Sensor D20AF Packs Lifetime

[Chris Chapman]

My facility is starting to look at a 20 year facility infrastructure update plan. Is there an expected lifetime for an ETC Sensor D20AF module or the related CEM's? We are a Net1 facility and skipped upgrading to Net 2/3 a couple of years ago due to the costs associated with rack and DMX upgrades throughout the building to support it. (12K per rack for backplanes alone).

 

[MNicolai]

Best you contact ETC directly or await them to reply to this thread, but my gut reaction is:

+ Budget for the Net3 upgrade. Even if you put it off and there's a Net4 or Net5 that comes along, at some point you'll be upgrading to it unless you plan on dumping your racks.
+ Budget for new CEM's. Again, if it's the CEM3 or CEM6+, figure at some point you'll either want to upgrade or be forced to upgrade or it'll otherwise make sense to do the upgrade.
+ Modules are built to last and total failure is infrequent, though over a couple decades you can expect to replace a number of power bricks in them. ETC may be able to ballpark for you if that'll be 3% or 30% failure rate over 20 years on top of how old they already are.
+ In addition to replacing Net1 with NetX, At some point you'll want to supplement your DMX with data drops throughout your lighting and control positions, and plan for the purchase of portable nodes.

 

[JD]

The core of the module is the SSR and they age based on thermal cycling. One that has been loaded near capacity may be ready to go at any point. One that has been lightly loaded may well last another 50 years! The CEM operates all the time and therefore ages in a more liner fashion. Upgrading to a new CEM will kill two birds with one stone. Not only will your software be compatible with newer formats, but the core "electronic brain" of the unit will now be new. Outside of those, the dimmer rack is just a pile of metal, not much to fail.