Colorsource Pars come to full when Eos shuts down

This has been an ongoing situation for about a year, and I can't seem to find a logical explanation. I have three pipes with 6 each Colorsource Pars as diagonal backlight, each pipe with its own opto-splitter and all three in the same gateway. If I leave the rig powered on but shut off the desk, sometimes there's no problem, sometimes one pipe's worth of CS Pars will stay on at full open white, and tonight all three pipes and all 18 fixtures came on. I powered the Eos Ti back on and off, the lights were off, but about 5 minutes later they returned to full.

We have never used any presets or sequences with these fixtures, they get hung in different locations and re-addressed frequently, and sometimes sit on a shelf for a couple weeks at a time. I have to leave the rig powered for several weeks sometimes, because our 6 I Cues lose focus pallet references when powered down. My solution for now is to leave the power and the desk on while in a show run, but that's not ideal for long runs.

Can anyone find a rhyme and reason for this to happen in the first place, and in such a non predictable pattern?

Thanks all

Tom White

Head Electrician, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

San Francisco

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0 corey cascio over 8 years ago

Hi Tom,

Most likely they have a preset active. When DMX is present, presets are ignored. When DMX goes off, the preset activates. Its just one single mode button press to activate the preset before dmx is connected.
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0 abctwhite over 8 years ago in reply to corey cascio

Thanks Corey, how does one de-activate a preset? and if we've never actively used presets, is the one causing this a default preset? And if so, why has the problem been sort of random over time? Head scratching continues.
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0 corey cascio over 8 years ago in reply to abctwhite

Page 5 of the CS Par Guide explains how mode and presets work:

When DMX is not present, and you press the Mode button, presets/seq are activated. When you press again, they are deactivated.

You wrote that the addresses are constantly being changed by your crew so it seems likely that they sometimes press the mode button.

Only one fixture in the line needs to have his preset active and all respond when dmx is gone.
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0 corey cascio over 8 years ago in reply to corey cascio

And if after you turn off Eos the lights stay off for 5 mins and then jump on, some where im the data line you have a hold last look function active that releases then after 5 minutes - maybe in your splitter?
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0 abctwhite over 8 years ago in reply to corey cascio

I'm pretty sure that function is not active in the gateway or the splitters,is it possibly in the Eos?
By the way, looking at the updated CS Par installation guide (mine was only 4 pages), is there a need to update firmware in the fixtures? We've owned our D60 Vivids, LED series 2s and CS Pars for a little over a year now, and I haven't been keeping up on firmware changes for them. We are about to purchase 24 more LED Series 2s and am wondering if the firmware is the same as for our earlier purchase. I see there's a updater guide which I'll download and look at.
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0 abctwhite over 8 years ago in reply to corey cascio

Corey, thanks again. Today I came in early and checked each pipe and as you thought, one fixture per pipe was set to Preset Mode with power off. When I hit the MODE button again all the CS Pars went out. Funny thing though, when I hit the MODE button again, not only those pars, but 5 Vivid D60's and 2 LED 2's also came to full. They weren't on with the original problem.

Anyway thanks for walking me through the fix.
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0 corey cascio over 8 years ago in reply to abctwhite

Hi Tom,

I am glad you got that figured out.

All ETC LED Fixtures which are RDM-able (CS, S4 LED and Desire) will react to a preset recall

on the same unmodified DMX line. So if you recall preset 3 on a CS Par on a pipe which has

also Desire and S4 LEDs connected to it, then also the Desire and S4 LEDs will recall their Preset 3

at that same Moment.

Since I am not there, I cannot tell you why the Desire and S4 LEDs didn't go on when you originally noticed the CS Pars jump on,

but I can guess that maybe they did not have power on or did not have their DMX connected at that exact moment

the CS originally got their preset recalled, and then they won't recall a present preset when they are connected later.

Clear? Have fun with your LEDs and the plethora of colors available!
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0 abctwhite over 8 years ago in reply to corey cascio

Thanks again Corey, I'll delve into the D60/LED2 more, as the power and data were present at first loss of dmx. You've been a big help and yes, we are enjoying the benefits of a newly hybridized LED/conventional lighting plot, adding four more LED 2 systems to our rig next month!
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0 corey cascio over 8 years ago in reply to abctwhite

I don't mean if they had power/dmx when the power was orginally lost, rather if they had power and dmx connected to the CS Par when the CS Par recalled the Preset originally. That was probably not the case. Those Desire/LED must be connected with dmx to the CS Par and powered in the exact moment when the CS Par recalls his preset. If not, then they won't have recalled their preset. Just because a fixture is in a preset and you connect new fixtures, they won't automatically match their presets to the ones they are connected to.
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0 abctwhite over 8 years ago in reply to corey cascio

Ok yes that makes sense. All the LED fixtures on each location are powered together and share the same dmx data chain, so when the preset in the CS Par was recalled, the Seladors and LED2s also came on to their background presets.
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0 abctwhite over 8 years ago in reply to corey cascio

Ok yes that makes sense. All the LED fixtures on each location are powered together and share the same dmx data chain, so when the preset in the CS Par was recalled, the Seladors and LED2s also came on to their background presets.
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