Bad Phone call... "The light board won't turn on."

[gafftaper]

We had a fun final dress rehearsal tonight. About an hour and a half before curtain I was off at Subway grabbing some dinner when I got a call... "Where are you? The light board won't turn on!" Got back to the theater 5 minutes later and the year old Strand Classic Palette is just dead. Fortunately, thanks to the cool way Strand has granted their system rights. All I had to do was open the hood of the console, pull the USB Key, and my USB backup Drive, plug them in another computer on the network and in about 5 minutes I was running the show from another computer. So we were able to run the show normally using the backup computer. The PC backup system is fully functional but awkward. I believe you can't do that on an ETC with the way their Dongle works... +1 Strand.

On the other hand my year old console is dead. It shut down last night like normal. It runs through a UPS which appears to be working fine. I flip the switch... nothing. I'm guessing it's just the internal power supply gone bad. Having talked with him in the past about other issues, I immediately called and e-mailed Strand's Field Service Manager but he was out of the office for the night. I also put in a call and e-mail to our local authorized service guy but again he was gone. +1 ETC for that 24 hour customer service number!

While this sounds like something for the punching booth or what went wrong, I thought it belonged here as it will be a good oportunity to see, in real time, what Strand's customer service is like these days. I've been telling you for a while that I think things are improving significantly at Strand. This is a great chance to see if I'm right.


As for what caused it...
Around 2 am yesterday, while doing some final painting, one of the students said the name of the Scottish Play. He then declared he was not superstitious and refused to follow the proper cleansing ritual. I think we all know what caused this and who needs to be sacrificed for the good of the community. Get your pitchfork and torch!

[Sony]

That sucks man! Hope you get it fixed and it's coll to hear about the Strand PC functionality. I am not sure how the ETC Ion software works exactly, I'm not sure if it can run independently of the board or if it is basically just a complex RFU which needs the board to be connected to the network in order to use. I think it's the latter unfortunately.

As for the student...I think it's time for a witch hunt! BURN HIM!!! [Insert Evil Laughter Here]

[gafftaper]

I believe I was told by Jmabray a while back that the ETC approach is the Dongle allows you access to be on the system, but you always have to have the console online running things.

[jmabray]

Yep. As of right now that's the way it works. Strand does have some nice features about their product line, to be sure.

[gafftaper]

8:45 am the next morning. I got a phone call from Strand. There is no processor nearby for them to get me today. They will send me one via overnight shipping and arrange for the local authorized service guy to install it tomorrow. The Strand guy feels it's most likely just a bad power supply so he is going to try to find a spare power supply and ship that to me as well so if it happens again I can replace it myself. So far so good.

[Esoteric]

Dont forget -1 Strand for a one year old console dying.

Mike

[jmabray]

I would say only -.5 for that.

Like I said in another post, everything is going to break - it just is - there's not much you can do about it. It is how you, as a company, support your product once it does break. It seems as though they have made Gafftaper happy, which is the ultimate goal.

Good for them!

[Esoteric]

To each his own. That would not have made me happy. Plus a 1 year old console should not break. Now at 3+ years okay. But never at one year.

Mike

[gafftaper]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

Dont forget -1 Strand for a one year old console dying.
Mike

Good point. We are guessing it's just a dead power supply. I haven't opened up the internal processor box but I'm assuming it's just a standard off the shelf PC power supply in there. That's great because it's a cheap and easy for repair. Years from now I could potentially take my light board to the local computer repair guy to get it fixed. Unfortunately, if that's the case, it's unusual but not THAT unusual for a normal PC power supply to go bad after a little over a year of use. While most last 3-5 years, I've had power supplies on my home computer that barely last a year.

On the new consoles is ETC using a standard PC power supply, some sort of custom built power supply, or a wall/floor wart? If they are also going with PC power supplies, they are going to occasionally have similar early failures it's just the nature of power supplies.

[Footer]

Nothing annoyed me more then the express and its power supply. Can not tell you how many times I have forgot those things. Everything should take a UPC cable. Everything.

My new feeling is everything should take either a USB to charge it or a standard PC power supply. Also, laptop power supplies should be standardized. I think I could build my presidential platform on that.