Controlling House lights from old console with DMX

Hunter.tech

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There is a very old Legacy console from 1991 Lehigh Electric in a space I'm working in. I have chosen to set that aside and use my nomad to program and run a show I was hired to design. While the connection to the dimmer rack is DMX, the house lights run through a completely different plug. I have been searching the internet trying to find even a name for the plug. My questions are, what the heck is the type of plug-- and is there any way I can wire it to be controlled through DMX with with my nomad. I've attached a link to the boards manual as well as a screenshot of a drafting of the back of the board. Thanks in advance for your help!

http://www.lehighdim.com/download/theatr/legacy/legacy.pdf
 

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the house lights run through a completely different plug. I have been searching the internet trying to find even a name for the plug.
The plug in the screenshot on the console labeled (HOUSE) (OPT.) ? Looks to be an 18 position Cinch-Jones connector. Prior to DMX512 was commonly used for analog control. At the least, you'd need a DMX-to-analog converter and would need the pin-out from Lehigh to wire it properly. And hope the voltage is a standard 0-10vdc.
 
There is a very old Legacy console from 1991 Lehigh Electric in a space I'm working in. I have chosen to set that aside and use my nomad to program and run a show I was hired to design. While the connection to the dimmer rack is DMX, the house lights run through a completely different plug. I have been searching the internet trying to find even a name for the plug. My questions are, what the heck is the type of plug-- and is there any way I can wire it to be controlled through DMX with with my nomad. I've attached a link to the boards manual as well as a screenshot of a drafting of the back of the board. Thanks in advance for your help!

http://www.lehighdim.com/download/theatr/legacy/legacy.pdf
@Hunter.tech As Derek posted: Cinch Jones; I'd say from their smaller 300 series rather than their larger 500 series. Mouser electronics would be a possible supplier. Assuming the connector on the console is a female you'd be looking for a male connector; the part number would likely be P318 (P for plug [S for socket]) 3 for 300 series, 18 for 18 contacts. Adding CCT or CCE to the part number would denote an enclosure cap with a cable grip in either the T - Top or E - End depending upon whether you wanted a straight or ninety degree shell for your connector. @jfleenor would be able to help you out with an analogue to DMX or DMX to analogue converter.
From north of Donald's walls.
EDIT: To explain P and S Vs. Male and female. Many / most connector manufacturers designated their connectors as females and males, possibly this was deemed too sexy by the staid Cinch Jones company as their connectors were always designated as S for sockets and P for plugs. @derekleffew Had you noticed this? @Ancient Engineer and @FMEng probably had.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
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I work in a couple schools with Lehigh systems, though mainly from 1995 and up where they used a different connector for the houselights - it's very similar to a VGA monitor plug on all of ours. In these systems the houselight dimmers are in the rack but are controlled by a separate analog system. While you can figure out which dimmers control the houselights, the processor is programmed to PREVENT dmx control of the houselights. The houselight dimmers are usually in the bottom row of dimmers in the rack, but not always the last few dimmers as they often shared neutrals and as a result they spread the load over all three phases. We have one school where in an 68 dimmer system they (Lehigh) decided that dimmer 32 should be a houselight along with 6 more at the bottom of the rack. For years we thought there was no dimmer 32 or 61. We recently found a local company that has dug into these (and other 'old') systems and their tech told us that there we had a dimmer 32 and dimmer 61, but that they were hiding. On a PM visit he pointed out that the last two dimmers in the rack had no circuits connected to them and put temporary tails on them. We ran through all the dimmers and the second to the last dimmer in the rack was 32 and the last one was 61.

We asked the tech about getting DMX control of the houselights and he said the only way was to reprogram the Eprom and that the last time he talked to Lehigh they told them their Eprom machine had broken and was so old that it couldn't be fixed and that there was no longer a way to reprogram them. The tech's company sees a lot of old systems and they took a decommissioned Lehigh system apart and have developed a retrofit solution for the Lehigh processors using a Johnson Systems CD-2000. The company expects to start installing them in the next few months.

For your show I suggest you do what we do - keep the old console out so that you can run the houselights from it. The tech told us that the houselight module in our Lehigh consoles are a stand alone unit and that it is possible to remove the module from the console and wall or desk mount it. We'll be having them do that so we can run a show with just one console in the booth instead of the ETC console for the stage lighting and the Lehigh brick just for the houselights.
 
The easiest solution may be to open the console up and trace the wiring from the houselight receptacle. It would go to the houselight slider module and possibly a power supply, or, the power supply could be in the dimmer rack.
If it is indeed that simple, transplant the receptacle and the slider module to a separate "houselight control box" and you are done. Pretty much the same advice as the other poster.

On all of our Lehigh consoles the houselight control is powered by the rack. The tech who worked on ours said it is as simple as pulling the slider (and button) module out of the console and mounting it in a box and then reconnecting the wires.
 

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