Start at the wall and work back to the lamp
Diagnose in the order the light travels: surface, then focus, then gobo, then lamp, then power. That sequence finds most wedding light faults in under an hour, and it prevents the common mistake of replacing a perfectly good unit because the wall turned out to be the problem. Start by asking what changed — a fault that appeared overnight has a different cause from one that crept in over a season.
- What the surface looks like and how it is lit
- Whether the image is uniformly soft or soft at one edge
- When the fault started — overnight or gradually
- Whether anything on site changed at the same time
Blur: focus, surface and lens
A soft image that appeared gradually is usually contamination, not optics failure. Dust on the internal lens or a film on the gobo scatters light and lowers contrast, which reads as blur. Clean in the order the light travels and re-check before ordering anything.
The image is too dim
Check the easy things in order: lens cleanliness, ambient light at the working hour, image size. Halving the image area doubles the brightness at the wall, which is free. Only after those should you consider a higher output model — and if you do, note that going from 20 W to 80 W is a visible but not dramatic change.
- Clean the outer window and lens
- Measure ambient light at the working hour
- Reduce the image width and re-check contrast
- Run a full duty cycle and log the housing temperature
Colour and artwork faults
Most colour complaints turn out to be artwork, not hardware. A gobo engraved from a low-resolution file, or one where a gradient was converted to a coarse halftone, produces banding and muddy edges that look like a projector fault. Check the original file before ordering replacement optics.
- Compare against the install photograph
- Decide whether the whole image or part of it is affected
- Inspect the gobo against a light at an angle
- Check the original artwork file resolution
It cuts out, hums or trips
Intermittent faults are thermal or connection problems. A wedding light that runs for an hour then cuts out is overheating or has a marginal supply; one that hums has a driver or a transformer under load; one that trips a breaker usually has a genuine earth fault or an over-sized protective device. Log when it happens — after warm-up, at switch-on, or at random — and the pattern identifies the cause.
- Note when the fault occurs — at switch-on or after warm-up
- Measure the supply at the unit under load
- Check the housing temperature and ventilation
- Confirm the protective device is correctly sized
When to stop and call the manufacturer
Stop diagnosing and call when you have eliminated the three cheap causes: contamination, ambient light and supply. Before you do, gather the serial number, the install date, and a photograph of the image on the wall at the working hour. A supplier can usually resolve it from those without a site visit.
- Model and serial number
- Install date and daily run hours
- Throw distance and image width
- A photograph of the fault at the working hour
