Section Five; Troubleshooting Your Merlin-C20 - TopLite International Merlin C20 Manuel D'utilisation

most air compressors have far too much moisture in them due to condensation and you could
end up getting the inside of your unit WET! This leads us to another enemy:
Water:
If you get the inside of your Merlin-C20 wet, you could likely do more damage than
you want to pay for. A shorted circuit card could cause other electrical components to overheat
or go bad as well. Never use your Merlin-C20 outdoors unless you are under some sort of cover
or are absolutely sure that there is no chance of rain or horse-play involving liquids! Outside
installs are an absolute NO-NO! The last enemy, and probably the one you will encounter the
most is:
We have included an extra belt for each axis on your Merlin-C20; a large one for the X-axis and
a thinner one for the Y-axis. Eventually, these belts will wear out and either begin to jump off
their gears or break altogether. We didn't want you to have to wait for the part, so we gave you
the first ones for free! For instructions on replacing one of these belts, please go to our website:
www.Toplt.com

Section Five

Troubleshooting Your
We have worked tirelessly to engineer your Merlin-C20 for years of trouble-free service. We
built it as good as it could be built with the highest quality materials available. Each unit is
exhaustively tested at the factory before it ever goes into its shipping box. Before we released
the Merlin-C20 to the public we tested units in every condition imaginable (and a few that aren't!).
We banged on them, we shook them, we spun them, we heated them and we cooled them ...
While they were running! We even left units running for over five days straight without stopping!
We don't recommend that you do any of these things to your Merlin-C20, but believe us, this is
one tough instrument.
Belts/Movement/Un-Responsive Heads
(Head won't respond, does things on its own, won't stay lit)
As with anything that moves or has moving parts, you will eventually have parts wear out. This
is par for the course, so to speak. The first and most obvious things to wear are belts.
If one of your Belts should start to jump the gear or fail/break completely, please see our
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Merlin-C20
®
website for complete instructions on swapping them out. Or, you can call any Factory-authorized
TopLite Dealer. If the instrument will not move on one or both axis, (and it is not a belt) then the
problem is one of two things: either your DMX data is corrupt or you have a problem on a circuit
card inside your Merlin-C20.
To begin troubleshooting this problem, first, run both a pan and tilt test (see "Test Mode" in
section three), if it works, then the problem is most likely data. This can be one of several things:
A bad cable, a unit not sending data down the cable run or a unit not reading the data as it
arrives.
To check your data, first look to see if the Purple/UV LED DMX Signal Indicator is lit (see figure
9.) The light should be on solid and not blinking or "stuttering". If it is, then the data may be bad
due to a bad cable. A sure sign of this is that every head beyond the first "bad" head is also
acting strangely. However, if the cable is good, there may be a chance that the Merlin-C20 in the
cable run before your bad head is actually not transmitting data. That would mean your trouble
is actually with that unit and that the rest are fine. This unit will need to be serviced by a trained
technician.
To test for this, reconfigure/experiment with your cable run to look for clear data and to find the
point where the data goes corrupt. You may also wish to check that your Terminator plug in the
last unit is snug in its socket. If the problem is not a belt, cable, terminator plug or the transmitted
data, then you have a bad circuit card inside your Merlin-C20 and it must be serviced by a
trained technician.
Color/Gobo Wheel Position Sensors
(Wheel spins continuously, won't home or go to a position sent via DMX)
Inside your Merlin-C20, there are position sensors that use a small magnet to tell the unit where
the wheel is positioned. Occasionally, they can get damaged by rough handling of the unit and if
the sensor can't receive the field of the magnet, they will keep spinning the wheel until they find it!
If this occurs, simply turn off your unit, disconnect the power, open the Side Plate(s) on the unit
and spin the gobo or color wheel until you see the small magnet on its edge. Make sure that it
passes within 1/4 inch of the receiver chip and that it and the chip are not dirty or damaged. This
should solve the problem. However, it could also mean you have a slightly larger problem. It is
possible that the Color or Gobo wheel has either come loose, slipped down its axle or even
became warped and is now rubbing against or away from the sensor. In either case, see our
website at www.Toplt.com for instructions on fixing/repairing this problem.
until it is fixed or you could permanently scuff/damage the sensor and render it useless!
Head will not power up
Check the Power cord (make sure it is not damaged and that it is plugged in on both ends!), check
the fuse (if it is bad, swap it out), check the On/Off Switch (make sure it is in the "on" position) and
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DO NOT
use this unit