smartlink programming from remote station acting strange

we just installed new dimmers replacing our old non ETC dimmers  at our theatre. :)    we have three smartlink stations that will be used for house lights primarily   we programmed the presets setting the look  then pressing the desired button on the station for 5 seconds to program that preset..   this seemed to work fine  

 

the next day I went in and found that the presets had changed         I just figured that it was someone fooling aroung and had accidently reporgrammed it.    so I set about to reprogram it again with the intent to disable remote programming when I was done.   this is when the trouble started.  

 

I programmed the first preset at the smartlink statio.  tested it  and all was good.   then programmed the next.    and test it.  all was fine.   then I pressed the first preset only momentarily to test and it began to blink as though I was trying to program it!   not what I was doing.   frustrated I waited it out and programmed it again.   

Basically it seems start to blink then reprogram the preset to the current state when a button is pressed momentarily. and not for five seconds. not all the time just once in a while at random.  I have disabled remote programming and this prevents this from happening but I don't understand why it does this. 

 

  • David,

      I'm hoping by now you've contacted your local ETC Technical Service to discuss this issue. 

      If not, I can tell you that when I've seen these symptoms before it proved to be a problem with the cabling in the system.  Usually an incorrect cable or poor/broken connection.

      The way the smartlink system works, the button station sends out a message when a button is pressed and another when it is released.  It sounds as if the SmartLink station master is not receiving the "button up" message, so it thinks the button is still held down -- thus the remote record operation is activated.

      If you check out all your cabling and things seems fine, I would highly recommend giving a call to us or your favorite ETC technician a call to talk about this some more.

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