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    jhamil
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Which Dimmer to Which Theatre?!?!

Hiya,

I'm new to my surrounding theatre and the Director never paid attention during install last winter to answer my questions. I'm the Volunteer Tech assistant, now Master Electrician, cause I kept fixing stuff. We have 2 Sensor+ Racks serving our 2 Theatres. Our Large Theatre has an Ion Board with RFR and 113 Physical Dimmer Circuits wired so they balence their load between the 3 phases and both Dimmer Racks. Small Theatre has a Strand board and 36? Channels (don't use Small Theatre myself) wired same as Large Theatre.

I have fast fingers and turn on channels in the Small Theatre while working in Large Theatre using the RFR.  I don't have access to the Small Theatre light board to turn them off. I don't think it would help anyways (Highest Takes Precidents would take place, correct?) I've been leaving them on until I'm done for awhile and using syntax "113 thru 3000 @ out 'enter' " to turn them off.

How to find the 'channel numbers' for the Small Theatre to be entered in the Large Theatre's Ion Light Board?

Thanks in advance for the help!!

BTW: It might take a few times to get it right, I'm busy learning the Light, Sound, AND Video systems while attempting to un-cluster-muck them.

Parents

  • HI jhamil.

    Sounds like the Strand console is speaking DMX to the dimmers, and the ION is on the network (if it has control of the small theatre as well). There are a number of things that could be playing here to enabled or disable access to dimmers on the small theatre depending on how the system data wiring was run, and what configuration was setup in the dimmer racks. I would recommend the simple path of narrowing it down the range with the console unless you have access to the racks configuration. E.g.

    Run the console 1000-2000. @ full. If the small theatre comes up.. your closer. Go to 1000-1500.... and narrow it down.

    If your not up for this -- who installed the system? What ETC dealer? Find this out, and I bet they would know. Of course if you give us a call too, we could probably trace some info down based on the name of your facility. (800-688-4116 ask for tech service).

     

  • in reply to mskurla

    If you're flashing out a large range of dimmers, don't use @Full!

    Use 15-20%. This is bright enough to be easily visible (unless the shutters are completely closed), but low enough that the majority of theatre won't blow the main fuse.

    Generally, this kind of system would have a sensible 'break' point between the two spaces, such as dimmer 1001, so look at the labels on the racks if you can't get hold of the original dealer.

    Once you've found the first dimmer in the Small Theatre, then you can set up the allowed addresses in the Ion to stop you accidentally turning the wrong lights on.

    • On the Ion, open the Browser and then choose "Exit Ion".
    • You'll get a menu with Primary, Offline etc buttons
    • Click on the Settings button.
    • Choose the "Network" section.
    • Near the bottom is "Allowed Addresses"
    • Remove the existing range (probably 1-32767), and replace it with a range that goes from 1 to the maximum before you control the small theatre.
      • Eg, if the Small Theatre starts at 1001, create the range 1 to 1000
    • Click "Apply"

    This will make it impossible for the Ion to accidentally control dimmers in the Small Theatre.
    - Obviously you can change that range later as required.

  • in reply to Richard

    THe Dimmer Modules are labeled according to their 'Channel #'. Rack 1 has only 1 set of numbers and probly is for Large theatre. Rack 2 has duplicate numbers 1 thru 37. I like the idea of disabling the address range for the small theatre dimmers. Now have found a great use for my misfoutune.

     

    Wer're doing a Night Mare before Christmas Haunted House throughout ourTheatre Department. Would be cool to run the lighting through our Ion.

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  • in reply to Richard

    THe Dimmer Modules are labeled according to their 'Channel #'. Rack 1 has only 1 set of numbers and probly is for Large theatre. Rack 2 has duplicate numbers 1 thru 37. I like the idea of disabling the address range for the small theatre dimmers. Now have found a great use for my misfoutune.

     

    Wer're doing a Night Mare before Christmas Haunted House throughout ourTheatre Department. Would be cool to run the lighting through our Ion.

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