Sensor Classic - Lights go out, then come back

Hi folks, been having a weird issue that i suspect might be one of my Sensor Classic racks that controls the house lights in my venue.... This occurs when the lights in that rack have been off for a period of time, and then are brought back up to full. The lights will go out for a second, then come back up. The first time I really noticed was when a guest LD had taken control of my system from a GrandMA2 via sACN, to an ETC 4-port gateway (firmware version 7.1.0.9.0.5). I was able to recreate the issue multiple times, both from own console (Eos Ti v3.1.3 b8) via Net3 through the same gateway, and my DMXcat (bypassing the gateway). I have also noticed the same thing happening when I take control of the house lights from our Unison wall stations. I haven't had a chance yet to watch the dimmer rack at the time the issue occurs.

Has anyone experienced something like this before? Any thoughts on what else I might be able to check or look for? The dimmer racks here are 25 years old, so I suppose it's not out of the realm of possibility that the control electronics are starting to fail just from age.

Thanks in advance for your help!

mmeskill over 1 year ago

I’d start with air flow to the rack. Lights might come on and then blink off and back on if:

filters not clean

CEM air flow sensor falling out of calibration slowly

rack fan delay in spinning up to speed

you could try to test by putting a fan in front of the rack with the door open and blowing into the CEM. Then bring the house up and see if you still have the same issue
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AMTLighting over 1 year ago in reply to mmeskill

Thanks for the tips! I did check the air flow, and as far as I can tell, the fan is definitely pulling air through, and the filters look clean. I did not notice significant delay in the fan spinning up when the lights come up. As for the air low sensor, that sounds like something that would warrant a call to tech support, but at least I have somewhere to start.
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mmeskill 12 months ago in reply to AMTLighting

Does your CEM have an AirFlow Snorkel installed?

If not, you can call ETC TS and we will send one out at no cost.
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AMTLighting 11 months ago in reply to mmeskill

Thanks! I'll check on this and report back as soon as I'm able.
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AMTLighting 11 months ago

To give everyone an update on this.... I haven't had this issue with my house lights for a week or two now. But today, I noticed it's spread to some of my stage lights, the dimmers of which are in a different Sensor rack. I haven't been able to investigate further, but it worries me now that whatever is happening, might now be a system-wide problem, not just one rack.
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AMTLighting 11 months ago in reply to mmeskill

upon further inspection, it turns out only two of my five CEMs have this installed, and as far as I can tell, they are clear and free of dust. Oddly enough, it's the two that have them that are giving the most trouble.
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