Popular go-to lights are the LiteMats from LiteGear. I have 2 of the LiteMat Plus 4s. I love them and use them all the time.
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| One of my LM4s at work with a 40-degree snapgrid |
I was working out-of-town recently when my newest LM4 stopped working. A little troubleshooting with parts from my other light found the problem to be the power supply.
Working on a show, renting lights, I needed the light ASAP. I emailed LiteGear hoping for a quick response, maybe even sending me a new power supply (especially since it was a new light that I only had for a little over a month). Well that didn't happen. Nearly 2 days later I got a response saying that I should contact the seller I purchased it from since that company was a dealer.
That seems odd to me. I reached out to my dealer by email. It took them 5 days to get back with a RMA number and an address to send the defective power supply. There was no response to my request to get a power supply shipped to me quickly.
So, I'm a week without my new LiteMat 4 Plus with no prospect for when I'll get it working again.
On my day off (after working another 6-day week!), I had time (not really) to troubleshoot the power supply. I realized I would better off if I could repair it instead of shipping it for who know how long before I get it back.
With my multi-meter, I found the power supply had 12 volts on both hot pins. That's good but doesn't show what the power supply is doing under a load. There still could potentially be a problem with the power supply.
(As an electrician, I think 24 volts would be a better standard for LED ribbon-like lights.)
Next, I inspected the Amphenol PL connector on the power supply. It seemed okay. I try hooking up the power supply. I discovered that flexing the power cable at the PL connectors caused the power to become intermittent. Most likely I found the problem; a bad connection at the PL connector.
I've worked on connectors like this before, but I couldn't figure out how to disassemble them. I went to the LiteGear site and found nothing. I went to the Amphenol site and found nothing. I searched the Internet for 30-40 frustrating minutes. The search was made more difficult because there is a universe of different Amphenol connectors out there. Finally, I found this:
https://support.measurand.com/support/solutions/articles/19000035418-rewiring-amphenol-connectors
Awesome! Here are detail directions with pictures of how to assemble/disassemble the PL connectors.
Disassembling the the connector I found this:
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| (The cut-off black wire is an unused conductor in the cable.) |
The red wire was loose. It has overheated and even melted the insulation. My first thought was a short or power supply issue but I think the problem was just a loose wire overheating from arcing.
Checking the other wires, I found 1 other terminal completely loose. It was the ground so the problem was not obvious.
I attribute the problem with the power supply to sloppy wiring in the connector. Since, I have tightened the terminals in the connector, the light has operated normally with no issues.
I'm doubly disappointed in LiteGear. First for the slow customer service. Second for the sloppy wiring on a new light.
PS: I was hoping to use this knowledge to repair head cables, too. Unfortunately, they use a different molded type of connector that I'm not sure can be serviced.
These connectors don't say Amphenol on them, but appear to be made by them. One option would be to replace a bad connector with field serviceable one that would be compatible with the molded ones. I'm guessing Amphenol makes one. I'll have to track down a model number.
PPS: I'm a gaffer who has a small rental business. There are some equipment dealers and companies who are awesome to deal with. They respond to communications promptly. They deal with problems promptly.
I had an under warranty Titan tube fail. The company shipped me a new light the same day. They were like sorry that happened and said to ship the defective one back when you get a chance. (https://wirelessfilmlights.com/)
Then there are the other guys. I'm a small business and small customer. I'm not any body's priority; just an insignificant customer that really doesn't matter to them. I guess LiteGear is one of those. I have an almost new, expensive light, under warranty, stop working and the response is we'll take care of it in our own time.
PPPS: I hope that in no way does this post make it sound like I don't like Amphenol connectors. It is the opposite. They are a gold standard for well-made reliable connectors. LiteMat switching to Amphenol connectors was a quantum improvement over the unreliable phoenix connectors early versions of LiteMats used.