I bought two ADJ Rollers...

The DJ Roller is a fledgling to the acrobat. I'm not sure who came out the the barrel scanner first, but this does pretty much the same thing as the acrobat.

I bought them both on e-bay for $90 each. One worked perfect since it was a demo. The second one had issues. It fired up just fine, but the barrel wouldn't rotate, even though it swiveled back and forth. So, I bought another spin motor from ADJ and installed it. That didn't fix the problem. I just ordered a new PCB (control board) and I'll see if that fixes the problem. I have my fingers crossed.

Keep in mind, that most of your busted lighting fixtures can be fixed, if you have any mechanical ability, you aught to try and fix them. Ask here... one of the reasons this forum exists.

I bought 4 DJ Scans used for $150 (including cables). They all needed sockets and bulbs and one needed a mirror. Oh yeah, I dropped one and broke the motor.

By the time it was all said and done, I have less than $250 into an intelligent light show (not counting my controller). :sqbiggrin:

Barrel mirrors are the "rage" right now. The Acrobat is now out of production with the last one available being sold by Centerstage, last week.

I watch e-bay for lighting equipment and have discovered that Centerstage has the best prices anywhere, for new and used gear. Not to mention the best costumer service available anywhere... bar none.

Way back when, when I was just learning DMX, their staff helped me out via e-mail and phone consultations. I'll never forget that they helped me. That's why I do all my business with them.

Anyway, there are a lot of barrel mirror scanners available, with prices that start around $189 for new. Check out Chauvet and ADJ if the Martin prices scare you.. Both have middle range gear with pretty good functions on their scanners.

I just bought several "DJ Rollers", which were the earlier ADJ version of the Acrobat by Martin. ADJ started it all about ten years ago, and everyone is now jumping on the band wagon.

If you haven't seen a barrel scanner in action, go to any vendor website and watch their videos. It's a pretty cool effect. Prices now range from $189 to about $699.

...and discovered something interesting. When the barrel rotation channel is set to zero, the barrel rotates rapidly clockwise. In order to stop the rotation, you have to set channel two to 50% or about 128. At 255 it rotates rapidly counter clockwise.

So, when you go to "blackout" on the DMX controller, the signals to the fixtures stop, and channel two drops to zero... which of course is rapid CW rotation. Probably why ADJ stopped making this model. The motor runs all night, spinning the barrel when you are blacked out.

Now I think I'll get rid of these and buy a better barrel scanner.

Any offers on two nice working used units and one not working nice unit (three total)?

I bought 4 DJ Scans used for $150 (including cables). They all needed sockets and bulbs and one needed a mirror. Oh yeah, I dropped one and broke the motor.

By the time it was all said and done, I have less than $250 into an intelligent light show (not counting my controller). :sqbiggrin:

dude, thats great!~

I used to own 4 - Chauvet Explorer Plus models. They are a roller DMX light. No problems for 3 years. Sold them all with a padded box container and 4 extra bulbs for 750.00

Since then I've upgraded to 2 - Chauvet Q-roll msd 250. and 2 - Chauvet ILS Trackscan msd 250.

I love the roller stuff. Pretty cool, but since I can't get my Elation Power Spot 250's right now, I had to settle for the trackscans.....but I'm glad I did. The whole show looks good with my 8 pars and 2 Diversitronic Strobes. I'll post pics up here someday....

Thanks tyrone for your generous input!