Unison DR12 Control Station Not Working

[jaycoale82]

Can I reconfigure a Unison Dimming Rack without the floppy disk?

I got called to a school in my district today in hopes that I could help get their lighting system functioning again. The facility folks that handle this plan to call Barbizon Lighting to get a rep out to handle everything, but facilities is backed up/doesn't want to handle it for a few months and the school has concerns that Barbizon will be backed up when they eventually do reach out to them. They have had a dance rental in there that they allowed to attempt to fix without success and they have a play coming up in a few weeks. They do not believe the typical procedure will solve the problem until sometime in the spring or summer. My backup is to hang a bunch of LED pars for them to get some light and just ignore everything they already have up.

My evaluation of it is that the system had a power fluctuation that sent it into Bypass Active mode. I'm told that the house lights were replaced prior to this malfunction. Whether this also knocked out the configuration or attempts to solve this problem knocked out the configuration is unclear. When I navigate to the Menu[Arch], I only see the options for diagnostics and load from disk. I believe I would see options to setup or save to disk if the configuration was still present. My understanding from these forums is that a rep will be required to load the configuration that was created and that there isn't a bypass for this. It sounds as though we could get a floppy disk drive and have the original file emailed to us to load ourselves in an attempt to save time and resources. They would like the wall panels and everything to work as it previously had but would jump at any temporary solution that regained control to the primary lighting board so that their show could at least go on. Unless I am following inaccurate instructions it does not appear that I can get the bypass to turn off or the zones off. My guess is that until the configuration is reloaded that it will remain dysfunctional.

Are there options I haven't not considered? Any advise is appreciated. I will try to call an ETC rep on my next visit to get their input but have limited hours within their hours of operation.
Thanks!

 

[Derickls]

(800)688-4116 is the phone number for ETC technical support. They are available 24/7. Call them the next time you are in front of the equipment. Also see if you can find a project number sticker somewhere on the equipment, or have the street address of the building handy. School names can change from construction to opening so they aren't very useful. They can usually use either of those items to look up the information that they have.

 

[SteveB]

Does the unit have a floppy in the drive ?, That's often where it stays. In the Arch Menu if you keep pressing the right arrow you should get to save to disk. If you can save the config, you could reload it. As note, what happens when you press the Reset button ?. And Yes, ETC likely has the config file in their system if the installer sent it to them.

 

[jaycoale82]

(800)688-4116 is the phone number for ETC technical support. They are available 24/7. Call them the next time you are in front of the equipment. Also see if you can find a project number sticker somewhere on the equipment, or have the street address of the building handy. School names can change from construction to opening so they aren't very useful. They can usually use either of those items to look up the information that they have.

Awesome! Thanks! I must have looked at the wrong thing thinking they closed at 5, maybe that was the Barbizon rep. Much appreciated.

 

[jaycoale82]

Does the unit have a floppy in the drive ?, That's often where it stays. In the Arch Menu if you keep pressing the right arrow you should get to save to disk. If you can save the config, you could reload it. As note, what happens when you press the Reset button ?. And Yes, ETC likely has the config file in their system if the installer sent it to them.

No floppy in drive, no option to save. Reset button reboots momentarily and then returns to the same error messages. Hopefully ETC can just send me something to put on a floppy to reload without needing to get a rep out.

 

[microstar]

OP....you are not giving ETC nearly enough credit for their outstanding tech support ! I was once in exactly the same position you are with a Unison system architectural issue at a middle school. They spent several hours with me on the phone at the venue over the course of several days to try to resolve the issue which turned out to be several different things. ETC did have a copy of the configuration file which they were able to email me. You will need to have full access to the dimming system including the ability to turn off the main power when you call. Give them a chance to help but you are going to have to devote your time and effort also.

 

[cbrandt]

Ask ETC who your local service technician is! Often there is one nearby who can come out and solve the problem in short order. That is, if you can't solve it via technical support.

 

[Malabaristo]

Awesome! Thanks! I must have looked at the wrong thing thinking they closed at 5, maybe that was the Barbizon rep. Much appreciated.

They do have normal business hours that you should aim for if possible. After hours you get a very helpful and friendly person... who is possibly sitting at their kitchen table as they're helping you. Just something to keep in mind when deciding when to call.

The "Bypass Active" message is not likely to go away by reloading the config. There are a couple of things that could be causing this, but the easiest one to address is one or more of three fuses located under the processor in the bottom of the rack. Checking them is the sort of activity that OSHA would tell you requires a "qualified person" but this could be a regular electrician rather than a service tech. This is mostly because you need to cut power to the rack before pulling the processor out. The card that I'm talking about is optional, so if you don't see the three fuses I mentioned, then you may have another issue. Calling ETC when you have that qualified person present will give more options for the troubleshooting steps they can give you over the phone.