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Hi,

 

had a bit of a problem with my board last night - suddenly during the second cue of the show (a blackout) half of the lanterns came on and I had totally lost control of the board (all faders, grandmaster etc). After a few seconds some of the lanterns started to flash as if they were in a chase. We had no option to stop the show, clear the stage and restart the board after which it was all fine.

 

The board had been on for a few hours as I had been changing a few memories during the afternoon but I had checked through all the cues just before we opened the house (approx 30 mins before the incident happened) and it was all fine.

 

I'm chcking that all the software and everything is up to date this morning but thought i'd ask on here to see if anyone had had the same problem..

 

thanks in advance

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Hi,

 

Was the output window showing the same thing (all the channels flashing randomly)?

 

Did the lights stop flashing when you turned off the console, or when you turned it back on again?

 

The 50% of lights that were flashing - did they all have something in common (all on a single DMX line, all on a single DMX universe all plugged into the same dimmers etc etc)?

 

Do you have any fixtures, or is it an all generic rig? Are the DMX lines terminated?

Jon Hole
Global Product Manager, Systems and Control

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Hi,

 

to be honest i didnt notice as I am more than just the lighting operator so also had to worry about stopping the show and getting the cast off stage safely. We have a few LED parcans up and that dmx line is terminated.

 

Am in the process of updating the software this morning - when I turned the board on this morning all of the generic lanterns (everything in universe 1) came on full straight away (as the board was booting) and again I had no control over them - bringing the faders up and down affected the levels in the output window put did not dim the lights on stage...

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If you click 'Other Windows', and then choose 'DMX Window', the console shows you what it's physically outputting. Are the channels going between 0 - 255 there, or are they staying at full?

 

If you want to make double sure, take a short DMX cable from Output 1 to the DMX In on the console, and then in the DMX Window, click 'DMX In' - what are the channels doing there? If they are staying at full, we know the issue is with the console, if they aren't then the issue has to be with something after the console (dimmers maybe?)

Jon Hole
Global Product Manager, Systems and Control

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Hey,

 

Just so you know, we had the same issue with the demux a few years ago. Everything would be working fine, then bam, some lights would flicker, go 100% but the desk show no output but the dimmers showing input, i'd lose control and have to restart everything. First i thought it was the desk then then demux. So i had a play with the din cables, unplugged and rewired and it all worked. So during a show I was ordering some new leads to be delivered next day. New DIN leads arrived, plugged in and turned on and it did it again. So I just sent the unit back to Zero88 who bench tested it. Reporting to faults back, touch wood, it's all working fine still. Weird...

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This sounds more like a mains supply problem - I'd be checking the earth for the sockets supplying the demux, desk and then the power supply to the rack to ensure they're all on the same earth.

 

It's not unknown for unpredictable behaviour like this to be caused either by excessive noise on the earth - which confuses the DMX transceivers or for the Earth at one end to actually be a few volts higher than the other because of a faulty appliance elsewhere. The faulty appliance may not even be some of your equipment either :(

 

You also don't say what sort of lengths of cable your data cables are and whether you have a terminator fitted. It's possible if they're long or tortuous cable runs that a terminator may bring them back under control.

 

It's time to start a gradual 'tear down' and re-instate of the mains for the installation and looking at that rather than the kit connected to it.

 

Ian Knight aka The Service Guy - www.serviceguy.co.uk

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