Vintage Lighting Hi all. New guy here. Well, an OLD new guy new to this forum.
- Thread starterZero210
- Start date
Zero210
Member
Yo, microstar, many thanks for the suggestion! You are right, they look very similar indeed! More searching to follow!
Zero210
Member
Hey derekleffew, thanks for the response. Yeah, you are right on about the similarities to Strand CD80 dimmers and the Mantrix. Just for some background, I am currently a part time, formerly a full time repair tech for Vincent Lighting Systems in Cleveland, OH. Been to Strand training when they were out in the LA area and when they moved to Dallas. I had never worked on the Mantrix, but we had at least one in the VLS shop that was an organ donor. Methinks I’ll dig up that Mantrix user manual! Anyways, you have certainly shed some LIGHT on my day! Thanks again! Oh, and these pictures came from a small high school out here in NorthEast Ohio. Conneaut High School to be exact.
Zero210
Member
Hi everyone. First, another Thank You to those who have offered up ideas and information on the LCI Systems console shown at the top of this thread. I’ve spoken with a few other local guys who have offered a few more tidbits that I’d like to share. My former boss at. Vincent Lighting here in Cleveland suggested that somewhere between LCI and Strand CD80’s there was a company called Electro Controls who made a console called Celebrity. He thought that the LCI had some remote similarities to the Celebrity console. Electro Controls operated a protocol called ECMux.
OK, so back to the LCI Systems console. It doesn’t control any of the lighting in the theater space. In fact, the users have resorted to BOUNCING the left side up the console whenever the indicator lights go blank. Yeah… they BOUNCE it on the floor to restore the panel indicator lights. Apparently years of BOUNCING have finally brought about the total demise of this console. So, the idea here is to simply replace the LCI console with shiny new DMX capable unit… something “not too expensive” they say. Yeah, alright, so you want Hollywood lights on a Mayberry budget… right.
Sorry for the long rambling post. My question is: Has anyone ever seen a control output like the one shown in the photo? If we can determine what the dimmers are expecting to see as a control signal, there are several protocol converters that could go between the DMX desk and the dimmers.
At least these guys didn’t wait until their show in March to try to get the lights working again.
OK, so back to the LCI Systems console. It doesn’t control any of the lighting in the theater space. In fact, the users have resorted to BOUNCING the left side up the console whenever the indicator lights go blank. Yeah… they BOUNCE it on the floor to restore the panel indicator lights. Apparently years of BOUNCING have finally brought about the total demise of this console. So, the idea here is to simply replace the LCI console with shiny new DMX capable unit… something “not too expensive” they say. Yeah, alright, so you want Hollywood lights on a Mayberry budget… right.
Sorry for the long rambling post. My question is: Has anyone ever seen a control output like the one shown in the photo? If we can determine what the dimmers are expecting to see as a control signal, there are several protocol converters that could go between the DMX desk and the dimmers.
At least these guys didn’t wait until their show in March to try to get the lights working again.
Attachments
microstar
Well-Known Member
Sorry to say your unit is not even close to looking like the EC Celebrity console. It has a vague resemblance to the EC Playmaster lineup with the 6-slider 2-scene modular design and similar fader knobs,
but the Playmate and sister PM preset consoles were EC's low-cost units and never had any kind of digital display. Also, ECMux always used a 4-pin XLR connector.
I think @ship knows someone at Vara-light/Dimatronics in Crystal Lake, IL. Maybe he will weigh in with some contact info.
but the Playmate and sister PM preset consoles were EC's low-cost units and never had any kind of digital display. Also, ECMux always used a 4-pin XLR connector.
I think @ship knows someone at Vara-light/Dimatronics in Crystal Lake, IL. Maybe he will weigh in with some contact info.
Attachments
I had a thought, but dismissed it before posting. However, since you brought it up. Electrol Controls began in 1964 in Salt Lake City as a result of a hostile takeover of the Ariel Davis Manufacturing Company. https://electrocontrolsarchive.blogspot.com/
In Canada, Electro Controls was known as Lighting Controls Inc. and based in Calgary, Alberta. LCI, get it? Strand bought the company in 1986 and closed it in 1991. But Salt Lake UT and Crystal Lake IL are world's apart. Well, +/- 2000 miles or so. @gordonmcleod @pathway would know more.
-----
I've never seen that connector used for anything except power. It's possible that Vara-Light/Dimatronics developed their own proprietary digital protocol that no one else ever used.
I would ask @Rob at Acuity Brands, formerly Pathway Connectivity, formerly Gray Interfaces; or @MiltonDavis at Doug Fleenor Designs. Or Steve Short at Lite-trol.
Rob
Well-Known Member
I've never seen that connector either. Because it looks so similar to a Mantrix, I was expecting it to have four conductors for AMX192, but it's clearly labeled Digital, so I'm left wondering. Perhaps @Ron Foley has seen this LCI data connector before.
Zero210
Member
Hey microstar, yeah… I agree. I was just sharing input from another observer. Not having any real world contact with a Celebrity myself, I figured that there might be someone here who could either confirm or deny so I decided to post it. Thanks for the info on the Playmaster and Playmate consoles. I missed out on a lot of the older technology and find it almost interesting. Well, OK, barely interesting but fun nonetheless.
Zero210
Member
Hey derekleffew, thanks for the tidbits and contact infos. I find it hard to believe that this lonely high school in NE Ohio is the only place that ever had the misfortune to end up with this dandy LCI boat anchor.
Onward and upward!
JonCarter
Well-Known Member
Might try contacting Ken Hansen at Vara-Light/Dimatronics/Hub Electric co as the semi- or mostly retired last owner of the company. Phone number is listed to his info in a search of his name. Great engineer and loved his field. A member of the forum last I knew, but very innactive in no quick link to cotacting him. Think the above info is as good as you get that I know about him... Hope he is still out ther, servicing gear and enjoying semi-retirement as we all would love. But I have not heard from Ken in a long time.
My last contact from him was back in April in one of his customers searching for Roundells... I just happend to have them, but somehow I didn't see the email for a few months, and he never replied to my late response. A shame as I wiould have liked to empty the drawer full of them, and knew where last I knew there was hundres more.
If anyone does contact Ken... please have him contact me also.... been a few years.
My last contact from him was back in April in one of his customers searching for Roundells... I just happend to have them, but somehow I didn't see the email for a few months, and he never replied to my late response. A shame as I wiould have liked to empty the drawer full of them, and knew where last I knew there was hundres more.
If anyone does contact Ken... please have him contact me also.... been a few years.
Zero210
Member
Hello Jon. Yes, I worked in Cleveland many times and many places. Most notably, the original Agora Ballroom when it was over on East 24th near Cleveland State U. Hank LoConti owned the place. I was one of a number of stage hands that worked there and also at the Youngstown Agora (also a LoConti operation).
During my time with Vincent Lighting field service I had done various types of service calls at The Playhouse, Cain Park, and Karamu. As far as going back in time, I did, at one time rent stuff from ElectraStage but I don’t immediately recall the owners last name… his first name was Bob (I think)… we lost him quite a few years ago.
In Youngstown I also worked with JAM Sound (John Markovich… sp?) and Specialite (David Terpak) and a number of gigs with a bunch of guys called Sound Treatment (Dave Reese, Mike Gatavy, Jim Timblin… again not sure if the spelling of last names here… it’s been a “few” years).
Zero210
Member
Thanks for the info Ship. I’ll reach out to him.
Zero210
Member
Hey FM… yeah, this is a real puzzler. I did dig into the bottom of the rack (pictures included) but at the time, I had the new theater director hovering over my back and when I attempted to pull one of the boards out of the backplane, he about wet himself. I said “hey, look… it’s already NOT working, what do you think I could possibly break to make it NOT work anymore?” But he looked pale and was about to faint, so I slid the board back without ever having examined it closely. If you notice, the boards all have edge connections that engage in the backplane/motherboard and they have an ADDITIONAL edge connector at the top that connects to a free hanging wire harness. Nutty.
Attachments
JonCarter
Well-Known Member
I remember the Agora on 24th - new place in town. I worked at Cain Park from '55 to '59 - back long before they put a roof over it. Nothing like focussing lights at 2:00 AM, in the dark, in the rain, and getting a jolt every time you touched an instrument (water-soaked asbestos leads.) Ahhhh, outdoor theeter! 
Similar threads
