Control/Dimming CD80 rack non-responsive

[pmolsonmus]

Hi,

I was working on a Strand 300 connected to a CD80 rack (24 @ 2.4K) and was attempting to control a series of LEDs.

I seemed to get everything to play nice and everything was working fine. However, not sure I did something internally or ??? But, a few hours into the job I had a serious issue.

I have no control over the conventional fixtures anymore. They were assigned 1:1 on channels 1-24.
I tried resetting defaults, rebooting, etc... to no avail.

On the rack itself the lights are on, but the dimmers will only come on when the "panic" button is pressed. I tries the "reset" button, but... nothing happens.

Am I missing something. I've tried going through the help and manual but no luck.

As a disclaimer I'm an audio guy and a lighting newbie, but I've worked on this board for the last few years but never had this issue. The contacts and everything were just cleaned and the rack was working fine minutes before the problem occured. I had the conventionals off and was just working with the DMX (actually just one fixture) so I didn't notice at what point the conventionals cut off.

Help..Thanks in advance
Phil

 

[jkvanbeck]

Hey Phil,

Can you specify the path of how your dmx cable is being ran? Does it go from the console to the dimmer rack then to the LED fixtures?


-Jake

 

[pmolsonmus]

Hey Phil,

Can you specify the path of how your dmx cable is being ran? Does it go from the console to the dimmer rack then to the LED fixtures?


-Jake

Originally the DMX ran to the Dimmer rack and then to the LED, I unplugged the DMX to the Dimmer, just to connect to the LED easily and see the changes - that's when the issue occurred.

That's why I tried the reset/reboot/default issues.

I reconnected the DMX and lost control of the dimmers on the conventional fixtures.

Phil

 

[mstaylor]

Originally the DMX ran to the Dimmer rack and then to the LED, I unplugged the DMX to the Dimmer, just to connect to the LED easily and see the changes - that's when the issue occurred.

That's why I tried the reset/reboot/default issues.

I reconnected the DMX and lost control of the dimmers on the conventional fixtures.

Phil

What if you take the DMX to the LEDs out and go back to the original configuration? Do the LEDs work OK with the dimmers out of the equation? It could be as simple as too long a run, no termination or noncompliant cable. I don't think so but strange things can happen sometimes. Also are you converting signal to old dimmers that are analog or is everything DMX?

 

[pmolsonmus]

What if you take the DMX to the LEDs out and go back to the original configuration? Do the LEDs work OK with the dimmers out of the equation? It could be as simple as too long a run, no termination or noncompliant cable. I don't think so but strange things can happen sometimes. Also are you converting signal to old dimmers that are analog or is everything DMX?

LEDs are out of the equation. Reconnected the DMX cable to the dimmer rack. Restarted the system and no control of the conventional fixtures. The channel numbers respond to the changes in input on the screen but the lights don't respond.

I only connected the one LED via the DMX cable and its a newer fixture. It worked fine and is responding to all changes.

The dimmers do work, when I hit the panic button all connected fixtures light up. But...The dimmers seem to be in some sort of "stand by" mode unless the panic button is pressed. No fan/ dimmer noise even though it is powered up and the lights are on.

Phil

 

[derekleffew]

Is the recalcitrant dimmer pack a CD80 Original, CD80 AE, or CD80 SV rack? Post a picture of the control card (brain) if you don't know/can't tell.

 

[pmolsonmus]

Is the recalcitrant dimmer pack a CD80 Original, CD80 AE, or CD80 SV rack? Post a picture of the control card (brain) if you don't know/can't tell.

It is, in fact a CD80 original. But problem is solved. It was, as I feared, operator error. When I was running DMX into the LED, to make sure I could control addresses and RGB colors I started on channel 60 so that I was above the visible 50 channels on the display, and could effectively create cues and scenes and subs without needing to flip pages for every cue.At some point I inadvertently reassigned (don't ask me how - pretty sure a soft key mistake) the DMX 1 send to channels 60-512 instead of 1-512. When I reconnected (surprise,surprise - sarcasm) it didn't see dimmers 1-24.I thought when I set to default that a situation like that would have defaulted but, apparently not.Does anyone know of a quick "restore all" function on the Strand 300 2.6 ?Thanks for everyone's help. This is not an intuitive machine from my point of view.Phil