Rick Hinton
Member
I am helping a non profit with their stage lighting, and the last time I did anything with lighting was as a rigger in the Panama City Civic Center in 1995 or 1996, so it's been a while and I'm rusty. Been reading for a while on this forum to refresh my memory, and I'm coming up blank in the searches; mostly because "ETC" "L86" and "DMX" are all search terms that are "too short or too common".
We are running a ETC L86 rack in a theater that we have acquired, and I have tons of questions about the rig. My first dive into it was this past week, where I took time off work to drive the 10 hours to get to the theater (I really like this non profit!). I found that the rack is fully populated, stage lights on DMX1, and a separate controller ties house and work lights to DMX2; house is fine, but no work lights. Found that the console was sold/pitched by the previous owner and therefore no stage light controls. In fact, most of the lighting had been removed and was piled in a nearby room. I was using Hog4PC and a borrowed single universe HOG USB DMX Widget to try to connect to the rack with no luck. Found that the DMX1 light was flashing, and I knew that meant there was a problem with the DMX1 network. After two days of tracking and troubleshooting I found that a very large mouse, rat, or other animal low on copper in their bloodstream had chewed mostly through one control cable that went to the EM264's, in a very inconvenient place mind you, and had killed connectivity to DMX1. After I repaired that, DMX1 recognized that there was a DMX network, but I still had no control over any of the stage lighting. I ran out of time to troubleshoot further.
It was a very long weekend.. Of the tons of questions I have, the most important ones that I need answered before I go back:
Rick
We are running a ETC L86 rack in a theater that we have acquired, and I have tons of questions about the rig. My first dive into it was this past week, where I took time off work to drive the 10 hours to get to the theater (I really like this non profit!). I found that the rack is fully populated, stage lights on DMX1, and a separate controller ties house and work lights to DMX2; house is fine, but no work lights. Found that the console was sold/pitched by the previous owner and therefore no stage light controls. In fact, most of the lighting had been removed and was piled in a nearby room. I was using Hog4PC and a borrowed single universe HOG USB DMX Widget to try to connect to the rack with no luck. Found that the DMX1 light was flashing, and I knew that meant there was a problem with the DMX1 network. After two days of tracking and troubleshooting I found that a very large mouse, rat, or other animal low on copper in their bloodstream had chewed mostly through one control cable that went to the EM264's, in a very inconvenient place mind you, and had killed connectivity to DMX1. After I repaired that, DMX1 recognized that there was a DMX network, but I still had no control over any of the stage lighting. I ran out of time to troubleshoot further.
It was a very long weekend.. Of the tons of questions I have, the most important ones that I need answered before I go back:
If anyone reading this has L86 experience and can offer some pointers, I'm all ears. Thank you for your time and wisdom.
Rick