ETC Expression: Early '90's

Dustincoc

Active Member
I may be getting an early 90's ETC Expression for free. The problem with it is that sometimed when you turn it on the grandmaster is at 00 no matter the physical grandmasters location. Giving the board a rap between the faders clears the issue up. The board has been sent in for repairs twice since the school got it about 12 years ago. This is it's third strike and it has been replaced with the Express 24/48 from our main stage which is being replaced with an Ion. Any idea what's wrong with the Expression?
 
So it's a hard part to get? or Hard to replace? What kind of cost am I looking at?
 
Call tech support. They should be able to at lest direct you in the right direction if they don't have the part....
 
I haven't recieved official comfirmation that it's mine to take yet, I'll probably get that in the morning. Today/tomorrow is my last day at the school and I'm moving back to the parents tomorrow(about 300 miles one way). I'm looking to do this as cheaply as possible because I'm planning on using this board for work at the HS who still use an old Colortran board they got in 1991 that I have no idea how to use.
 
Before replacing parts we had that problem on our (practically new) Lehigh Rendition and we opened up the board and made sure all the cables were pushed in firmly and it worked. The board must not have been reading from the grandmaster which caused the problem. Might not be the case on an old board but it's worth a try worst case is you waste 5 min best case you save yourself from spending money and a big hassle.
 
Or, you could ignore the issue all together and disable the grandmaster.

Setup -> System Settings -> Master Type -> Disabled
[Setup] [1] [Enter] [1][0] [Enter] [0] [Enter] [Stage]

Problem solved (well, not solved, but no longer a problem at least!)
 
Or, you could ignore the issue all together and disable the grandmaster.

Setup -> System Settings -> Master Type -> Disabled
[Setup] [1] [Enter] [1][0] [Enter] [0] [Enter] [Stage]

Problem solved (well, not solved, but no longer a problem at least!)

The only thing I use the Grandmaster or Blackout button for anyway is to annoy and confuse new Light board ops.:evil:
 
Or, you could ignore the issue all together and disable the grandmaster.

Setup -> System Settings -> Master Type -> Disabled
[Setup] [1] [Enter] [1][0] [Enter] [0] [Enter] [Stage]

Problem solved (well, not solved, but no longer a problem at least!)

Very good and cheap solution, especially as you can still use a submaster as an inhibit of all channels, and you now have a grand master.

SB
 
It's usually better to cure a disease rather than treat a symptom.

Agree totally, but in this case, the OP commented "I haven't recieved official comfirmation that it's mine to take yet", which means it's a freebie and he/she may not have the money or desire to pay to ship it back to ETC or Litetrol, pay to get it fixed and for what ?, as it's not a rental, it's a free console.

Thus it's always useful to know there are work-around's that allow the beast to function.

SB
 
I'm looking to do this as cheaply as possible because I'm planning on using this board for work at the HS who still use an old Colortran board they got in 1991 that I have no idea how to use.
What kind of C'tran console you got?

I spent a lot of time on a Prestiege 2000, there are some differences between it and ETC that you might stumble over a bit but really they're not that much different. Fool with it, you might find it works just fine.

Also, since you have an early 90's C'tran that you're looking to swap this Expression in for... are your dimmers compatable? My dimmer rack is C'tran from that period and I have to go through a DMX-CMX converter box to make my Expression talk to them. What language do your dimmers speak? Might be an issue, you might have to make friends with that C'tran board....
 
Or, you could ignore the issue all together and disable the grandmaster.

Setup -> System Settings -> Master Type -> Disabled
[Setup] [1] [Enter] [1][0] [Enter] [0] [Enter] [Stage]

Problem solved (well, not solved, but no longer a problem at least!)
Not so fast. If infact it is an Expression from the early 90s, it's an Expression I, which did not have the ability to disable the Grandmaster. This feature did not come about until the Expression2x, about 1996.
 
I spent a lot of time on a Prestige 2000, there are some differences between it and ETC that you might stumble over a bit but really they're not that much different. Fool with it, you might find it works just fine.
SOME differences? NOT THAT MUCH different? The Prestige series is about as different from the Expression line as one can get. Obsession is similar to Prestige however, in that both are inherently tracking consoles.

Even [channel] # [@] [Full] is different! The Expression just does it, whereas the Prestige/Obsession will just sit there looking at you, patiently waiting for you to press
[*].
 
SOME differences? NOT THAT MUCH different? The Prestige series is about as different from the Expression line as one can get. Obsession is similar to Prestige however, in that both are inherently tracking consoles.

Even [channel] # [@] [Full] is different! The Expression just does it, whereas the Prestige/Obsession will just sit there looking at you, patiently waiting for you to press
[*].

Gotta' disagree, I switched over pretty seamlessly. All the concepts are the same. It's not like you're going from an Express to a Hog or some great leap like that. Board syntax is about the same, Patching is about the same, navigating menus is about the same, Blind vs. Stage (okay, the names are different), display conventions.... Biggest stumbling blocks for me were the LTP vs. Independent issue and the fact that you can't enter the fade time until after you've recorded the cue (as opposed to "Record-in Q X Time Y/Z Enter" on the Prestige - I still occasionally trip over that after 7 years).

I will agree that the Obsession is much more Prestige-like; but Prestige to Expression isn't like English to Arabic - it's like English to, geez, I don't know, say, ...Canadian. (Angry Canadians, please start a new thread. :lol:)
 
The most likely case is that it's the grandmaster potentiometer itself that's bad. It's a relatively cheap part and fairly easy to replace if you're comfortable with soldering (and removing components from a circuit board without damaging the board). You could either talk to any of ETC's dealers about getting it repaired, or buy the part and replace it yourself.
 
Not so fast. If infact it is an Expression from the early 90s, it's an Expression I, which did not have the ability to disable the Grandmaster. This feature did not come about until the Expression2x, about 1996.

I'm assuming the E1 was still upgraded to the most recent software. Correct me if I'm wrong (I might be) but it seems like as long as you update to the newest software, you'll be OK.
 
I'm assuming the E1 was still upgraded to the most recent software. Correct me if I'm wrong (I might be) but it seems like as long as you update to the newest software, you'll be OK.


You can't upgrade an Expression 1 to current (V3.1) software, you need a 2, 2x or 3 that's currently running V1.8 or higher. Even upgrading to whatever the "latest" Expression 1 software version is (I don't remember offhand) may very well require hardware upgrades/fixes.
 
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