Rick Hinton
Member
Just realizing that I did not hit "post" on this after spending hours typing it up!
@Amiers: absolutely, you did indeed mention that. In the manual that you referred me to, it said:
EM264
The EM264 has three thumb wheels.
- For installation racks, thumb wheel is set to rack number (1-64)
- For touring racks, thumb wheel address is set to the DMX512 address of the first dimmer in the column that the EM264 controls
Since this was originally an installation, I left it as is because it seemed to align what the above in blue.
Since we were not a touring setup, I discounted the touring rack information as it did not fit the installation narrative.
After talking with Support originally, they told me that an ETC console just needs to know the "rack" number. I am an IT guy, so a "rack" is a 42U cabinet, which is what this was installed in, but in ETC terms, that is an "equipment rack". The "rack" is actually the ETC dimmer chassis. Since we had two chassis, the racks were labeled 001 and 002 respectively, which was clearly wrong (for our setup) and producing undesirable results.
The one thing that caught my eye in the touring rack section is the "thumb wheel address is set to the DMX512 address of the first dimmer in the column that the EM264 controls" statement. I explained what I wanted, and they confirmed that how I had configured the new setting of each of the EM264s would get me the flexibility that I needed, but technically it would not be configured as a "touring rack", it would still be considered an installation. Something still wasn't right. I had the top chassis with three EM264s that control 8 dimmers/column (16 circuits) each.
The top left EM264 is 001, which should be DMX 1-16.
Top middle EM264 is 002, which....Should be DMX 2-17?
Then top right would be DMX 3-18? This would also exhibit the duplicitous behavior that we wanted to eradicate. Drat. We are close, but not out of the woods yet! Reading the Touring Rack installation instruction again, the middle EM264 in the top row should start at 17, the third at 33, etc.
I called ETC and they walked me through using this setup and confirmed that if we wanted to use it as a "touring rack" that there would be some additional dip switch settings that had to be set. I have some pictures, but they haven't been sent yet (I was working with remote hands). We made the changes and tested; low and behold there were additional lights that would not previously energize. I now have to reprogram the AAS, as the dimmer DMX Addresses have changed again, but that is a small task compared to what has transpired thus far. I now have a working rack system as I imagined and intended!
For illustration (I don't yet have pictures), here is the current setup:
Chassis 1. Circuits 1-48
Chassis 2. Circuits 49-240
I'm headed out there next weekend to finally put this to bed, hang some lights and get the Optosplitter and other DMX goodies working with the Hog! I'll get some pictures as soon as I can.
@Amiers: absolutely, you did indeed mention that. In the manual that you referred me to, it said:
EM264
The EM264 has three thumb wheels.
- For installation racks, thumb wheel is set to rack number (1-64)
- For touring racks, thumb wheel address is set to the DMX512 address of the first dimmer in the column that the EM264 controls
Since this was originally an installation, I left it as is because it seemed to align what the above in blue.
Since we were not a touring setup, I discounted the touring rack information as it did not fit the installation narrative.
After talking with Support originally, they told me that an ETC console just needs to know the "rack" number. I am an IT guy, so a "rack" is a 42U cabinet, which is what this was installed in, but in ETC terms, that is an "equipment rack". The "rack" is actually the ETC dimmer chassis. Since we had two chassis, the racks were labeled 001 and 002 respectively, which was clearly wrong (for our setup) and producing undesirable results.
The one thing that caught my eye in the touring rack section is the "thumb wheel address is set to the DMX512 address of the first dimmer in the column that the EM264 controls" statement. I explained what I wanted, and they confirmed that how I had configured the new setting of each of the EM264s would get me the flexibility that I needed, but technically it would not be configured as a "touring rack", it would still be considered an installation. Something still wasn't right. I had the top chassis with three EM264s that control 8 dimmers/column (16 circuits) each.
The top left EM264 is 001, which should be DMX 1-16.
Top middle EM264 is 002, which....Should be DMX 2-17?
Then top right would be DMX 3-18? This would also exhibit the duplicitous behavior that we wanted to eradicate. Drat. We are close, but not out of the woods yet! Reading the Touring Rack installation instruction again, the middle EM264 in the top row should start at 17, the third at 33, etc.
I called ETC and they walked me through using this setup and confirmed that if we wanted to use it as a "touring rack" that there would be some additional dip switch settings that had to be set. I have some pictures, but they haven't been sent yet (I was working with remote hands). We made the changes and tested; low and behold there were additional lights that would not previously energize. I now have to reprogram the AAS, as the dimmer DMX Addresses have changed again, but that is a small task compared to what has transpired thus far. I now have a working rack system as I imagined and intended!
For illustration (I don't yet have pictures), here is the current setup:
Chassis 1. Circuits 1-48
| EM264 001 | EM264 017 | EM264 033 |
Chassis 2. Circuits 49-240
| EM264 049 | EM264 113 | EM264 177 |
I'm headed out there next weekend to finally put this to bed, hang some lights and get the Optosplitter and other DMX goodies working with the Hog! I'll get some pictures as soon as I can.
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