Smartpacks not seeing DMX

It is good ETC is working with you to get these fixed. I thought they were going to want the entire pack shipped back to them.

This situation shows that installing multiple smaller dimmer packs instead of one central rack doesn't always work out well in the long run. What a pain to have to remove wiring to service any one in the system. Someday soon though, there may not be any incandescent lighting.
Yeah, ETC has been great.

In addition to having to unwire the terminal strips on each pack, they were installed in a way that the pack won't just slide out of the front of the rack so to get to the good pack, number 4, I will have to unwire and tilt out packs 1-3 to get to it. It's a bummer.
 
Usually, when equipment binds in sliding out of the rack, it's because the installer tried to center the first unit on the rack screws in the up/down direction, then others were allowed to sit on their neighbor as they were screwed in. That's an amateur and lazy thing to do, but it's easy to fix.

Get your cordless screwdriver out, with the appropriate bit. Slightly loosen the four rack screws on the bottom most panel or piece of equipment so it settles onto the screws. Retighten the screws, but set the tool clutch so they are not crazy tight. Do the next one up, and so on, until you reach the top of the rack. Now, individual units will be bearing their weight on the screws instead of the one below, and they'll come out easily.
 
Usually, when equipment binds in sliding out of the rack, it's because the installer tried to center the first unit on the rack screws in the up/down direction, then others were allowed to sit on their neighbor as they were screwed in. That's an amateur and lazy thing to do, but it's easy to fix.

Get your cordless screwdriver out, with the appropriate bit. Slightly loosen the four rack screws on the bottom most panel or piece of equipment so it settles onto the screws. Retighten the screws, but set the tool clutch so they are not crazy tight. Do the next one up, and so on, until you reach the top of the rack. Now, individual units will be bearing their weight on the screws instead of the one below, and they'll come out easily.
I wish it were that easy. The ears on the pack extend past the enclosure so, though I should be able to slide them out, the ears won't let me. There are strange details like this that are making the job a little more annoying than it should be.
 
Usually, when equipment binds in sliding out of the rack, it's because the installer tried to center the first unit on the rack screws in the up/down direction, then others were allowed to sit on their neighbor as they were screwed in. That's an amateur and lazy thing to do, but it's easy to fix.

Get your cordless screwdriver out, with the appropriate bit. Slightly loosen the four rack screws on the bottom most panel or piece of equipment so it settles onto the screws. Retighten the screws, but set the tool clutch so they are not crazy tight. Do the next one up, and so on, until you reach the top of the rack. Now, individual units will be bearing their weight on the screws instead of the one below, and they'll come out easily.
You know, after typing out that the racks wouldn't slide out and faced yesterday with having to dig down to pack #4, I decided to be more..........athletic... with them when I went over yesterday. Wouldn't you know it, I was able to "gently persuade" pack 4 out without having to remove two or three! Made the swap experiment much easier! I'll know if I was successful when they power up today and we see which packs go blinky blinky.
 
Hey Gentle Readers!

After my last update I was able to determine that the pack 4 card worked in pack 1 so I knew the control cards were the likely culprit. I pulled and packed up the control card from each of the 6 packs and sent them away to ETC to do some magic on them. We finally got them back Monday and I spent time yesterday installing cards, putting packs back in the rack, and reconnecting everything. Today we fired them up and VOILA, lights ahoy!!!

Per the RMA report, they needed some real TLC. Here's an excerpt:

"Replaced faulty CR12 (CR9071-F), Q1 &Q4 (Q9001-F), Q2-3&Q4-5 (Q9009-F) to restore DMX. Replaced DMX chip U11 (Z1458-F)"

So, basically ETC is awesome and lights are now fighting fit. Thanks to everyone for advice and suggestions and thanks to ETC for continually kicking butt at tech support.
 
Hey Gentle Readers!

After my last update I was able to determine that the pack 4 card worked in pack 1 so I knew the control cards were the likely culprit. I pulled and packed up the control card from each of the 6 packs and sent them away to ETC to do some magic on them. We finally got them back Monday and I spent time yesterday installing cards, putting packs back in the rack, and reconnecting everything. Today we fired them up and VOILA, lights ahoy!!!

Per the RMA report, they needed some real TLC. Here's an excerpt:

"Replaced faulty CR12 (CR9071-F), Q1 &Q4 (Q9001-F), Q2-3&Q4-5 (Q9009-F) to restore DMX. Replaced DMX chip U11 (Z1458-F)"

So, basically ETC is awesome and lights are now fighting fit. Thanks to everyone for advice and suggestions and thanks to ETC for continually kicking butt at tech support.
It is so great when folks report back on how problems are solved. It can help someone who has a similar issue in the future. Thanks @jayvee!
 
It is so great when folks report back on how problems are solved. It can help someone who has a similar issue in the future. Thanks @jayvee!
Thanks! I also love when people report back with solutions so I was determined to do the same. I did forget to mention that terminal strips can go pound sand tho.
 
Thanks! I also love when people report back with solutions so I was determined to do the same. I did forget to mention that terminal strips can go pound sand tho.
@jayvee Are your terminal strips not pluggable / removable for wiring??
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 

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