StephenParticipatesInTech
Member
EQUIPMENT (for reference)
175 circuits with ETC sensor modules
3 ETC CEM+ head units
2 large racks (unfamiliar with model)
1 smaller rack with phase loss detection (unfamiliar with model)
Unison control system (unfamiliar with model name, but if provided with a picture I can confirm/deny whether it's the right one)
Main Board - ION XE-20
All dimmer racks are connected using a 24-port cisco/linksys switch - with the dimmer packs being the only thing connected to it
DMX runs on 2 lines using DMX A and B on the CEM+ head units, one being the main board and the other being for unison control
Now here's gonna be a long one. I'm having an intermittent issue where someone will turn off the lights using a unison touch panel, which will either work as intended, not do anything, or in a rare situation, cause every dimmer rail to start rapidly flashing. Apparently, this has been an ongoing issue, where it would happen once or twice a month (I'm not sure if it only happens using the unison system or both using the board and unison) but it has ramped up to being more frequent, happening almost every day. For fairly obvious reasons, and with a large production happening in the coming weeks, this issue is simply detrimental for both fire safety reasons and audience enjoyment. Heres everything I know.
Any information is helpful, especially if there's any nice settings I may not know about, being new to ETC architectural controls and their dimmer racks.
As always, working on a budget here and replacing the fan with an OEM model is surprisingly expensive and there is going to be an LED refresh coming soon so that's why the seemingly obvious fix is being questioned first.
Thanks!!
Stephen
175 circuits with ETC sensor modules
3 ETC CEM+ head units
2 large racks (unfamiliar with model)
1 smaller rack with phase loss detection (unfamiliar with model)
Unison control system (unfamiliar with model name, but if provided with a picture I can confirm/deny whether it's the right one)
Main Board - ION XE-20
All dimmer racks are connected using a 24-port cisco/linksys switch - with the dimmer packs being the only thing connected to it
DMX runs on 2 lines using DMX A and B on the CEM+ head units, one being the main board and the other being for unison control
Now here's gonna be a long one. I'm having an intermittent issue where someone will turn off the lights using a unison touch panel, which will either work as intended, not do anything, or in a rare situation, cause every dimmer rail to start rapidly flashing. Apparently, this has been an ongoing issue, where it would happen once or twice a month (I'm not sure if it only happens using the unison system or both using the board and unison) but it has ramped up to being more frequent, happening almost every day. For fairly obvious reasons, and with a large production happening in the coming weeks, this issue is simply detrimental for both fire safety reasons and audience enjoyment. Heres everything I know.
- The fan in rack 1 (The one where most of the stage lights are routed) has stopped working, resulting in internal temps of around 110 degrees, however the fan in the adjacent rack 2 (which largely is turned off because of how the wiring is done) continues to work
- I noticed that when I turned off the main board before turning off unison it caused everything to start strobing, but when I tried to recreate it, everything worked smoothly.
- I restarted the unison head unit, which made no noticeable change with the error still occurring afterward, but we left it unplugged overnight and the next day (day of posting - maybe not a long-term fix) everything worked just fine.
- The DMX runs are reversed on rack 1, with the board being DMX A and Unison being DMX B, which is opposite of racks 2 and 3
- The facility was built in 2006/07 and everything has a thin layer of dust, with the exception that the filters on the racks were recently cleaned.
Any information is helpful, especially if there's any nice settings I may not know about, being new to ETC architectural controls and their dimmer racks.
As always, working on a budget here and replacing the fan with an OEM model is surprisingly expensive and there is going to be an LED refresh coming soon so that's why the seemingly obvious fix is being questioned first.
Thanks!!
Stephen