Electro Controls

My comments, in that I love looking at photos and noticing things about gear in use but not saying that what works is wrong persay. More the attempt to learn how and why it's done in the field especially the way it has been in the past by way of comment/questions and discussion.

Interesting that the channel strips are bolted thru in mounting fixtures, unless there is tubing inside to protect bolt from hitting the internal wires. I would not think the gutter was structural, and I know it's against code to use a wire way for means of attachment/thru-bolting unless using a seperated area for mounting and wire way. Not that it is not done especially with lamp bars, just the first I have seen any thing like this in a perminant install.

Wondering where the batten pipe normally associated with such power strips are for mounting to?

Or is this the type of strip that has the Unistrut slot for mounting fixtures to it?

Interesting also that the scoop's up side down, though most lamps today have universal burn. I'm used to the "Burn Base UP" when I see radial fixtures. Is that second chain in the photo a safety cable for the scoop? What is it bolted to on the fixture?

Interesting the jack chain in use. I take it for granted the rusty steel strap is the means of mounting and not the chain.

Now that's a Fresnel. One heck of a knob atop it. Kind of looks like a Century/Strand. Where's it's safety cable?
 
Now, for the record those pictures are about 4 years old from when i started being involved at this theatre.

....
Or is this the type of strip that has the Unistrut slot for mounting fixtures to it?
Yes it is!


Interesting also that the scoop's up side down, though most lamps today have universal burn. I'm used to the "Burn Base UP" when I see radial fixtures. Is that second chain in the photo a safety cable for the scoop? What is it bolted to on the fixture?

The scoop is bolted to the unistrut. This fixture just takes a 500 lamp, the ones that are basically a giant version of your household 100 watt lamp. AFAIK there is no safety chain on this fixture. The chain you see was just for decoration as far as i could tell.


Interesting the jack chain in use. I take it for granted the rusty steel strap is the means of mounting and not the chain.

The chain you see was installed by the electricians when they redid the auditorium.

Now that's a Fresnel. One heck of a knob atop it. Kind of looks like a Century/Strand. Where's it's safety cable?

Its Electrocontrols all the way. Everything is! No safety cable of course...
 
Hey hey! I've got those channel strip things, a patch rack, and a 2 preset board from these guys. Not bad! Cept it's about to be removed during a refurbishment.

With regards to Ship's comments, when our school put the lights in, they put the strips above scaff bars to take the loads, and I'd personally not be happy with mounting lights directly onto the strips. No flexibility and possible internal wiring issues. Just my 2 cents!
 
Ahhh...looks just like ours ;) We've been slowly replacing our Electro-Controls instruments (with asbestos insulated cables 8O ) with ETC Source Fours and Colortran 6" fresnels. We still have many of the old fresnels, they're so dang inefficient. They're like flashlights compared to the Colortrans. And the EC ellipsoidals, no contest, the S4's are at least 5x brighter with an HPL 575. We don't use the old EC ellipsoidals any more, and we avoid using the EC fresnels. But in a crunch we sometimes do.

We also have an EC dimming system, installed with the facility in 1972. Half the presets are dead in the board, dimmer #15 works half the time, the dimmer rack has almost burned down the place countless times, and many of our circuits are intermittent. One of them works when the electric is down, but doesn't work when it's up. And our first electric is just about to break in half, you can see the center stage joint connecting the two strips together bending and pulling apart.

This summer we're getting it replaced with an ETC Sensor SR48 rack with D20 dimmers, an Express 48/96, as well as many new instruments; 10 new Colortran 6" fresnels, bringing our inventory of those up to 12, 6 Source Fours, bringing our inventory up to 23, 3 each of the 15-30 degree and 25-50 degree Source Four zoom, 6 new Altman R40 borderlights (we don't have any now), and 9 new Altman 14" scoops for the scrim lighting, adding to the many EC scoops that still work.

We're also getting new sound (EAW KF650, Crown CTs, Mackie TT24), but that goes in the other board ;)
 
I thought EC died a firey death in the late 80's. :lol:

I always thought most of the equipment sucked except the controllers. In the late 80's Western Washington Univ had a slider patch w/ 48 dimmers and a 36 ch dimmer rack from EC controlled by an EC board. At the time it was pretty cool cuz it had softpatching, a separate monitor and a couple of wheels for cross fading. It was easy to run and to program.

The whole system was replaced when the slider patch caught fire in my senior year (I think 1990). I think it was replaced by Colortran.
 
This?
Pana.jpg
The Electro Controls Archive: The Celebrity Console

Interesting to note the Wireless Hand-held Remote. Very advanced for 1983.:p
proxy.php
 
Last edited:
In 1975 we got an earlier memory board that what is pictured. No softpatch, it still patched through the slider system we all remember. It was a variation of of a two scene board that only had one set of physical dimmers. You could record a cue stack and play it back but it was extremely unreliable.
The theatre has the same wire duct/ficture hanging system pictured above. The other schools in the area that had the same system had pipes installed to hang the instruments.
 
our auditorium has EC everything, dimmers, console, instruments, etc. And none of it works. The previous teachers didn't take care of anything and now we can't get any of it to work. I had a guy come take a look at replacing it and we don't have nearly the money for it.
 
What isn't working? If you have the old slider type patch panel, that should be pretty bulletproof. What board do you have and isn't working on that. The instruments were not great new so they are what they are but you may be able to cobble together some. List what problems you are having and take pictures if possible. There are enough old guard guys around here we might to get you something going.
 
the problem is, i inherited it from the previous teachers in their current state and have no clue whas wrong and don't know enough about them to diagnose. i'll take a few pictures and post them though.
 
Right off the bat, if you have the slider system I mentioned go through you instruments and patch to the AM. This is a test circuit and two things should happen, the light should come on but it also should show on the meter mounted n the patch bay. If the light doesn't come on then you have to troubleshoot the light. The easiest thing is to plug it in a known working circuit. If it doesn't work then check the lamp and plug. If it does come on then you have a problem with the original circuit. If it isn't a circuit breaker, which should be on the patch board, then get an electrician to check it. If you don't have bad circuits or lights then you need to check your board. Find a working circuit and patch it starting at dimmer one and check each dimmer. Once you have gone trough your dimmers, check all your masters. Most EC boards had a grand master, which must be up for the presets to work, an independant master, an A/B sub master for each scene and a x/y split master. Above each dimmer on all the EC boards I used was a three position switch, it switch each dimmer between sub A, sub B or independant master. The A/B master also had a two position switch which assigned them between the grand master and the independant master.
The only reason I bring all the master info up is to make sure you have everything in the proper switch mode to correctly test your board. Post pictures of your board and patch panel. Also locate where the actual dimmers are located. Sometimes on a small system they are in the bottom of the patch panel. I have also seen them two rooms way.
One other thing that you may find is ghosting channels. This is where you have the dimmer at zero but the light stays on a little. Simple to fix but we will need more info for that.
 
TO FIX "GHOSTS" ARE THE ADJUSTMENTS A,B,C USEFUL? THEY APPEAR TO AFFECT THE LIGHTS BRIGHTNESS. HAVE NO USER MANUAL OR ANY BASIC INFO, SO AM PURELY USING OBSERVATION WHILE TWEAKING. ALSO COULD THE SCR'S BE LEAKING IF THE POSITION CONTROL VOLTAGE FROM THE SLIDER CONTROL PANEL IS SUFFICIENT? (APROX 15 VOLTS)WE HAVE PROBLEMS WITH FUSES IN DIMMER BOXES(BLACK SLIDE IN BUCKETS). COULD SCR'S CAUSE THESE 1/16 AMP FUSES TO GO. THEY APPEAR TO BE FEEDBACK FROM OUTPUT TO DRIVE THE LIGHTS.
MANY PROBLEMS WERE FIXED BY US WITH REPAIRING CRACKED SOLDER RUNS ON SLIDER BOARD IN SLIDER CONTROL PANEL.
 
TO FIX "GHOSTS" ARE THE ADJUSTMENTS A,B,C USEFUL? THEY APPEAR TO AFFECT THE LIGHTS BRIGHTNESS. HAVE NO USER MANUAL OR ANY BASIC INFO, SO AM PURELY USING OBSERVATION WHILE TWEAKING. ALSO COULD THE SCR'S BE LEAKING IF THE POSITION CONTROL VOLTAGE FROM THE SLIDER CONTROL PANEL IS SUFFICIENT? (APROX 15 VOLTS)WE HAVE PROBLEMS WITH FUSES IN DIMMER BOXES(BLACK SLIDE IN BUCKETS). COULD SCR'S CAUSE THESE 1/16 AMP FUSES TO GO. THEY APPEAR TO BE FEEDBACK FROM OUTPUT TO DRIVE THE LIGHTS.
MANY PROBLEMS WERE FIXED BY US WITH REPAIRING CRACKED SOLDER RUNS ON SLIDER BOARD IN SLIDER CONTROL PANEL.

Welcome to ControlBooth! Take a moment later to introduce yourself in the new members forum!

Just a suggestion, on an internet forum, using all caps LIKE THIS is considered yelling, and some people on here won't even read what you had to say. Just so you know.

And, this thread is over 6 years old, so be careful of the dates. All_Around_Techie hasn't been back in a long time as well.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
TO FIX "GHOSTS" ARE THE ADJUSTMENTS A,B,C USEFUL? THEY APPEAR TO AFFECT THE LIGHTS BRIGHTNESS. HAVE NO USER MANUAL OR ANY BASIC INFO, SO AM PURELY USING OBSERVATION WHILE TWEAKING. ALSO COULD THE SCR'S BE LEAKING IF THE POSITION CONTROL VOLTAGE FROM THE SLIDER CONTROL PANEL IS SUFFICIENT? (APROX 15 VOLTS)WE HAVE PROBLEMS WITH FUSES IN DIMMER BOXES(BLACK SLIDE IN BUCKETS). COULD SCR'S CAUSE THESE 1/16 AMP FUSES TO GO. THEY APPEAR TO BE FEEDBACK FROM OUTPUT TO DRIVE THE LIGHTS.
MANY PROBLEMS WERE FIXED BY US WITH REPAIRING CRACKED SOLDER RUNS ON SLIDER BOARD IN SLIDER CONTROL PANEL.
The EC systems are a 0/15v system. Depending on the system it either used two SCRs or a triac, I don't remember the specific number. I used to have a bag of the ttriacs that an EC repair tech gave me. What school are you in, I can't be that far from you.
 
The EC systems are a 0/15v system. Depending on the system it either used two SCRs or a triac, I don't remember the specific number. I used to have a bag of the ttriacs that an EC repair tech gave me. What school are you in, I can't be that far from you.
the system uses the two scrs.replacing both would be $150 to $200 per dimmer so am hesitant to replace on a whim. north dorchester high school. was it the triacs that were the easy ghost fix you had?
 
No, that is just the dimmer curve adjustment. Are your dimmers in cases or just mounted under the patch panel? I am in Salisbury so I could slip up if you need. I am going to Charlottesville to do My Fair Lady Sunday through Wed. I could come by after I come back. You are only 15 minutes away.
My experience is when a triac or SCR blows it goes to no control full. My understanding is it could also have full off or partial control. I have never seen that but I bow to some of these guys that have seen it. I have used EC at WiHi,Bennett,Mardela,WYCC, SU and Parkside.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your info.
Have had the full on or off indications many times. Usually replaced 1/16 amp fuse and it works again. But have used 15 plus fuses and did not document repair work on individual units. Suspect I may have replaced fuse more than once on same unit. May be that as the scr heats up it surges. That size fuse can't take much. The last two that failed and took the fuse out were driving multiple lights, more lights more current. I may be repairing at idle and be setting up sure failure under high load.
The dimmers are in cases(5"x9"x14") that slide in a large rack. Black-faced with A,B,C adjustments and pos control and load test points.
Will contact when you return. Good luck.
 
well, no more pics of the EC leko, but i'll take some soon.

proxy.php

The ubiquitous electro controls 'channel strips' and a 6" control lighting fresnel.

proxy.php

a control lighting scoop sitting on a channel strip.

proxy.php

Page scanned from the 1970 (first year) yearbook. The altspot is still there (not in use) and this is about all the info I have on the old system. The dimmers (48x3.6kw) were replaced with 2 cd-80 packs. Then those were replaced with a full cd-80 rack.
So I was helping service this venue. The lighting system has gone to crap. The students are no longer allowed in cats, and the stage grid is inaccessible due to a lack of lift or ladder. The catwalks are now filled with mostly burnt out scoops and fresnels, which do not work at that that throw distance. There are no striplights anymore, and not enough track clips to do a proper stage plot. I helped them get a donation of old fixtures from the local community theatre that donated the strand zooms. Sorry to revive a necropost, but I just feel like I gotta comment on the sorry state this venue has fallen into. What was the reason for decomissioning the original EC ERSs?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back