ION crashes at multiple low dimmer levels

hmm.. I just opened a showfile on v1.9.6 on my Ion, and pressed Select All @ 20 ENTER.

And all lights went to 20% and the console is running fine.

Does this happen with anyshow file? Or just this showfile? Can you get us a copy of the Showfile?

Please also pull logs from the console (Displays -> Browser -> Exit Ion/Eos -> Settings -> Maintenance -> Save Logs) and email them to eos at etcconnect.com.

There might be other really useful data in those logs.

Just out of curiosity -- if you were to sneak/wheel them on and leave them for a half an hour, and then turn them off for a few seconds and back on again immediately, does this issue occur again?

Mmmm, my bet is the power draw of the lighting change dropped the voltage powering the Ion.

Rolling into the 20% on the wheel is "softer" on the electrical system then "popping" all the filaments to 20%.

Does the same thing happen if the client pops the rig to 50%, 80%??

Is this in an established theatre/venue, or somewhere in a one-off location (ballroom, gym)?

Andrew Riter

Hello,

Seems to be a voltage issue with a UPS reaction...the drop in voltage activates the UPS and reboots the board.  When taken off the UPS, the board does not hard-reset when all fixtures are taken to 20 (or any other value) , but interestingly enough, it does clear the command line and de-selects the channels page so you can not simply hit OUT, you must type the channels back in to activate the channel display and take them out.

Matt,

What kind of UPS are you using?  Some cheaper ones don't handle low voltage very well or chopped waveforms (if there's something causing a lot of harmonics in the power supply).  If the UPS is trying to boost the incoming power without switching to battery, it might not be able to do so cleanly.  Most UPS's that are above consumer grade units will have settings for voltage regulation that will allow you to adjust when it switches to battery.

Your situation could be worse- I had a faulty 3200A switchgear breaker that would trip (and dump all power to two theaters) when I brought up a (small) rig to 11%.  Repeatably- and only at 11%.  Needless to say, it got replaced...

-Todd

This sounds like an issue with the facility's power and/or UPS, not the console.  (See Todd's post above).

Voltage drops can cause some erratic behavior on an unprotected console.  But in any case, you can always type [Select Last] or {Select Manual} (accessed by pressing and holding Select Last and then the softkey), and then [Out].