BillWX
Member
Greetings,
Hopefully someone on here can help with this weird QM2000 problem we're having. Our planetarium laser set up uses a Raven transcoder that runs the ILDA cable from the QM2000 into the transcoder, then out to our 8 channel digital recorders. So we can see "levels" of the X,Y,R,G,B,DMX and LR(audio).
The first thing I noticed was "weird" laser levels showing up upon starting the 8 channel recorder. ALL Pangolin programs (Showtime, Designer, etc..) load up perfectly fine - no errors or hangups.
However, there is NO laser output. X & Y does nothing and neither do the colors. DMX works fine! We have 2 DMX controlled effects (lumia and diffraction grating) and both open and close right when they should. Just no scanning or lasing going on.
So, first I checked the cable and the transcoder. They're OK. Luckily we have another smaller full color projector on a different cable. So I plugged that one in and again, no output from the QM2000. (Note that the 2nd projector does NOT run from the transcoder. It can be fed directly from the QM2000 board with its own ILDA cable.)
I've powered down and on several times, popped the card out of the PCI socket a few times and even tried it in another computer. Checked contacts, etc... Same problem every time.
The board is an older one (first 2 digits are 58.. ) and it's a pro board.
Luckily our current shows are recorded and play back fine from the digital recorder. However, we want to do some new shows - and while we CAN create shows (the QM200 "appears" to be working fine for production), we can't actually show anything on the laser!
Being a county college planetarium, the budget is tight and we can't just plop down $$$ for a new board.
So, is there anything else I should check before we go ahead and consider repair? (And if we have to send it back to Pangolin for repair, is it at all possible to get a "loaner" card so we can still produce/record some new song modules for summer?)
Thanks for any insight/ideas anyone can offer.
-Bill
Laserist at RVCC Planetarium,
Branchburg, NJ
Hopefully someone on here can help with this weird QM2000 problem we're having. Our planetarium laser set up uses a Raven transcoder that runs the ILDA cable from the QM2000 into the transcoder, then out to our 8 channel digital recorders. So we can see "levels" of the X,Y,R,G,B,DMX and LR(audio).
The first thing I noticed was "weird" laser levels showing up upon starting the 8 channel recorder. ALL Pangolin programs (Showtime, Designer, etc..) load up perfectly fine - no errors or hangups.
However, there is NO laser output. X & Y does nothing and neither do the colors. DMX works fine! We have 2 DMX controlled effects (lumia and diffraction grating) and both open and close right when they should. Just no scanning or lasing going on.
So, first I checked the cable and the transcoder. They're OK. Luckily we have another smaller full color projector on a different cable. So I plugged that one in and again, no output from the QM2000. (Note that the 2nd projector does NOT run from the transcoder. It can be fed directly from the QM2000 board with its own ILDA cable.)
I've powered down and on several times, popped the card out of the PCI socket a few times and even tried it in another computer. Checked contacts, etc... Same problem every time.
The board is an older one (first 2 digits are 58.. ) and it's a pro board.
Luckily our current shows are recorded and play back fine from the digital recorder. However, we want to do some new shows - and while we CAN create shows (the QM200 "appears" to be working fine for production), we can't actually show anything on the laser!
Being a county college planetarium, the budget is tight and we can't just plop down $$$ for a new board.
So, is there anything else I should check before we go ahead and consider repair? (And if we have to send it back to Pangolin for repair, is it at all possible to get a "loaner" card so we can still produce/record some new song modules for summer?)
Thanks for any insight/ideas anyone can offer.
-Bill
Laserist at RVCC Planetarium,
Branchburg, NJ