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    elzilcho
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Insight 1 Troubleshooting

Hello,

 

My non-profit recently acquired an old Insight 1 board which I am unsure if works. To begin with, I do not have a CGA monitor with a D9 connector so I cannot see what error messages if any the board is sending. When I turn it on, the green LEDs for channels 15, 25, and 35 are on, as well red LEDs next to each submaster fader. We can see we are in TRACK mode and on HOLD. 

Now, I've never used this board before, nor can I see what it is outputting to its terminal, so this may be perfectly normal behavior. But no amount of button pressing or fader movement changes the status of any of these LEDs. I'm working on getting an adapter cable so I can troubleshoot, but until then, can anyone tell me if this is usual behavior? 

 

(P.S.: Is an adapter cable from D9 to the standard VGA HD15 really all I need to get video from this thing? It seems like it can't possibly be that simple..)

 

See below.

 

This is the info on the back of the board:

Product: INSIGHT 72

Model #: INST-072-DMX-000-C

Serial #: 5/05/93 - INST-2409

 

 

 

Many many thanks for your consideration.

  • Where to start? You might have a long road ahead but start with:

    http://www.etcconnect.com/Support/Articles/CGA-Monitors.aspx

    http://www.etcconnect.com/Support/Articles/Sources-for-CGA-OR-Digital-RGB-Monitors-for-Older-Consoles.aspx

    Next: Are you familiar with lighting consoles in general? If yes, do you have the DMX output connected to working dimmers? Just from the photo I can see that you’re A/B and C/D fader pairs are both at 0. You should start with all 4 of those sliders at full or you will not be transmuting anything. Also the Grand Master at full.

  • in reply to mmeskill
    Hello Mike,

    First of all, thank you so much for the prompt reply! You guys have some amazing customer service.

    On to my questions, perhaps I should have been a little more specific. I've read both articles you posted, but I am confused by what it's saying. The "CGA Monitors" article states that you can get a CGA monitor, but that you also have the option of getting a "CGA to VGA converter". Presumably this is more than a simple cable adapter from DB9 to HD15. Do you know what sort of converter is needed?

    I am delivering the board to our theater today, where it will be hooked up to functional dimmers and fixtures, where we'll see what's what. But yes, even w/ the grandmaster at full and each of the submasters at full, the LEDs on the individual channels will not activate when the channel is up. Of course, this could be a non-issue if I find out the board is transmitting DMX anyway.

    Finally, I looked inside the console and found that someone has shorted the two wires which go into the power key switch, presumably because they at some point lost the key (they certainly gave us no keys). Is it fine that it is shorted like this?


    Again, a million thanks for your prompt attention!
  • in reply to elzilcho
    In general ETC tries to stay away from recommending any specific converter or CGA monitor as we have not ‘vetted’ any of them. A CGA to VGA converter would be a PCB of some sort. You can do a GOOGLE search and poke around {{maybe others on this Forum will have ideas for you}}
    It is a bit hard to do much trouble shooting until you have it hooked up to dimmers. It will also be hard to troubleshoot without having a working monitor (but not impossible).

    Out of curiosity, what console does the theatre use now? An Insight 1 is a very old board to be using so I cannot image what you are replacing. You can source several nice used consoles from usedlighting.com: several under $1,000

    www.usedlighting.com/.../etc
  • in reply to mmeskill
    I understand. I'll do the research and I'm sure I'll come up with something.

    To give you an idea of the theater, it was built in 1923 and still has the original manual dimmer rack with the huge switches and manual resistance dimmer plates. We recently retrofitted a couple of regular DMX dimmers into the dimmer rack, and ran DMX line to the front of the house where we're running a (I forget the brand) simple 2 scene 48/96 board, with no cue control or stacks other than the 2 scenes. The Insight is definitely an old board, but it would be an improvement at least as far as features are concerned.

    I'd love to buy something used, but we don't really have the budget for it, as we're mostly dependent on donations.

    I'll write back tonight when I have the board hooked up to the dimmers.
  • in reply to elzilcho
    Sometimes a CGI -> VGA is just an adaptor – it seems that lower quality VGA monitors will be able to lock-on to the slower horizontal refresh rate. I have found, in the past, that the “better” VGA monitors will detect the wrong refresh rate and refuse to work, where as the “cheaper” monitors just don’t care and do know any better than to work. Somewhere I can dig out my notes on building an adapter.

    The key switch was shorted when they discovered that a replacement #311 key is around $20!

    Anyway, I believe this board also used double-density floppies, so you will have to tape over the index hole on high density floppies….once you locate a source for discs. (maybe I have the double/high density mixedup?)

    But really, why are you trying to use this board?…I’ve been repairing ETC equipment for a very very very long time….and I think an Insight 1 was already old when I started. I think Insight 1 was replaced by Insight 2 around 1991 or so. I am looking at an Obsession 1 specsheet from 1992 claiming Obsession was built on 15 years of experience with Vission, Insights, etc.

    Good luck
    Bruce
  • The retro PC gaming community is a good source for info on CGA monitors (since early PC's used CGA). There are lots of videos on YouTube, and many forums scattered around the web.
  • When the board is turned off, Hold down the 7, 8, & 9 keys and turn it on while keeping the keys pressed. IIRC, this should do a deep clear and reset the console to the original settings. ALL DATA IN MEMORY WILL BE LOST!!!
    If those LEDs don't go out, there are bigger problems.
    Good luck,
    John
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