I work with a community theater company that owns an NSI MC 24/48 which has been solid as a rock for years. Our lighting designer took the console apart to clean it and the unit was working fine for an hour or so during focus. The overheating light came on and all dimmer control was lost. He rebooted the board and the overheating light went off however the board functions (GM up to 100% or individual channel adjustments) did not register on the monitor. The board did not turn on any fixtures. It was about 82 degrees F. in the building at the time. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
NSI MC 24/48 Overheating
- Thread starterJoe Moore
- Start date
microstar
Well-Known Member
The overheat light is telling you the dimmer rack is overheating, not the lighting console. Immediately check your dimmer rack for an overheat indicator and make sure the fan is running when one or more channels are up. Also check for clogged air vents. How long has it been since you've vacuumed the rack?
From the manual:
OVERTEMP LED
Location: Indicator, Right Console Face, above [BLACKOUT] Hard key
The red OVERTEMP LED illuminates when a dimmer rack is close to automatically turning itself off due to an obstructed air flow. This feature only works when the console is connected to a Colortran Dimmer Rack.
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microstar
Well-Known Member
Not sure what you mean by "loss of control of the fixtures". Any fixture plugged into the dimmer rack would be affected as the rack tries to or does shut down due to obstructed cooling/overheating.
If you are saying GM and channel levels have stopped appearing on the video monitor, then that is another issue. Maybe the person forgot to plug in a ribbon cable when he put the console back together?
Is the rack a Colortran ENR rack?
If you are saying GM and channel levels have stopped appearing on the video monitor, then that is another issue. Maybe the person forgot to plug in a ribbon cable when he put the console back together?
Is the rack a Colortran ENR rack?
I am saying that the GM and channel levels have stopped appearing on the video monitor. The console was working for over an hour before it acted up. I would not have thought that it would have operated at all if a ribbon cable was the issue. I guess it is my turn to open up the console and see if the LD missed something.
microstar
Well-Known Member
Hmmm. I recently called to a school where their Colortran Encore console (similar to yours) just lost its channel levels display after operating for many (too many) years. Could not find the cause with casual inspection and replugging of ribbon cables. Not worth the expense to have it looked at and went with the ETC Nomad software and DMX dongle for a laptop. Greatly improves their capabilities and good training for the students there. Obviously they got the educational price of only $250 for the Nomad package as well. Several years earlier had converted their Colortran D192 rack to DMX in order to replace the failing Viewpoint architectural control system. Good luck.
