Strobe Failures

[scodavis]

Hello,

This is my very first show year.  As part of my show, I purchased 50 C-7 "I" Xenon strobes from CDI, and built a custom SPT-1 with 40 sockets for them (so I would have 10 spares).

When I initially got the shipment, two of the bulbs were DOA, doing a weird internal click and flash on the PCB (and you can see an area where the electric arc is actually burning the PCB and wire near it).  CDI immediately replaced them when I reported it.

Yesterday I finished assembling the custom string of sockets, and did a burn-in test tonight.  Two bulbs didn't light at all (yes, I tested in multiple sockets and with multiple bulbs), and one did the fast-click thing I described above.  After just 20 seconds, another two started doing the fast-click thing.  Before the two-minute mark, another two started doing it.  I turned them off at this point and let them rest.  When I plugged them in again for a short test, another bulb started doing it.  For those not counting, that means that, out of my 10 spare bulbs, I now have two working ones remaining.  I E-Mailed CDI about it and I hope to hear back from him tomorrow.

Have you guys had failures like this?  I can understand losing 3-4 bulbs over the course of a season, but I am now really concerned that these things are cheap and defective, and by the time Christmas rolls around my strobe count will be reduced to one or two.  I've spoken with another person that uses strobes, and she tells me that, while they do typically have to replace a few per season, she's never had failures like what I'm experiencing.

Any advice would be much appreciated, especially if you have experience with this particular brand.

-Scott

[Santas Helper]

Scott,

I've purchased from CDI for 10 years now and they will make it right. 

I've purchased dozens of their strobes in the past years (adding on each year) and have not had near the failure rate your dealing with. One thing I did have to do is shave down the edge of the sockets for a better connection with the strobe. The socket shell was too deep and wasn't making a great connection. But after doing that I haven't have any problems unless moisture got in them, which was probably my own fault there. Anyway, give them a chance to make it right. They will.

Tom

[Ebuechner]

Maybe they're made in the same Factory as the bad batch that came from DIY LED Express. I know they changed manufacturers

[saxon]

On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 9:08 PM, scodavis said:

Hello,

This is my very first show year.  As part of my show, I purchased 50 C-7 "I" Xenon strobes from CDI, and built a custom SPT-1 with 40 sockets for them (so I would have 10 spares).

When I initially got the shipment, two of the bulbs were DOA, doing a weird internal click and flash on the PCB (and you can see an area where the electric arc is actually burning the PCB and wire near it).  CDI immediately replaced them when I reported it.

Yesterday I finished assembling the custom string of sockets, and did a burn-in test tonight.  Two bulbs didn't light at all (yes, I tested in multiple sockets and with multiple bulbs), and one did the fast-click thing I described above.  After just 20 seconds, another two started doing the fast-click thing.  Before the two-minute mark, another two started doing it.  I turned them off at this point and let them rest.  When I plugged them in again for a short test, another bulb started doing it.  For those not counting, that means that, out of my 10 spare bulbs, I now have two working ones remaining.  I E-Mailed CDI about it and I hope to hear back from him tomorrow.

Have you guys had failures like this?  I can understand losing 3-4 bulbs over the course of a season, but I am now really concerned that these things are cheap and defective, and by the time Christmas rolls around my strobe count will be reduced to one or two.  I've spoken with another person that uses strobes, and she tells me that, while they do typically have to replace a few per season, she's never had failures like what I'm experiencing.

Any advice would be much appreciated, especially if you have experience with this particular brand.

-Scott

... Scott, it is my understanding that these strobes should not be on for long periods of time. I was under the impression that 30 second bursts was about the limit. you mentioned 2 minutes on, I would think, from what I have gathered, that that is too long a period.

Can anyone with experience confirm or correct me on this? This will be my first year using strobes and I would like confirmation, please.

[George Simmons]

1 hour ago, saxon said:

... Scott, it is my understanding that these strobes should not be on for long periods of time. I was under the impression that 30 second bursts was about the limit. you mentioned 2 minutes on, I would think, from what I have gathered, that that is too long a period. 

I've never heard or read anything from a vendor regarding prohibitions on the length of time strobes can be used.  Given the way we use them, it's quite uncommon that anyone would consistently fire them for long periods of time.  (Plus, the WOW factor would go away quickly.)  But that doesn't mean you can't.

I also burn them in for a couple minutes, and have never noted any issues with doing that.  I've got a buddy who borrows a bunch of them for Halloween (puts them in pumpkins) and runs them continuously for three or four hours.  Never had any problems with any of those either.

Edited June 27, 2016 by George Simmons

[scodavis]

Thank you, everyone, for your responses.  When I contacted CDI last week, he responded a few hours later stating he was going to contact the vendor for more information.  I'm assuming that the vendor is in China, which will delay the response and possibly the solution, but I have no doubt this situation will be addressed.  I will post an update.

My primary purpose for making this post was to see if anybody else had a failure rate even close to this.  From the responses, it sounds like the answer is "no", which leads me to believe that either (a) a bad batch was produced or (b) CDI changed to a new vendor which produces an inferior product.

-Scott

[Darryl Lambert]

I lose about 10% per season but most of those failures were from Christmas lightshow & purchased probably 5+ years ago before they started coating the PCB board with conformal to protect them from moisture. 

On one set of strobes I bought, I can't remember from which vendor, it stated not to run them for more than 1 minute at a time.

[saxon]

Thanks George and Darryl.  I don't recall where I got that information just kept it in mind.

[scodavis]

I just wanted to post a final follow-up.  I wanted to also thank everybody who has posted.

Paul at CDI is sending my defectives back to China so that the vendor can figure out what went wrong.

Additionally, he sent me more new strobes - DOUBLE the number of defectives - so that I would be taken care of.  He tested all of them for 5 minutes prior to shipping as a burn-in test.

So, bottom line - I am very happy with him.  A great vendor.

-Scott