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    lpint
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Problem getting some equipment to work

I have an Express 48/95 running 2 sensor racks of 96 dimmers each.  The dimmers are wired to circuits throughout the auditorium.  I'm having trouble with 2 circuits on one of the catwalks.  This is in a public High School that is about 12 years old.  I'm sure these circuits worked at one time, but I don't really know when I last used them.  (Though I'm pretty sure one of them worked when I first hooked up the pars a week ago.)

Dimmer 19 is patched to channel 56 in the board.  Dimmer 24 is patched to channel 54.  When I bring up either of those two channels, the pars attached to those circuits do not come up.  The pars work when connected to other circuits and other known good fixtures do not work on those two circuits.  The display for the board indicated that the channels are going up to full as expected with slider movement.  The dimmers in the rack show that they are receiving signal.

I have double (triple, etc) checked the patching.  I have checked that the profiles for both dimmers are set to linear.  I have checked that neither dimmer is set to a limit.  I have swapped dimmers in the rack and the problem did not move.  I patched one of the dimmers into a different channel on the board, but that did not work either.

The only thing that's left that I can think of is the wire running from the dimmer rack to the fixture.  Other than the pigtail, the wiring is all in metal enclosed channel and conduit.

Anyone have any other suggests for me to try?

TIA

Larry

 

Parents

  • Check the Park page - Softkey 6 ? (or scroll thru softkeys till you find Park), to verify the dimmers are not parked at zero or out.  Dimmer - Release - Release, and Channel - Release - Release I believe is the syntax for clearing all parked dimmers and channels in Park.

    Verify in Patch that you don't have the dimmer Patched a level of zero - "Dimmer 24 & 54 Full",  maybe pressing Enter (can't remember exact syntax - I've been on the Ion 6 mos. now).

    I'd also Park the dimmers to full, (doing it in Park allows multiple dimmers to be set at a value, which you cannot do Live, thus saving you a trip back to the console to check the 2nd dimmer), then check the dimmers themselves to see if you have a green Signal LED lit, indicating correct signal from the console. 

    "II have swapped dimmers in the rack and the problem did not move"

    Problem not migrating with the dimmer usually indicates good circuit breakers and power cube SSR's, so either console or wiring, or obscure but possibly someone mucked around with the dimmer rack control electronic module (CEM) to over-ride dimmer settings).

    Steve B.

     

     



    [edited by: Steve Bailey at 3:43 PM (GMT -6) on Sat, Apr 3 2010]
  • in reply to Steve Bailey

    I think I checked the park already, but I will double check it and probably also release all dimmers and channels from park.

    Dimmers do show the green signal LED lit.  Dimmers are not patched to a reduced level.

    Thanks,

    Larry

  • in reply to lpint

    If you are getting signal, it seems that the console is talking to the dimmers correctly, but  just to check, what happens when you bring up the dimmers from the CEM on the rack? If they respond correctly from the CEM then the problem is between the dimmers and the board. If they don't come up from the CEM, then it is most likely a wiring problem between the rack and the unit. Assuming that you have tails coming off of a raceway in your catwalk, I would guess that you've got a bad connection in the connector on the tails. 

    HTH,

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  • in reply to lpint

    If you are getting signal, it seems that the console is talking to the dimmers correctly, but  just to check, what happens when you bring up the dimmers from the CEM on the rack? If they respond correctly from the CEM then the problem is between the dimmers and the board. If they don't come up from the CEM, then it is most likely a wiring problem between the rack and the unit. Assuming that you have tails coming off of a raceway in your catwalk, I would guess that you've got a bad connection in the connector on the tails. 

    HTH,

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