Kioti

Thanks everyone! We have a service call placed and a tech coming out to have a look. I'll inquire about the battery as well to see if that was done when they serviced the console.

Thanks for somewhere a little more local! I'll maybe have a post over there and see! I haven't seen any specific battery backups except for what is in the console. We aren't losing any patching info or shows, just it has gone from dimming to switching. Also, with the console removed from the situation and me manually turning on a fixture from the rack itself via the processor, it does the same action. And I don't doubt that they could get in if they really wanted to but the processor itself isn't easily accessible and its not obvious that they can even do anything with it behind the rack door. We have other tech that sits out in road cases on the stage that distract them more than the back tech room. Most of my tech crew don't even know what it is and think its just some power thing.

Not likely. It is in a locked tech room on stage that teachers would have to let them in. Right now, the rack is also difficult to get to because the room is crowded and they'd have to move a lot out of the room just to get to it. Yesterday, I went through almost everything I could see to do with the dimmers, but everything looked normal to me. I don't know if I checked the dimmer curves specifically but I may have as well. I have gone through about 50 different things in the last 2 days and I'm starting to forget what I have looked at. However, all the modules where set to the current model, all of the dimmer types are set to Thyristor dimmer regulated (ours are SSR dimmers) except for the 2 non-dimmable packs that are in there which are set as Non-Dim. Maybe I'll have another look when I'm back at the school Monday. At this point, I'm almost conceding as I have reached the point of my knowledge. We don't! They even have "smart switches" installed all around our cafeteria and stage that can be programmed to control the light fixtures (that never really worked right from day one). We also have dimmable plugs all around the stage as well that we have never used. The school was definitely taken for a large amount of money for something that was overkill. Schools here get hosed for everything and the school board creates contracts with certain companies. Just to run a standard electrical outlet in the school, it costs over $1000. For a simple computer, they are charged almost 2 times the price of what I could custom build one with better specs. The other unfortunate situation is that the school board knows this, so they put out bids and generally except the lowest bidder. We have had some very unprofessional companies in at times doing work We have both. The DMX cable runs ONLY our LED fixtures and from what I can tell, actually bypasses the processor in the room (DMX light on the front of the processor does not light up that it is connected). The actual processor and dimmer rack are controlled over Cat5 via the Shownet protocol from the console. It is a very unusual set up, which also doesn't help with the troubleshooting. So they originally had 2 consoles running over Shownet to the same processor and set up the Netslots to separate them between the 2 separate lighting systems used in the school. Unfortunately, when they set up the separation, they set the dimmer range incorrectly and had overlap and apparently the last company that we have servicing the equipment didn't see that and was telling the school they would need a second processor to handle the 2 separate rooms. This is also the same company that originally installed the equipment as well. Mind you, they were have many other issues in the drama room, such as blowing lights left right and centre and a broken console, which is why they switched completely over to LED and their own separate system which they are thrilled with. Sorry for this being a very confusing set up!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I did a 220clean which wiped everything out and then tried to repatch but had no luck. Still just switching instead of dimming. We are most likely going to have to get a tech out here to look at it since I'm out of ideas and beyond my level of knowledge here. I did learn a lot about the dimmer rack as I now figured out how they tried to split between the 2 rooms by assigning a net slot to the different dimmers (and why they were getting cross-talk because of incorrect configuration). Unfortunately I only have the 300 console to try. The other console we used to have in the drama room isn't Shownet compatible and I have no easy way to get to the DMX ports on the back of the racks to attach the 200 series board we have. I do have some LED fixtures that work fine since they are not running through the dimmer rack. So I'm assuming the console is fine. I tried setting the lights to local on the rack processor and it does the same thing. As soon as it goes to 1%, its full on. I'm guessing there is something wrong with our processor or the dimmers themselves have gone funky. Thinking that it is just a computer controlling it, I even rebooted the dimmer rack/processor.... same thing. I think we are going to have to get the tech to come out for a service call. The dimmer modules are 76562 if that makes a difference to anyone? And don't get me wrong about the Series 300. It was a nice board to learn on but when it is not working, it is a ###### to get it back into shape when something happens. This also seems to be a growing issue with it at the school. More and more of it is breaking down.

You are correct! I didn't know about this but after a little research, this might be the ticket! I might give it a try tomorrow. Looks like 220clean scans all the Strand OS files and settings and looks for corrupt files, trying to fix them along the way. It even says in the manual to run this if you are experiencing erratic behaviour.... It also runs a defrag. Something I haven't done to a computer in probably 20 years! Ah, the good ol' days of DOS. We had others in to take a look at the system another time before. None of them had any idea how the Strand system worked. There are only 2 techs within an hour of us that know anything about Strand so not many options unfortunately. We also have been trying to get a replacement console, since this one also has broken hinges and other fun issues we have learned to work around but the tech has convinced our admin that the thing is fine and lots of places are still using this console.The funny thing is, when the system was installed back in 2006, they sold it to the school as the "cadillac of lighting systems". I'm thinking it was old stock that they were trying to get rid of. Anyone know when these guys were being sold?

Yup. Just a misunderstanding of what we are saying. We are saying the same thing :) I did try the new show as well and it didn't work. That's when I tried to unpatch everything and repatch a few and had no luck. I'm going to play around with it again tonight to see what I can determine. I'll also take some photos and find the model number, if I can. Just as a follow up to everyone asking about the dimmer rack. It is a C21 processor with thyristor dimmers installed. It looks exactly like the picture I posted above. I looked through the processor's dimmer profiles and settings and everything seems like it is set to the correct dimmer settings and nothing has been changed. I even had to move a bunch of other equipment out of the way just to open the door so I'm assuming no one has touched it either. Even though it seems like I have ruled out the console, it still may be a console issue. We have a word out to the tech company that services it for us. It is not the first time this has happened but they are very stingy when it comes to sharing what they did to fix things with us. Again because "they are the only ones that know what they are doing".

Thanks everyone for the help! Really appreciate the info here. The Drama room was sharing the system and had a separate console. We had a lot of "cross-talk" issues so they ended up removing it and now have their own pure DMX setup in the room only, independent of the stage. Only console hooked up now is the one upstairs. I am aware of the DMX universes and protocol. The Strand system somehow differentiates between the transitional dimmers over ShowNet and the DMX port via software. When it gets to the processor, it routes it appropriately. When I say the DMX out is set at 301, that is the address that is used to the processor but it changes DMX channel 1 on our LEDs. 302 is mapped to 2 and so on. The other part (19 through 299) maps to our traditional dimmers. Like I said, its a very odd setup to me and very finicky it seems... I also did try unpatching using the console and repatching a few lights to see if that fixed it but with no luck. You are correct that there is a way to set a fixture as "non-dimmable" and either be on or off. The only issue there as well is that the non-dimmable "on %" is set at 80% so it still shouldn't be coming on. I would love to take a photo of it but I'm not at the school right now. II also don't really have much access to the back of the rack. I'll see what I can dig up tomorrow. They also don't really love me playing with the actual processor itself since, and I quote the one tech they called in, "no one knows how to run this system properly"..... I'm guessing the school will be placing a service call in the near future. Glad to hear the console sounds like its fine and its something in the back room processor settings.

Its a large rack dimmer system with a processor in it. I'm a computer guy and it reminds me of the large server racks. There are removable packs in the rack that are rectangular boxes with what looks like a few breakers on the front. I can't recall the model but on the processor section, there is a small LCD and some simple cursor buttons to set options. I have never touched the dimmer system but it is in a locked room where students are not supposed to have access. The console itself is connect through a cat5 cable. I'm assuming ArtNet protocol, though it does say in the set up that it is linked somehow to DMX channels as well... I'm honestly not very familiar with lighting and the school was left with almost no info on it. EDIT: Quick google search, it looks similar to an C21/EC21 system. Are you sure about that? The 300 series console is made up of two main elements- the blue face panels, and a black processor box. The facepanels connect to the processor using cat5 cable/RJ45 connectors, so can give the illusion to the unfamiliar eye that it is 'networked', when in fact they use a Can-bus system to talk internally. The black processor box will also have dedicated DMX sockets on the back of it, which may be what is actually being used to talk to your dimmers. None of this however will be what is causing your problem, but may hopefully provide a little more understanding of the system. If the console is indeed 'networked' to the dimmers, it will be outputting Strand's proprietary ip-based 'shownet' protocol, not artnet. I'm honestly not sure how all the dimmers are connected to the processor system. I'm assuming you are correct that there is an internal bus system on the inside. It is in a large rack system in a closet off the stage. The 300 console is connected to an computer upstairs (Pentium 133....) and it has a Cat5 and DMX cable that goes to a wall plate that I'm assuming is run back to rack to tell the processor what dimmers to play with.... Not sure you've quite understood what I meant about the console- here's a picture of what those of us who routinely use them would call the 'console': You may have more or less blue panels, but the 'console' is a combination of the black box and blue facepanels. It sounds to me almost like you've got your panels running remotely to the processor? (this isn't neccessarily an incorrect thing, as if I recall correctly, the CANbus is good for up to 90' or so, just rather unusual) Here's a picture of the back of the black processor box: If your setup is as I'm imagining, this box is in your room upstairs, and your 'cat5' cable will be plugged from the wall into one of the 'SBus' sockets, and your DMX cable (to dimmers) plugged into one of the DMX sockets? That's what happens when you've got a sound guy trying to learn lighting! You are absolutely correct. Those two pieces are upstairs in our tech booth. The cat5 cable is in the SBus and a DMX cable as well. I know in the console setup page, it states the "network" DMX address are from 19 to 299 and our DMX OUT is 301 to 512. I know our one tech that was out many moons ago stated we had a muxer that was fed from our tech booth and the drama room to use the same processor (the large rack with the dimmers) between the two classrooms. I'm assuming that dimmers 1 through 18 were used for the 6 lights in the drama room (which now has its own console that is pure DMX for only that room). We have a mix of traditional lights and newer DMX lighting so the 301 I know aligns with our LEDs channel 1. Its a very unusual setup I'm sure. To add to the description of the problem, the LED equipment dims perfectly fine but the traditional lighting goes full on. .

Its a large rack dimmer system with a processor in it. I'm a computer guy and it reminds me of the large server racks. There are removable packs in the rack that are rectangular boxes with what looks like a few breakers on the front. I can't recall the model but on the processor section, there is a small LCD and some simple cursor buttons to set options. I have never touched the dimmer system but it is in a locked room where students are not supposed to have access. The console itself is connect through a cat5 cable. I'm assuming ArtNet protocol, though it does say in the set up that it is linked somehow to DMX channels as well... I'm honestly not very familiar with lighting and the school was left with almost no info on it. EDIT: Quick google search, it looks similar to an C21/EC21 system. Are you sure about that? The 300 series console is made up of two main elements- the blue face panels, and a black processor box. The facepanels connect to the processor using cat5 cable/RJ45 connectors, so can give the illusion to the unfamiliar eye that it is 'networked', when in fact they use a Can-bus system to talk internally. The black processor box will also have dedicated DMX sockets on the back of it, which may be what is actually being used to talk to your dimmers. None of this however will be what is causing your problem, but may hopefully provide a little more understanding of the system. If the console is indeed 'networked' to the dimmers, it will be outputting Strand's proprietary ip-based 'shownet' protocol, not artnet. I'm honestly not sure how all the dimmers are connected to the processor system. I'm assuming you are correct that there is an internal bus system on the inside. It is in a large rack system in a closet off the stage. The 300 console is connected to an computer upstairs (Pentium 133....) and it has a Cat5 and DMX cable that goes to a wall plate that I'm assuming is run back to rack to tell the processor what dimmers to play with.... The rack itself is something like this: Yeppers. It is happens with every light. Any movement of the fader = full on on the fixture.

Its a large rack dimmer system with a processor in it. I'm a computer guy and it reminds me of the large server racks. There are removable packs in the rack that are rectangular boxes with what looks like a few breakers on the front. I can't recall the model but on the processor section, there is a small LCD and some simple cursor buttons to set options. I have never touched the dimmer system but it is in a locked room where students are not supposed to have access. The console itself is connect through a cat5 cable. I'm assuming ArtNet protocol, though it does say in the set up that it is linked somehow to DMX channels as well... I'm honestly not very familiar with lighting and the school was left with almost no info on it. EDIT: Quick google search, it looks similar to an C21/EC21 system.

Hey everyone. I work in a school with an old Strand 300 series console running an ancient version of LightPalette (2.6 I believe....) and ran across this forum while searching for a solution and thought the collective knowledge here might be able to help. We have all of our lights patched in and everything has been working for ages but all of a sudden, dimming doesn't seem to be working. When we move a fader, the patched fixture goes to full. Even when I manually turn on a light through the command line, it still turns on as full intensity. The monitor is showing 1 or 2 % though. I've combed through manual looking for any setting that a student may have changed but can't seem to find anything out of the ordinary. I've also tried unpatching and repatching some of the fuxtures to no avail. Any help or incite into the problem would be greatly appreciated!