Dimmer rack issues

jsanburg

Member
5 ETC Sensor Classic Racks 48/96

Installed 1995

Cleaned and serviced summer 2021

  • 8/2021 – Rack #4 lost its programming (did not know what dimmer numbers it was supposed to be 289-385)
  • At that time we lost control of those circuits which included all theatre work light circuits 307-320
  • We worked around these missing circuits all year
  • We “found” some of the work lights along the way – they had reassigned themselves to other circuits in other racks
  • 4/2022 – All dimmers crashed, no data in or out
    • University/Building network assessed and working correctly
    • ETC called – technician scheduled
    • We were able to “force” some of the dimmers into a switched state, but no rhyme or reason
  • 5/22 – ETC-certified technician discovered:
    • 2 port hard-wired gateway/node was not sending or receiving data to/from the dimmer racks
    • Rack #4 still out of commission
    • Was able to reset/reprogram the gateway/node and get circuits to work again
    • By patching the first universe one-to-one in the lighting console, we were able to “find” some of the work light circuits at 20-26.
    • Rack #4 was mimicking Rack #1, but when isolated from the rest of the racks, still is not communicating with its proper circuits, mostly. Circuits 369-373, 375-377, 379-380 are working properly.
  • 5/24/22
    • Tested work circuits 20-26. They are doubled in the FOH positions.
    • FOH circuits in the 4th rack – some work, some do not.

Anyone encounter this kind of crash/errors?
How does one dimmer rack’s assigned circuits “transfer” to a completely different rack?
Any other input from the group?
 
There's a lot to unpack here in terms of what "we" know vs what's actually there along with some terminology confusion. Hopefully your field tech is helping you, but it sounds like you may need additional assistance. Whereabouts in Kentucky are you?

When you say circuits were reassigned... do you mean that the DMX addresses of Rack #4 now match Rack #1, meaning when you were tying to turn on Rack #4 with the "wrong" addresses, but it worked when you were turning on addresses assigned to rack #1 you were getting multiple things to turn on? Are your physical circuits actually doubled or do you have multiple DMX controls outputting to multiple control circuits?

Circuits don't tend to move on their own as they are physical copper connections. Unless someone rewired the lugs in your dimmer rack they shouldn't cross. In fact even if someone rewired your dimmer racks, they still should never cross.

So.... this doesn't sound like a crash/error. It sounds like perhaps someone reset your Rack #4 and it's DMX control data now matched at least somewhat to your rack #1?

Questions to think through:

How is your system supposed to work?
Is it working?
If it's not working what changed?
How do you want it to work?
 
Have you called ETC Tech Support?

They are generally the best first line of defense with Sensor rack issues.

(800)688-4116
[email protected]

By the way, your vocabulary here is confusing. Circuits do not switch between racks. The circuits are hard-wired between your dimmer modules and your power distribution system. The only thing "changing" would be the DMX control assignments corresponding to those circuits. The only way to have the same dimmer module switch to another circuit would be if you had a patch panel somewhere, which I would highly doubt, or an electrician is having some fun with you and rewiring things without telling anyone, which I also would highly doubt.

It is possible that the Sensor Classic control module(s) are faulty, which after 27 years is to be expected. Not sure how ETC is doing on spare parts or repairs for classic CEM modules, but it may be time to upgrade the backplanes of the racks to accept the newer control modules. Some dimmer modules may also have faulty power cubes that could need to be replaced.

From the sounds of it, you could have multiple issues going on.
 
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There's a lot to unpack here in terms of what "we" know vs what's actually there along with some terminology confusion. Hopefully your field tech is helping you, but it sounds like you may need additional assistance. Whereabouts in Kentucky are you?

When you say circuits were reassigned... do you mean that the DMX addresses of Rack #4 now match Rack #1, meaning when you were tying to turn on Rack #4 with the "wrong" addresses, but it worked when you were turning on addresses assigned to rack #1 you were getting multiple things to turn on? Are your physical circuits actually doubled or do you have multiple DMX controls outputting to multiple control circuits?

Circuits don't tend to move on their own as they are physical copper connections. Unless someone rewired the lugs in your dimmer rack they shouldn't cross. In fact even if someone rewired your dimmer racks, they still should never cross.

So.... this doesn't sound like a crash/error. It sounds like perhaps someone reset your Rack #4 and it's DMX control data now matched at least somewhat to your rack #1?

Questions to think through:

How is your system supposed to work?
Is it working?
If it's not working what changed?
How do you want it to work?
Thank you for your reply. I know that circuits cannot "jump", but let me give you an example. Circuit 308 controls the Grid worklights. That circuit is in dimmer rack 4. Since the "crash", now address 20 controls the grid lights, but it also controls circuit 20 in the catwalks. There is no pattern to which addresses they switch to. As a matter of fact, this new set of worklight addresses is different than 3 months ago. They are not always contiguous, even though the original addresses (307-319) were. I am not trying to ask stupid questions. i have been battling this for a year, and the reps at ETC and the ETC certified technician are also confused.
 
It sure sounds like the configuration stored in the CEM of rack 4 got altered somehow. Configurations can be reloaded from data stored in the other CEMs. If rack 4 CEM has a problem, you could see if someone will give you a loaner while it is sent back to the factory for repair. (The same applies for CMEs if that is what you have)
 
Thank you for your reply. I know that circuits cannot "jump", but let me give you an example. Circuit 308 controls the Grid worklights. That circuit is in dimmer rack 4. Since the "crash", now address 20 controls the grid lights, but it also controls circuit 20 in the catwalks. There is no pattern to which addresses they switch to. As a matter of fact, this new set of worklight addresses is different than 3 months ago.
I think your CEM has reset itself to a 1 to 1 patch, 3x96 is 288, so the 20th circuit in rack 4 should be 308, this is why when you call address 20 it calls both circuit 20 and 308.

This of course assumes that 21 then calls 309, 22 calls 310 ect.

Either way, seems like a bad CEM.
 
It is possible in the reset that it also got changed from Balanced to Unbalanced, or vice versa. Are your racks labelled with the first address at the top of the rack, and continuous down to the last address at the bottom? Or do they appear to jump around a bit? Balanced would look like they jump around, this allows the rack to have a better chance of a balanced load if you just start plugging all your lights in from the beginning. Page 8 covers the difference here. I've seen that cause some pretty hard to understand patching problems.
 
Classic Sensor CEM's have two DMX inputs. They typically work in "Pile On" mode which is Highest Takes Precedence. Each input can have a different start address. So, it is possible that Input "A" could be 289 and Input "B" could be 1.
Is there a Unison Architectural control in the system?
How is the DMX Gateway configured? I am guessing that it is a ETCNet 2 gateway (called nodes at that time) because of its age.
What console are you using?
What cables are plugged into your console? DMX, Ethernet, ETCLink?
Who came to provide service? Was it a local vendor that sent a technician or did the technician come directly from ETC?
There is a lot to unpack with troubleshooting this. Can you take photos and post them? Console, front, back, and set-up screens. Dimmer racks. DMX two-port gateway.
This seems very confusing, but I am confident that a solution can be discovered.
Good luck,
John
 
It is possible in the reset that it also got changed from Balanced to Unbalanced, or vice versa. Are your racks labelled with the first address at the top of the rack, and continuous down to the last address at the bottom? Or do they appear to jump around a bit? Balanced would look like they jump around, this allows the rack to have a better chance of a balanced load if you just start plugging all your lights in from the beginning. Page 8 covers the difference here. I've seen that cause some pretty hard to understand patching problems.
The racks are balanced.
 
Classic Sensor CEM's have two DMX inputs. They typically work in "Pile On" mode which is Highest Takes Precedence. Each input can have a different start address. So, it is possible that Input "A" could be 289 and Input "B" could be 1.
Is there a Unison Architectural control in the system?
How is the DMX Gateway configured? I am guessing that it is a ETCNet 2 gateway (called nodes at that time) because of its age.
What console are you using?
What cables are plugged into your console? DMX, Ethernet, ETCLink?
Who came to provide service? Was it a local vendor that sent a technician or did the technician come directly from ETC?
There is a lot to unpack with troubleshooting this. Can you take photos and post them? Console, front, back, and set-up screens. Dimmer racks. DMX two-port gateway.
This seems very confusing, but I am confident that a solution can be discovered.
Good luck,
John
Thank you for your input. I will document and post soon.
 

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