Weird Problem with NSI 7024

[TupeloTechie]

So I bought this little board off ebay with the DMX upgrade. However it didn't have a power adapter.. so $28 and a trip to radio shack later I get it to come on. 15v adapters are very hard to find!!

So I plug it into a generic 4ch dmx dimmer and immediately all 4 channels start to ghost. I bring the GM down, ghosting disappears. I bring it back up and here comes the ghosting again. Blackout button stops them. I bring down the "Y" crossfader and half the channels don't ghost, bringing down the "X" makes the other 2 quit.

The channel faders seem to work fine however I can never actually get the channels to go to zero. The lights always seem to be around 20% unless of course the blackout, GM, crossfaders, and on/down.

I know this is not the dimmer because I have tried one more generic dimmer and 2 American dj dimmers. All have the same problem.

Using a generic led par can everything seemed to work fine on "X" however the second I moved up the "Y" crossfader the par went to a blackout.

This seems to happen on any channel as I have addressed the dimmers at multiple addresses.

Anybody know anything that might help m??

 

[epimetheus]

Was the DMX upgrade installed correctly? Since this was an ebay board, who knows what kind of abuse it's seen. Is the the power adapter you bought unregulated? I purchased power adapters from Radioshack before that were unregulated 15V, but unless loaded to full rating actually put out much higher voltages.

 

[TupeloTechie]

I believe the upgrade is installed correctly, when I reveres the pins of the little microchip I get no signal at all. Same with the actual dmx connector.

As far as the power supply I'm not sure if it's regulated or unregulated. A reading from my multimeter gives me 15.24v.

 

[JD]

Two things:

On the power adapter, the important measurement would be what the voltage is when the board is connected and operating. The "open" voltage, with no load connected may be too rosy. This would be hard to read without cutting into something. The problem there is that my experience has been that the RS adapters are kind-of.. junk.

Second thing. The adapter does not strike me as a likely source of this problem. DMX is data, and it sounds like that data is being generated in the front end of the board. In many cases, the actual board controls are analog, which is then fed into a A-D converter. Although ripple from the supply could cause problems here, it would show up in a more uniform way. Not sure what pre-programming is available on that board, but I would start by doing a memory purge to clear any prior settings. (factory default it.)

 

[BingemanJ]

I just recently serviced an NSI analog console in a high school (same model if I remember correctly) and the issue ended up being that the DMX addressing between the console and the dimmer was wrong and this caused the same problem described above. In the end we solved the problem by doing a hard reset on the console and making sure that everything was defaulted on the console and that the DMX address in the console for the dimmers matched the DMX address for the dimmer.

 

[TupeloTechie]

how would I do a hard reset on this console?

I don't see how I could have anything addressed wrong. My dimmers would start at 1, does the board not start its addressing at 1? I didn't think you should soft patch on such a board?

 

[JD]

Just looking at the owners manual which can be found here: http://www.allprosound.com/catalog/pdf/ownersman/NSI/7000CE.pdf

There are no instructions on how to "default" the unit. There is however the following line:
"All programming is stored in non-volatile memory which retains information for at least 10 years, even when power is removed."

Translation: There is data kept alive by a "coin" battery. It is this data stack that I suspect has something bad in it. Probably some random bits that flipped. The memory usually holds lots of things that the user really doesn't get access to, therein lies the problem.

Unless someone comes along that knows how to default it, you should give NSI a call. It usually involves holding down a button as you flip the power switch on, or a combination of buttons.

 

[tyler.martin]

I have one of these boards, that has now been replaced... I did have a ghosting issue, which was remedied by fixing the patch... However, after the hard reset, more strange problems emerged... The fade times were usually 2 to 5 seconds wrong, it forgot preprogrammed subs, and of course hard reset itself when ever shut off, even after i replaced the battery.... also, why does your board have a 15v adapter? Mine has a standard PC sized AC jack on it... the strangest part of this board, it got coffee dumped on it a few years back, it still functions after i cleaned it out, but some of the problems disappeared. We bought the board from NSI in 1999, but the manufacture date on the chassis and motherboard is from 1981..

 

[epimetheus]

I have one of these boards, that has now been replaced... I did have a ghosting issue, which was remedied by fixing the patch... However, after the hard reset, more strange problems emerged... The fade times were usually 2 to 5 seconds wrong, it forgot preprogrammed subs, and of course hard reset itself when ever shut off, even after i replaced the battery.... also, why does your board have a 15v adapter? Mine has a standard PC sized AC jack on it... the strangest part of this board, it got coffee dumped on it a few years back, it still functions after i cleaned it out, but some of the problems disappeared. We bought the board from NSI in 1999, but the manufacture date on the chassis and motherboard is from 1981..

Moral of the story - pour coffee on it...

My previous church had a NSI NCM6200 memory preset board that had issues. Not ghosting in particular, but flicker, hard resets, spontaneous blackouts, etc. The issues improved with a new microplex cable, but I think age finally got to it. It's at least 20 years old now.

 

[TupeloTechie]

Im still trying to figure out how to do the reset. I tried to call leviton but they kept telling me that the board cannot be reset???