Control/Dimming A curious set of problems

I have had the displeasure of using the local communitie colleges theatre while my school is being reroofed. Normally I would expect to work along in house techs for the show, however none of them could be reached (and maybe don't exist) so we showed up for the times we booked and forged ahead. Immediately I noticed a number of problems. There are very few circuits, fewer lights, and even fewer dimmers. A note, scrawled by someone years ago, shows that the leprecon dimmer rack only has 18 out of the 60 total dimmers functioning. As someone trying to put on a show this is frustrating. I took a look at the dimmer packs and noticed something interesting. The LED indicators for the dimmers that don't work are always on. The functioning ones only have those lights on when the dimmer is getting input. The booth has two boards. One is a leprecon brand board, and the other appears to be pre-electronic. Is there way to fix the dimmer issue? Is the second board causing problems?
 
I'd figure out how to do a show with lights on and lights off and look forward to getting back to your building. This needs a good technician and even then, I'm not sure you could resuscitate much. This venue needs replacement (or tear down).
 
I have had the displeasure of using the local communitie colleges theatre while my school is being reroofed. Normally I would expect to work along in house techs for the show, however none of them could be reached (and maybe don't exist) so we showed up for the times we booked and forged ahead. Immediately I noticed a number of problems. There are very few circuits, fewer lights, and even fewer dimmers. A note, scrawled by someone years ago, shows that the leprecon dimmer rack only has 18 out of the 60 total dimmers functioning. As someone trying to put on a show this is frustrating. I took a look at the dimmer packs and noticed something interesting. The LED indicators for the dimmers that don't work are always on. The functioning ones only have those lights on when the dimmer is getting input. The booth has two boards. One is a leprecon brand board, and the other appears to be pre-electronic. Is there way to fix the dimmer issue? Is the second board causing problems?

What model Leprecon dimmer? Some of the versions have a white push button toggle on each dimmer to send the channel to full on if the breaker is enabled for that channel. Any chance you could post pictures of the rack? I'm guessing you've probably got LD-2400 dimmers. Also pictures and models of the 2 consoles, especially the data cables coming out of the back? There might be a D/A converted in there somewhere. Is there rhyme or reason to the 18 working dimmers in the rack? This could be a very simple case of venue not knowing what they have, or it could be as bad as the others are saying.
 
Since you're going back home after the renovation, I wouldn't put too much sweat into fixing a different venue -- they should be doing it themselves. Although, sometimes a helpful, positively phrased note can lead to additional work down the line.

To approach the subject from a different perspective, are all 60 dimmers actually for theater lights? You might check the number of actual circuits in the venue and see if you've got sixty between the catwalks, grid, and stage floor; it's possible that some have been set aside for house lighting or architectural lighting, and so they work, but you don't have access to them. It's also possible that people have marked them as bad without thoroughly diagnosing them, with the actual problem being either easily solved (a tripped breaker) or non-dimmer-related (a bad cable or instrument.) It's also possible, sadly, that the dimmers are actually bad and the system needs some TLC. But, since you don't own the equipment, are you willing to take on liability in case you do some sort of maintenance, and something later malfunctions?
 

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