Troubleshooting Bad Dimmer/Circuit

[EWCguy]

There is one circuit on an overhead electric that has been working well for years. Last month, it quit. I have Strand CD80 dimmer pairs -- nothing was tripped, so I swapped it out, still nothing (tough I didn't confirm that the half-of-a-pair worked, I have no reason to believe it doesn't). I checked lamp and cable on the attached instrument, not the problem. I opened the circuit box on the batten and everything looks well-connected. What else can I easily check?

Then... why would one circuit go dead? Something wrong inside the dimmer rack? Some stray setting on the controller unit?

Thanks.

 

[ChrisB_SanDiego]

Have you checked your patch on the board? on my system sometimes I just lose control of a dimmer, but it never happens at a time where I actually have the time to diagnose. In my case, un-patching and re-patching the address usually does the trick.

If that doesn't help, pull out the volt meter and see where your losing power if its leaving the dimmer, and check for continuity on the cables. I'm assuming there is no errors on the CD80? If no luck call strand.

 

[EWCguy]

Chris, thanks. Patched and repatched... that's how I really determined a consistent problem. Volt meter will make its way out...

 

[John Palmer]

Does this electric fly in and out? If so, it is possible that the conductor in the cable feeding the electric has broken. At college, we had an electric where the circuit worked when the batten was in, but half way out it would stop working.
Good luck,
John

 

[microstar]

I second the broken/intermittent conductor in the feed cable suggestion. Had it happen many times as the theatre aged. Most prevalent on larger multicables. With the dimmer up, slowly run the electric up and down a few times and see if the fixture comes on or flickers. If you can unpatch the circuit from the dimmer, you can do a continuity check to verify. One other thing.... they usually put some spare conductors in the multicable, so it is possible to use one of those to replace a broken conductor.