Lighting system shutting off randomly.

[RFazz15]

Last Night my high school had it's annual Broadway Night production (an end of the year show where we perform different numbers from shows and do skits and what not) and in addition to performing, I had the pleasure of throwing together a last minute lighting design. The entire cast stayed after school until the show to do a run through. I put some pretty simple stuff together in about an hour and during the rehearsal I was going over how I programmed the board with the kid who was running it. I went to slide up a few channels and when I did the lights on stage flickered and dropped out completely, leaving the stage in a blackout. I restarted the board and everything started to work fine, so I tried to see what exactly caused the issue. I messed around with a couple of channel sliders and found out that it only occurred when I faded them up quickly. So, I told my board op. to make sure he faded everything slowly and fortunately everything worked fine throughout the show. My high school uses a Lehigh Millennium, and it's already had a few problems. When I was in my first show in 9th grade a few years back, our in-school show got delayed because in the middle of the performance the DMX cable somehow died and they couldn't control the lighting. My school was only built in 2004 so the equipment is relatively "new," but the board hasn't been serviced or checked out at all during that time. I think a lot of the problems stem from the fact that our music department has poorly trained students run the board for concerts, and none of them can be bothered to shut down the board correctly. I don't really have that much leverage when it comes to anything like this, but I was wondering for my own sake, what could have caused the entire system to blackout?

[cpf]

What kind of board do you have? Does it only occur when you fade all the way up and hit the end stop?

This sounds like it could be a mechanical issue with the linear pots attached to the sliders. I've seen ones where it's possible to ride the moving element all the way off the resistive element in the pot.

[NickVon]

What kind of board do you have? Does it only occur when you fade all the way up and hit the end stop?

This sounds like it could be a mechanical issue with the linear pots attached to the sliders. I've seen ones where it's possible to ride the moving element all the way off the resistive element in the pot.

This sounds very likely for the problem you addressed. It's something that I think would be an easy low cost fix/maintenance on teh board by any respectable shop.

[RFazz15]

You guys should probably know that I'm 17, a junior in high school, and know absolutely NOTHING about electricity other than the basics I've learned in an AP Physics class. I can tell you what a voltage source and resistor look like on a circuit diagram, that's about it! It actually makes me really upset when I visit this forum and realize that there's still so much I need to learn. But thank you guys for providing some sort of diagnosis, whether I can understand it or not (wikipedia definitely helped me out a little ) I'm secretly kind of hoping that the board breaks beyond repair so that the district is forced to invest in a new one...But from what I understand my district in general is pretty conservative, so who knows where that would go.

[cpf]

You guys should probably know that I'm 17, a junior in high school, and know absolutely NOTHING about electricity other than the basics I've learned in an AP Physics class. I can tell you what a voltage source and resistor look like on a circuit diagram, that's about it! It actually makes me really upset when I visit this forum and realize that there's still so much I need to learn. But thank you guys for providing some sort of diagnosis, whether I can understand it or not (wikipedia definitely helped me out a little ) I'm secretly kind of hoping that the board breaks beyond repair so that the district is forced to invest in a new one...But from what I understand my district in general is pretty conservative, so who knows where that would go.

Depending on the age of the board, you may be able to bring up the topic of a repair, and lay out options for an upgrade ($xxx to keep this board going for another 6 months, or $xxxx for a new one that will last at least 15 years maintenance-free). Without knowing what model of board this is, and assuming the issue is what I said it was, I would say that this repair is definitely something best left to a professional, lest you end up with a completely dead board.

Of course, you say your facility is new-ish, so assuming the board was in good condition when it was installed, there are probably bigger issues. Probably with the people who have used it in the past (or are currently using it), but maybe also with the environment it's living in.

Edit: oops sorry, did not see the board mentioned in your post.

[RFazz15]

Well, I said in my first post that my school uses a Lehigh Millennium console. And the last point you made is actually what I think the issue was caused by. Since it's a windows based console, you have to go through a certain shut down procedure. It only takes a couple of clicks 1. Find "File" in the interface 2. Save show 3. wait for a screen telling you you're clear and shut down the board with it's own power switch. These instructions are printed and taped on the table next to the board, but I know that nobody can be bothered with following the first two steps because I frequently turn on the board to a blue screen telling me the console wasn't properly shutdown, and then it screws me over by freezing scene A and only allowing me to utilize scene B, then I have to go through the process of restarting the board to get it to work. There really shouldn't be a problem with the environment it's in though because we don't even try to get close to what it's capable of doing. It's marketed as a moving light console, but we only use conventionals. It has 48 faders on a scene, but the crew adviser who designs our musicals has only ever used a max of 19 channels, and when we have it patched for concerts and other things we only use 3 channels. I can't remember anyone other than myself ever using cues or submasters and I don't think anyone knows how to use them. We keep it dust free and cover the board and its monitor after every use. So I don't think environment has anything to do with damage. Perhaps it could just be poor quality equipment? I think I've seen a few people on here talk about how they don't like the manufacturer, and I know personally we had an issue where a bunch of our circuits weren't distributing power to the fixtures. When a group came into to check out the problem, they discovered that the dimmers assigned to those circuits were supposedly damaged. I think we're at the point though where we're having so many problems that investing in a new console or repairs is inevitable, because I was speaking today to one of our custodians who's our set/lighting designer and when he checked in while he was on vacation a lot of people were complaining of problems they were having with it. Who knows, I graduate next year anyway and then I get to go on to college, hopefully one that employs an ETC console in their theatre...

[RFazz15]

Additionally, you would be correct in thinking our facility/equipment would be nice considering its age, but our district took way too many shortcuts and made to many design flaws. I go to school in New York and they designed the building with butterfly roofs. They fixed the leaks, but we went through a few years where garbage pails were set up on stage to collect rain water, something our crew affectionately termed "roof juice" because of it's murky color. I remember a few years ago I worked a county wide music concert in a storm, and it was quite literally raining on stage. With all of this going on, our assistant superintendent of music had the nerve to criticize what I was doing...In fact, we have one leko that's rusted from water running over it. Surprisingly, it still works.

[TimMiller]

Faders go bad due to dust and debris, also from abuse. Moving parts only last so long. The problem of power not getting to your fixtures was probably an issue in the dimmer system from the sound of it which has nothing to do with the console. If you want to start teaching yourself electronics best way to start is go to radio shack and get one of those electronic labs where you build different projects. Try to get one that has logic circuits also. The kit will teach you what each component does how it works and how to identify it. It also teaches you how to read electronic diagrams. That's how I learned and I wasted lots of Saturdays playing with it.

[FMEng]

Shutting down the console incorrectly can lead to corrupted software. Damaged files could certainly lead to odd and unpredictable behavior. Send the beast back to Lehigh for a going over. They should be able to repair for very reasonable cost.