This is not my show, but I did help load it in so I know some of the details. It's in one of the spaces of a multi-space theater where my show is housed. This show has been open for several months.
Setup (as best I can recall):
ETC Obsession 600
Issue:
Last night at about half-hour, the board op realizes the board is frozen when she cannot go into the preshow cue. Shutting down and unplugging and replugging and checking all fuses and restarting seems to work. She goes into the first cue and the house opens. At about ten minutes to curtain I get a frantic text that it has happened again. Long story, slightly less long, the board has failed (I think HDD) and with no back-up the show has to be canceled.
The vendor couriers a replacement over this morning and I am asked to help install it. We swap out the board, load the show from back up disks, and think we are hunky dory.
The only thing we can see that works are the VLs. I go back to the dimmers and the CEM is telling me that there is a data error. I try plugging into port B just in case. Same thing. I am afraid that something has happened to the DMX cable from output 1. I was not a part of the dimmer setup so I didn't know the exact order of the daisy chain. The rack I was looking at had a cable coming out of the DMX Thru port, so I figured there were more devices down the line. After about 30 minutes of frustration and not being able to figure it out, I notice that the cable coming out the DMX Thru went up into the rafters and hung there, not going anywhere. (It had been prepped for something that had not ended up using it.) So, I unplug the cable and realizing that this rack is the last in the line, I enable the terminator. Everything works perfectly!
Lesson:
Data reflection is a finicky thing. This setup had been working just fine for months. Just a minor change like swapping out a (nominally) identical board introduced enough difference to cause a catastrophic failure of everything on that DMX line. ALWAYS TERMINATE ALL OF YOUR DMX LINES.
Anyone else have stories of how one 120ohm resistor caused general havoc and dismay?
-Tim
Setup (as best I can recall):
ETC Obsession 600
- Universe 1 (multiplexed for dimmer doubling)
- Universe 2 (normal)
Issue:
Last night at about half-hour, the board op realizes the board is frozen when she cannot go into the preshow cue. Shutting down and unplugging and replugging and checking all fuses and restarting seems to work. She goes into the first cue and the house opens. At about ten minutes to curtain I get a frantic text that it has happened again. Long story, slightly less long, the board has failed (I think HDD) and with no back-up the show has to be canceled.
The vendor couriers a replacement over this morning and I am asked to help install it. We swap out the board, load the show from back up disks, and think we are hunky dory.
The only thing we can see that works are the VLs. I go back to the dimmers and the CEM is telling me that there is a data error. I try plugging into port B just in case. Same thing. I am afraid that something has happened to the DMX cable from output 1. I was not a part of the dimmer setup so I didn't know the exact order of the daisy chain. The rack I was looking at had a cable coming out of the DMX Thru port, so I figured there were more devices down the line. After about 30 minutes of frustration and not being able to figure it out, I notice that the cable coming out the DMX Thru went up into the rafters and hung there, not going anywhere. (It had been prepped for something that had not ended up using it.) So, I unplug the cable and realizing that this rack is the last in the line, I enable the terminator. Everything works perfectly!
Lesson:
Data reflection is a finicky thing. This setup had been working just fine for months. Just a minor change like swapping out a (nominally) identical board introduced enough difference to cause a catastrophic failure of everything on that DMX line. ALWAYS TERMINATE ALL OF YOUR DMX LINES.
Anyone else have stories of how one 120ohm resistor caused general havoc and dismay?
-Tim
