1/6 of a striplight and a few fresnels!

BenjaminD

Member
I have 8 striplights, 2 of which are mapped together to what appears to be one DMX address for each color(which is fine). The other 6 are mapped very oddly, with cell pairs of different colors (and the odd fresnel) mapped to one of my console's channels.

I'm guessing that the reason for this is the way my Strand CD-80SV rack is configured. It's loaded with dual output 2.4 KW dimmers. I am not sure how to re-patch this the system in a way where I can control which parts of the striplight go with a channel. I'm using a Strand 300 Series 24/96 console.

Thanks!
 
First thing to do is download the manuals for the dimmers and the desk.

I would check with the person in charge as to whether the dimmer rack was patched and if so why. Also check with them if they are happy for you to clear it. Details on how to do this are found in the manuals. Also make sure you are confident in mucking around with the packs. I would probably get a service person to reset the packs. They could also give it a annual clean.

If the Strand 300 is the desk normally used with the dimmers I would tend to do the patching here instead of at the rack because it is easier.

If the packs have not been patched then check the patching on the Strand 300.

Using the patch button will bring up the patch menu. It will show the desk channels as CHNLs and the actual DMX channel number that will control a dimmer as Output. If these aren't the same number then this is where the changes have been made.

You will need to physically determine the physical connection from the packs to the lights eg striplight one red colour circuit is patched to dimmer channel 10.

If you haven't saved a show yet and can clear the board. I would do this but remember as well as clearing the patches it will change fade times etc back to there defaults.

Once this is done just bring up a channel at a time and write down what is and it's current channel number which with the patches cleared will be it's output number.

After you have all these you can repatch however you want, it is best to use a logical system thats easy to remember eg by colour then striplight number or striplight number then colour.

Also when you plan your patching think how you will use the lights. For example if one set of striplights is dedicated to the cyc you may want to patch each of the same colour on them to one desk channel. If they are likely to chase then they need to be separated in some fashion. Eg pair red strip 1 & 3 together. You can use submasters to group them together for full washes.

The name of the game is to make your patching as flexible as possible without wasting channels.
 
I've checked the patching on the console, and it looks like nobody ever changed it from the defaults of 1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc. I would guess that all the patching is done from the rack.

This setting [the factory defaults one] returns all programmed settings to their factory defaults, including setting the slot type for all dimmers back to “none”. If you use this feature, dimmers will not work until the slot type for each dimmer is reset.

Fun. Even more fun, there is nobody "in charge" of the auditorium. At all. The person that bought the current lighting equiment was fired about 6-8 years ago. Since then the school hasn't had a dedicated, competent person near the place. I assume the racks haven't been cleaned or in any way maintained since then either.

I do have the manuals for all the equipment, so all I need is enough time to reconfigure the rack.
 

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