Rowan Posted March 21, 2004 Share Posted March 21, 2004 During the rather dodgy power conditions in the gale yesterday, I was pondering the backup unit for our EC90 dimmers. Should the desk go out then the backup unit automatically switches to a preset state with the houselights on, This is fine, till the desk restarts and goes back into it's last cue, with the houselights out.The backup unit, then sensing the DMX is back, relinquishes its control to the desk, plunging the audience into a sudden blackout. Does anybody know a way of programming the backup unit (the standard EC90 8 preset type) so that one of the states overrides the DMX input, thus allowing me to bring the houselights back up on the desk and then take control away from the backup unit. I seem to remember that it can be done with a premiere system, but alas, we don't have anything that flash. many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted March 22, 2004 Share Posted March 22, 2004 I don't know about programming the backup unit. But you could just pull the DMX line out of the back of the desk, while the desk re-boots. This would give you a chance to put up the houselights on the desk, before re-connecting the DMX line. Not ideal, but workable. Hopefuly you will never need the backup anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chhatton Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Hmm... I had the pleasure (maybe that's not the right word...?) of using system one(allegedly) of this... I must admit that we never managed to successfully program the backup unit, but then we were always too busy concentrating on reloading the configuration into the Premiere controller every other day... The control was so flaky that every time you disconnected and reconnected the desk to it you had to switch the dimmers off and on again to regain control... marvellous! They whole system looked marvellous in the skip... :** laughs out loud **: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowan Posted March 24, 2004 Author Share Posted March 24, 2004 Cheers Martin, this is the current plan, although as you say it is less than ideal!!! Chhatton, thanks, I'm very familiar with the whole inability to programme the system, and the resetting the dimmers, it's nice to know that it's not just our installation that has these problems! Thanks for the replys. R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robloxley Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Have you tried phoning up the nice people at Strand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ike Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 A client a bit ago had a similar problem. The way I ended up solving it was using an old double pole emergency stop. I simply mounted it on the front of the desk and connected it between the desk and backup. If ever the power failed or there was some kind of emergency (fire etc) it could be hit and the backup took over. After the opp had reset the levels on the desk she/he could then twist the emergency stop to reset it. Still not ideal but it worked well enough for the client. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chhatton Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Rowan, I feel sorry for you! ** laughs out loud **, it was the bane of our lives for a number of years... I'm not convinced a conversation with the nice people at Strand is necessarily going to help you. I went down that route myself and was referred to their sales dept. for a new system, obviously the idea of spending about £50k with them was more appealing than fixing the last one... They even phoned up again for another sales pitch after it had all been replaced (not with a Strand product I hasten to point out...). I must admit I gave up attempting to program it once I'd seen all the bits of choc block and taped up twisted together wires inside! Hopefully they sorted out a decent circuit board for the ones that followed ours, it was definitely a prototype! Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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