Fixed: ReKe 500 X-axis broken

[pschlosser]

I purchased a ReKe 500 from a forum member and despite its relatively thorough packaging, it appears to be broken. With my limited knowledge, I would say the x-axis scanner (movement left to right) is not working.

 

[Jacob32123]

Re: ReKe 500 X-axis broken

I had a problem where the Y axis scanner would shift vertically by about 15 degrees. That was just enough that every time it hit the peak of it's travel, it would smack whatever stops it from spinning infinitely.

I opened it up and jiggled cords until one made the difference. It was visibly about half unplugged. Plugged it in, and no problems since.

I would recommend you try a similar approach. These are known for loose parts.

 

[Cyparagon]

Re: ReKe 500 X-axis broken

First rule of troubleshooting: thou shalt check voltages. Is the X-amp getting power? Is the X-amp getting a signal? If so, is the X-amp outputting a signal?

 

[pschlosser]

Re: ReKe 500 X-axis broken

Sweet suggestions, guys. She's working.

I found no loose connections, but pressed on every cable and terminal I could find. I was drawn to these tiny copper wires coming off the x-axis scanner (see attached) I prodded them, somewhat, with a pencil thinking if shipping could knock them loose, I should be able to see it. Nothing loose detected. Perhaps it was that, or the once over was all she needed. A good prodding can do wonders for anything referred to as "she."

She needs an alignment (no surprise, after shipping.)

I feel like I want to take this to work, tomorrow, and let her run for 8 hours.

What is the life of these diodes rated for? 5K hours or more? These are labbies, so I am expecting 8 hours of running shouldn't hurt her. She needs a good cleaning. There is aluminum dust all over the place. No doubt, she was rattled to heck in transit. And the mirrors on the galvo stems appear to be glued in place with hot glue. :wtf:

As cool as this seems, right now, she's no precision instrument.

I'm gonna being searching the forums for ReKe 500 and see what I can read. And I'll do a search on the net for a PDF manual, but my hopes aren't too high on the quality of what I might find. :shhh:

I predict an alignment thread can be found on LPF. If not, I'll make one. The community deserves it.

Edit 02: RTFM, "The duty cycle listed in the manual is 2 hours on with 15 minutes off."

 

[Cyparagon]

They wouldn't have used hot glue. The flexibility would mean a bad image. Epoxy is cheap; they wouldn't have skimped out there.

Alignment is simple. Near field, then far field. Make the colors overlap on the dicro first, then align the dots at a distance. Repeat if necessary.

 

[hakzaw1]

+3 rep for that post^^^& #3.
I had one with loose cable at one of the galvo amps - so that would have been my suggestion or try changing the pattern size- My 532 mono REKE has a finicky pattern size knob.

BTW 8 hours is how long you run a chi-jector when testing one to death. Two hours is a long laser show IMO.

 

[pschlosser]

My 532 mono REKE has a finicky pattern size knob.

Mine is noisy, too. I need to hit up digikey to see if I can find a better quality pot.

 

[hakzaw1]

Mine is noisy, too. I need to hit up digikey to see if I can find a better quality pot.

That would make a great tutorial for the ROG group members.
Also if you are up to it -- One member swapped out his mic for an AUX in and I think we would get a better response from the REKE to the music.

Good to hear your success with the first problem..

Your find QS FB3 to be great laser show SW and reach the full potential of your REKE and all the free complete laser 'songs' alone worth the cost. I have one new QS ready to ship. Also, they are easy to sell 'used' for very close to what you will pay when getting it from me. When I got my first REKE 500 and QS I took it to a friends Bday party and set it up so the image was up on the vaulted ceiling of his living room- I sat at my laptop and just 'played' along to the music.

Even though I was brand new to Quick Show everyone at the party really enjoyed this. The abstracts are great and you can overlap up to three of them layered and the REKE performed great.. Endless possibilities at your fingertips- the keyboard becomes a way to instantly show 60 different abstracts using upper and lower case- making the images change to the beat of the music is as easy as tapping your finger to the tempo. I could not wait to get a second REKE and a Y splitter( I have extras FS -cheapest anywhere)
For text you need two splitters as using just one makes the second PJ 'mirrored' from the other. With two you can run two PJs one way and a third mirrored for rear projection on a skrim-- I found a big skrim at a thrift shop for $2 as its only a large window sheer. While pointers and other handhelds are fun-- there is NO comparison to what you will experience with a RGB PJ and good SW.:wave: