I bought my first Autospot 150 about 6 weeks ago. When it arrived, the bulb blew within about 15 minutes. Fortunately, the dealer was able to send out a new bulb, and the light has worked great since.

As I intended to get a second AS150 (just wanted to see one first) I ordered a second.

The second arrived DOA. Something very large and heavy was loose internally. The dealer again took care of it. Got a third one sent out and a pickup slip for the DOA unit.

The third arrived and FINALLY! My pair worked great while running in the garage programming them, and the first show was great. The next show - the lamp blew. A total of 12 hours on the unit.

The dealer won't help me on this one as I've had the unit for a few weeks. But I don't understand. 12 hour lamp life?


I am confused - How can this be happening?

And no - of course I am not touching the lamps. I don't even look at them :-) I'm not treating them rough - I have nice cases with 2" dense foam. The first one blew straight out of the box and the second one on the third setup.

It seems unacceptable that I've had two units blow lamps. At $80/lamp, its a bit scary to think this might continue to happen (actually terrifying!).


Whats up? TIA :-)
- Tim

check to see if the fan is working, if the fan is installed backwards or not working at all, the bulb will shut itself down. Another thing, are you turning the fixture on and off? Or using a controller with a blackout function?

The bulb *blew*. Shattered. Glass all over the floor. (just like what happened with the first AS150 I got) The light didn't shut itself off. I plugged it in after your post to see and the fan comes on fine.

I am not turning the fixture on and off - I do understand that will shorten bulb life. I am using a show designer as a controller.

I am saying I've gotten THREE autospot 150s in a row and the longest anyone of them lasted was 12 hours. One was DOA and one lasted 30 minutes...

quote:

Originally posted by papasalty:
[qb] I am not turning the fixture on and off - I do understand that will shorten bulb life. I am using a show designer as a controller.

[/qb]

ok ok ok.... can u guys explain a bit more on this turning on and off of lights.... and how it shortens bulb life.... and also, what is the right way to turn ur lights on and off??

To turn the light source off, on, or down, the fixture is equipped with a shutter. The lamp is to stay on. Rapidly turning the power on and off to the lamp is very hard on the starter and shortens the life of the lamp by breaking down the filament from the surges of starting rapidly.

so you would dim it with a shutter?

quote:

Originally posted by borris123:
[qb] so you would dim it with a shutter? [/qb]

You would leave the fixture powered on all night/day what have you, and use a controller to black it out when not needed. Rather than turning it on and off all night.

As for the issue above, call adj support, they will know best what to do.

It could be you got a bad set of bulbs on the fixtures. What that sometimes does is crystallize the sockets that intern shorten the lamp life. Look at the sockets and see if you got some sort of build up where the lamp is inserted.If that is the case I could send you out some sockets at no charge or have those repaired for you in a flash. Keep me posted.