Hey everyone,
I am the
Auditorium Manager and TD for a high school theater and I am working on a “wish list“ of items to get replaced in our outdated theater. Administration is asking me to provide citations for why we need certain items replaced other than “its old”. So- We are running on 2
Colortran ENR Series 96
dimmer racks and aside from the airflow sensor issue and the lack of replacement parts available, I know there was an issue with the construction of the racks and materials that were used that caused over heating and some fires. Does anyone have any further info on that issue? I am searching to find some sort of documentation but have not had any luck yet.
Any info is appreciated!
Thank you
@ScenicKatie Initially, the racks used aluminum for their main internal
power distribution buses. Oxidation on the surface of the aluminum buses was part of the problem. They MAY have been using copper contacts on the rear of the
dimmer modules thus dissimilar metals at their juncture with the aluminum main buses could have / would have exacerbated the problem.
And then there was the never disclosed issue with initial control modules having their ENR (Electronic Noise Reduction) circuitry permanently disabled by a
jumper on the rear of their PC boards. Publicly their marketing and advertisements continued to extol the virtues of their wondrous new ENR technology.
Within the modules one pole of a
DIP switch was designated as Enabling and / or disabling the ENR functionality.
What they NEVER wanted anyone to know was the functionality of the single
DIP switch pole was negated by a
trace on their PC boards bypassing the
switch.
Whether you, the end user, chose to
enable or disable the ENR circuitry, it was permanently disabled at the factory by a PC
trace bypassing this Master ENR
switch on each control module.
When I learned this, I discussed cutting the
trace on the rear of the PC board and was told, verbally, so doing would void my warranty.
There were a myriad of other problems I wanted corrected under warranty and thus NEVER cut the relevant PC traces.
I've already told you too much; I think I'm hearing large, near-silent, helicopters circling o'er head.
There was also a problem with ventilation fans seizing and racks continuing to operate.
This was purported to have been solved by retrofitting
Hall Effect sensors to
monitor the up to speed rotation of the fans.
Our bused pair of racks were retrofitted with the
Hall Effect sensors; powering down, dropping screwdrivers into the fans and re-powering proved the retrofitting of the
Hall Effect sensors had little
effect on the operation of the racks.
The
Hall Effect sensors were retrofitted across North America (U.S. and Canada, Donnie hadn't built his walls yet) by a team of factory authorized electricians. In the case of the pair of racks entrusted to my care, the team of pro' installers inadvertently pinched an approximatly 22
gauge neutral conductor against the aluminum main buses causing a small fire which harmlessly burned itself out within the racks. The tiny severed
neutral wire was discovered by Chris Mentis while he was commissioning and servicing
Colortran installations throughout all of Eastern Canada.
It was Chris Mentis who powered the rack down, then dropped a screwdriver and / or
nut driver into and through each of the four fans to stall them, then re-powered the racks to see how long it took for the
Hall Effect sensors to shut the racks down and / or reduce their output to a deemed to be "safe"
level. Chris and I carried out our test experiment at approximately 1:00 a.m. I bought the first round of cold '5 Alives' from our vending machines and Chris bought the second. The bused pair of adjacent racks continued to operate at full capacity for more than an hour with all four fans totally stalled:
So much for the effectiveness of the
Hall Effect sensors.
This was in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada's
Theatre Aquarius in 1990 or 1991.
In the same
dimmer room, three 48 slot / 96
dimmer Strand CD80 racks housing (my memory's forgetting the precise quantities) 268 - ish 2.4 Kw and four or five 6Kw dimmers stood against the opposite wall performing FLAWLESSLY. Neither the
theatre's owners nor I wanted the
Colortran racks.
For Lord only knows what reasons, the Electrical consulting P.
Eng decreed the
house and work lights had to employ the pair of
Colortran racks for their (in his opinion) greater reliability in "Life
Safety Critical" applications. The
Colortran racks were a pain from the get go while
@Ron Foley 's
Strand racks soldiered on reliable as ever.
I've written too much, it's lunchtime.
I'll post and proof read after lunch.
Hello again
@ScenicKatie Having had lunch, I've proofed and added to my post.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard