Mac 500 wiring

Shane Presley

Shane Presley

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Jan 12, 2011
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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.bssproductions.com
I've had sometime over the holidays to sit and wonder why my Mac 500's smoked. I was powering them for the first time with a motion labs stringer l14-30 input to 12 l6-15's. They worked for about 45 minutes then one lamped off then the sound of a firework fizzle and some white smoke from the base. I quickly unplugged the other 3. I metered the output on the stringer and it was 242 across hots and 119 per leg. The macs are the non-e version. Currently the jumpers are on blue 1,1 and red and brown on 4. It has hit me now that the previous owner had these set for 208, 60hz and I've now fed them 240, 60. A couple questions, what could I have cooked on the fixture and how do I set the re set the fixtures to 240. I've read the manual over and over and I can't figure it out. It keeps mentioning black wiring ( which none it present) , just the blue jumpers, and one red, one brown.... On the other end of the fixture there is a ballast, or transformer with black jumpers... Some clear instruction would be appreciated... Thanks
 
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Re: Mac 500 wiring

Thanks rob, I wanted some confirmation before proceeding... I'm going to take my hurt fixture into the large sound co to get it checked out, actually taking them all in - I just wanted to be sure when I get them back, what they should be set at for my own knowledge, and if I ever use them in a 208 setting - what they should be changed to...
Can anyone comment as to what I might have hurt on that fixture , and if they have witnessed them being more tolerant to the power sources they get ... I read a thread that mickey b uses his from 208-240, and it sounded like he didn't bother to switch them. I have some g lites that are set to 220 and I have given them 208 and 240... I thought the macs would be more tolerant than 5%...
 
Re: Mac 500 wiring

Shane Presley said:
I read a thread that mickey b uses his from 208-240, and it sounded like he didn't bother to switch them.
I thought the macs would be more tolerant than 5%...
Click to expand...

208 to 240 is more like 15%
generally, if they have a setting for each voltage, then they probably care!
they would definitely be more tolerant of low voltage than high voltage, so maybe your friend has them set to 240 and is getting away with 208 (or is there a 220 setting that strikes a good balance?)

Jason
 
Re: Mac 500 wiring

Nope, there are only a couple ranges outlined in the manual... 200-217v, and 217 - 240v.

BTW - I just heard on the martin forum from a rep from Martin canada, who is guessing that the magic smoke came from a tired PFC capacitor. 2009 price lists this part at $45 msrp, so it might not be so bad... I'm going to open up "ole smokey", and LOOK at the cap, to see if it's burnt. They recommend replacing these with newer versions anyway, so if I'm ordering one, I'll order 4.
These fixtures won't see 208 maybe 2-3 times a year, and you're probably correct Jason, they would be more tolerant of the lower voltage, than higher...
 
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