Control/Dimming Strand CD-80SV Disaster

[photoatdv]

Okay... Dual Strand CD 80 supervisor racks. One rack's processor dies (the rack with most dimmers). Can they be swapped? If so how?

Pretty much need them working today...

 

[derekleffew]

If/when time is of the essence, don't fool with online forums.

Start making phone calls:
Strand Lighting: 1-800-4STRAND
Save My CD-80: 1-323-261-5162 (dimmerdotcom)
Lite-Trol: 1-800-LITE-TROL
Century Lighting Service: 1-201-791-7001
Your friendly local lighting vendor (who is hopefully a Strand dealer).

 

[coldnorth57]

Also check out Johnson Systems for new brains for your CD 80
Johnson Systems Inc.

 

[Darthrob13]

Be careful about swapping them.

Most often what kills these is the 4.5V battery going belly up. If these were installed at the same time the other battery could be a time-bomb that if you remove it from power (ie take it out of the rack) it too will become a doorstop.

The battery is easy to replace but should be done by someone who know how to work on electronics (not someone who "knows how to work on computers"). This isn't plug and play...it's pretty intense soldering.

Don't bother calling Strand, they will only have C21 retrofit kits to sell you.

Do try Century.

 

[photoatdv]

If said 4.5V battery is replaced will that fix it? At least to get through the show?

Would the power have to have been cut in order for the fault to be the battery?

 

[JD]

Dead battery = dropped configuration. There may have to be a little work on that after the changed battery. At times, a flaky battery can cause a corrupt configuration, in which case the unit would need to be defaulted first.

 

[derekleffew]

From dimmer.com/CD80 racks :

TIP 2: Prepare yourself for your processor going down if it hasn’t in over 7 years. It will. Emlight repairs roughly 1-7 a month. If it fails: LCD display goes away or flashes, rack drops into panic and the processor seems dead - then unplug the processor as soon as possible. The longer you leave it running in a failed state the more likely the chance that you will begin to cook of traces on the daughter board and the main board.
Now, for those of you who know about the infamous battery on the memory card, if it’s a smooth body unit it’s probably already leaking and destroying your board. I’ve had these battery types leak while sitting on my shelf! The good ones have about 3 ridges. They will still go bad as the board is charging them wrong and destroying them but you should get a good 5-7 years out of it. Here is where it gets interesting. People try to replace the battery and destroy traces and pads because of poor soldering and desoldering skills or equipment. They also don’t understand about ESD safety and almost always knock off a few surface mount diodes that are the size of a small black ant. We’ve taken to having to do full visual inspections when end user work is suspected. If ever a product needed to be retrofitted it’s this one.