason why we added the 200A panel for the road transfer. The capacity neded to be increased and he obviously never called since I left.

Of course this is based on a very poor memory and almost 3 years since I looked at it.

oddioguy wrote:If you want to check your progress, try sticking your tongue across the terminals marked "600V". That'll let you know if you've restored primary power or not...

Just a disclaimer to anyone who didn't see the sarcastic devil smiley don't try this at home. (just trying to prevent some lawsuits from stupid people. )

I rememberd toay that the software was reporting incorrectly causing the bypass readings...if you've burned fuses since, there is still a problem obviously but when the technician was there the voltage and amperage registered correctly on the meter... I believe it was a sudden surge that might have damaged the conditioner originally...

macrae11 wrote:

oddioguy wrote:If you want to check your progress, try sticking your tongue across the terminals marked "600V". That'll let you know if you've restored primary power or not...

Just a disclaimer to anyone who didn't see the sarcastic devil smiley don't try this at home. (just trying to prevent some lawsuits from stupid people. )

...and you're undermining my attempt to chlorinate the gene pool.

Hey I'm for Darwin awards, but I think they should have to do it without being pushed.

macrae11 wrote:Hey I'm for Darwin awards, but I think they should have to do it without being pushed.

Fair enough.

For the uninitiated... www.darwinawards.com