Control/Dimming Dimmers Not Responding

[lbcfrank]

We have 4 dimmer packs in sequence with addresses from 001 to 013. None of the 4 will respond to any commands from the controller. Tested the controller in another venue with 2 dimmers and they respond correctly. Tried one dimmer pack only on the controller. Again, would not respond to commands but works in manual mode. Is it possible that some kind of power surge has killed these 4 dimmer packs? They have worked flawlessly for several years but now non of them respond.

Frank Chyz
Media Director
Liberty Baptist Church
Ellenboro, NC

 

[WooferHound]

What Dimmers ?
What Console ?
What control signal ?

 

[lbcfrank]

What Dimmers ?
What Console ?
What control signal ?

Frank Chyz 2 of them are Matrix DMX Pro by Optima lighting (both around a year old) other 2 are from Techni-Lux around 6 years old. We tried each dimmer pack alone with a short cable from the controller. None of them work in the address mode only manual mode.

 

[dramatech]

THere is the possibility that some how the RS485 transceiver chips are blown. Open One of the units with the power disconnected and look for an integrated circuit with four pins on each side or a total of 8 pins. Look for numbers 75786 or 485. This chip probably needs to be replaced. You can get them from Mouser.com
If these dimmers were all daisy chained together and there was a power surge or lightning strike, it very well might take out this circuit in every unit. I have seen it happen on a whole string of scrollers . The first one in the daisy chain had the circuit blown in half and part of the board burned away. I was able to fix it with a socket and some thin wire, and of course the IC. Now you are probably saying these are dimmer packs not scrollers, but every device that receives DMX has one of the ICs.

 

[lbcfrank]

Thank you. I will open one up and see.