You Won't Believe This

[cupcake]

Ok, everyone here will get a kick out of this, I promise... because the only thing you can do is laugh at it.
Our Schools big production is coming up on Nov 22 (opening) on Friday (Nov 11) my lighting designer was in and with a few members of my crew putting up lights, as I walk in, they are installing the hardware upgrade from the LX board. They turn the board on, the over temp light comes on, and the board catches on fire, we bring in an ETC Express, to use from another school in town. And after it's set up, we turn the board on and we wait.... nothing, the Dimmer control Module is SHOT in the highest degree. I call NSI and I’m promised a new control module and board the next morning by 9 am. Nothing comes in and at noon I call the company and they say "FedEx doesn't run on the weekends" I laugh in their face and now I’m freaking out just a little. Seeing how one of my dimmer racks is useless until I get a new control module. Somebody want to venture a theory on how the dimmer control module got shot? We know the board got shot because the hardware upgrade (a cable line with 3 resisters and 12 pins, of which the number 7 pin shorted and bled into pins 1-6.) plainly failed in the highest of highs. Ahhhhh.... theories anyone? 8O

[JahJahwarrior]

Originally Posted by cupcake

They turn the board on, the over temp light comes on, and the board catches on fire

sorry, I can't be of much help, but I love how nonchalantly techies can talk about fire! sig worthy quote!

[SketchyCroftPpl]

Ouch. That really sucks. We don't use Dimmer Racks so I can't really say any advice, but just wondering, do you know what your school is going to do about the blown board?

~Nick

[cupcake]

well since it was the fault of the hardware upgrade i got on the horn and they school isn't going to do anything, the blown board will be thrown out, and NSI is sending us a new board.

[Inaki2]

I've seen things like this happen before. Even lightning travelling through a console and blowing the dimmers, leaving the console unscatched.

The same short that blew up the console may have caused a spike in the DMX output section and blown the dimmer module. That'd be my first theory with the info you gave us.

[soundlight]

When you get the new deal, i think that Doug Fleenor makes some kind of DMX filter that makes sure that spikes and overloads can't go from the board to the dimmers. It plugs in at the console end (or close to it), and filters the DMX output to prevent spikes and blips that can be sent through consoles. It also decreases the chance of flickering over long cables. Might be a really good investment considering...

[cupcake]

what are we talking in terms of coin?
Luke

[CHScrew]

Bad Luck.

[soundlight]

fifty bucks. it's called the dmx terminator, and it plugs in to the dmx thru output of the last dmx device in your chain of dimmers, intels, whatever. from what i see, you'll just plug it in to the dmx output of your dimmer control module.

read about it here:
http://dfd.com/term.html

for another two hundred bucks, you can get a dmx line isolator that protects your console from your dimmer screwing up, just the opposite of the above device. it plugs in outside your console and protects it from anything that the dimmers can throw at it.

read about that here:
http://dfd.com/opto.html

good luck with a new console & dimmer control module

[Inaki2]

Well, a terminator is a different thing, it won't prevent spikes since it it in the end of the line. A terminator prevents data from "reflecting" back into the signal causing weird things to happen.

An opto-isolated buffer box or splitter will isolate the DMX output from the rest of the signal by means of an optical emmitter and sensor. Thats what you're wanna go after to protect your gear.