ETC Sensor + and Paradigm Failure

Hi all,

Our ETC System has killed itself today, we got hit with a power surge after two transformers blew up in the very early hours of the morning. To top it off it was the closing show of our spring musical!

Our Paradigm is completely toast, it's stuck on the splash screen and the button stations flash every led when we hit a button. Our 2 Sensor + dimmer racks, however, appear to be somewhat ok but not fully functional, no errors on the LCD and we have been able to get output from our console for very very short periods of time. We bypassed the paradigm by taking the power brick out, and that's when we got output back for the first time. However, we lost it about 30 seconds later. We then tried resetting the network switch and that's what got it back again, but yet again we lost it about a min later. We then went on a search for the disconnect switch for the dimmer racks which we eventually located and switched off and back on after about 30 secs. This actually gave us output for about 10 mins until it crapped again. We ran our show using work lights and spots, and it went better than expected still not as great as with actual lighting but the show must go on! We have contacted ETC and will be contacting our dealer tomorrow so they can come to take a look at everything. Anyone here got any idea what might be causing the cycle of gaining/losing output? I am guessing something in the network but it could be a dimmer config issue from the surge. Our school actually approved a full system upgrade two weeks ago, scheduled to happen this summer. But with the system not functioning right now, we may do part of it ASAP! Is there anything in the short term we can do? We have a dance show coming up in a few weeks and rehearsals start on Wednesday! Any help or thoughts are appreciated! Thanks!
 
Sounds like a) bypassing your Paradigm until it’s serviced is a good plan, and b) your network is giving you gip - likely not managing IGMP subscribes properly. Do you have more than one switch? Is one a remote to another? If so, fully boot the main switch first and wait 5m. Then the edge switches after that. Then and only then, the consoles and gateways.
 
Another reason (besides saving power) for TURNING THINGS OFF WHEN NOT IN USE! It amazes me that nowadays equipment is designed and installed with no convenient means to turn it off.
 
Sounds like a) bypassing your Paradigm until it’s serviced is a good plan, and b) your network is giving you gip - likely not managing IGMP subscribes properly. Do you have more than one switch? Is one a remote to another? If so, fully boot the main switch first and wait 5m. Then the edge switches after that. Then and only then, the consoles and gateways.
We have one switch at the dimmers for Paradigm, two racks, a Pathway DMX Port, and 2 ETC network ports. We also have a wifi router up in the booth for wireless access to the console. We also are using an ETC 2 port gateway for two moving lights we rented. We will try doing another reboot and see what that does for us. Hope this helps!
 
Another reason (besides saving power) for TURNING THINGS OFF WHEN NOT IN USE! It amazes me that nowadays equipment is designed and installed with no convenient means to turn it off.
Well unfortunately we can't do that because the space is used daily for various classes, at least we know where the disconnect switch is. It's just not convenient to get to as it is located in the basement.
 
What is the status of the network switch? Is it possible it took a hit as well? Did the racks loose there minds as well ? Check and make sure they didn't go to default ip's . That would cause a network collision that could explain lose of comm.
 
I'm going to guess that the ACP is rebooting...it starts to take control (causing the lights to go out)...then it crashes (and control goes back to the console) .... then it reboots...rinse and repeat.

My experience is that network switches often are the first to die from a severe power events
 
What is the status of the network switch? Is it possible it took a hit as well? Did the racks loose there minds as well ? Check and make sure they didn't go to default ip's . That would cause a network collision that could explain lose of comm.
The network switch is working fine, the racks appear to be fine, no errors and they function as intended when output is gained. I don't know if its something deep down that could be causing loss of comm.
 
I'm going to guess that the ACP is rebooting...it starts to take control (causing the lights to go out)...then it crashes (and control goes back to the console) .... then it reboots...rinse and repeat.

My experience is that network switches often are the first to die from a severe power events
Paradigm is completely disconnected it has no power right now, as far as network switches go we swapped it out with one from our other space and got the same result.
 
Paradigm is completely disconnected it has no power right now, as far as network switches go we swapped it out with one from our other space and got the same result.

Just to clarify: did you remove both the station power module (SPM) and the Paradigm processor (PACP) from the rack (or otherwise disconnect power coming into the rack)? As the name suggests, the SPM just powers stations. Without it you would normally have a working PACP, but no button stations. Touchscreens connected by ethernet would still work too.

From your description, it actually sounds like the SPM and the stations may all be fine. It's just the PACP that's probably damaged. Even if it looks dead, if it's still in a rack and possibly getting power, then it could theoretically be spitting out garbage... Either way, it wouldn't hurt to download a copy of sACNView to see what's doing what on the network.
 
Just to clarify: did you remove both the station power module (SPM) and the Paradigm processor (PACP) from the rack (or otherwise disconnect power coming into the rack)? As the name suggests, the SPM just powers stations. Without it you would normally have a working PACP, but no button stations. Touchscreens connected by ethernet would still work too.

From your description, it actually sounds like the SPM and the stations may all be fine. It's just the PACP that's probably damaged. Even if it looks dead, if it's still in a rack and possibly getting power, then it could theoretically be spitting out garbage... Either way, it wouldn't hurt to download a copy of sACNView to see what's doing what on the network.
Everything is pulled out of the ERn rack so nothing has power, I can pull up sACN view on the console when I get there in about an hour.
 
Update: Repair for the Paradigm has been issued, still haven't solved the no output issue. It appears both universes of DMX are out, Flashing 1 and 2 on our gateway. We were able to manually turn lights on via the dimmer racks yesterday so that is a good sign. Any thoughts on how to get output back?
 
What is your console? Are the gateways running POE? Static IP's on the gateways? Can you ping all of the IP's . Make sure you can see all the devices online .
 
What is your console? Are the gateways running POE? Static IP's on the gateways? Can you ping all of the IP's . Make sure you can see all the devices online .
ION XE 20 (Jan 23), Gateways are running POE, and DHCP, haven't tried pinging IPs will try that later. Last time I checked on Concert all devices were showing. Whats interesting is the racks don't show up in concert. But that isn't a new issue.
 

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