Stuart91 Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 One of my Strand Act 6 dimmers is playing up. The DMX appears to drop out randomly. It did this on a hire over Christmas and we couldn't replicate the fault back at base. When I was going through them all the other day the same unit seemed to work fine at first, then (after it had been opened up and put back again) the DMX had stopped working. The symptoms appear to be that the DMX indicator (green LED) doesn't light, there is no response to incoming DMX. However the test buttons will still work, so I'm fairly sure that the problem is contained in the DMX/D54 card. The card itself is well seated and all the ribbon cables inside seem to be fine. I'm just really looking for pointers to investigate this. Has anyone out there had a similar failure on these models? Or can anyone suggest common vulnerabilities or things to look for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulDF Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 When it goes faulty do the DMX dimmers downstream of it also stop responding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazeja Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 When it goes faulty, do th built in chases still work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokm Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 When it goes faulty, do the built in chases still work?I think you've posted in the wrong topic mate :) Act6's don't have inbuilt chases! Stuart, as you've said, it seems like the problems the DMX card for the rack. Do you have another one spare or in another rack, that you could temporarily put into the poorly act6? Just to make 100% its the card and not something faulty with the 0-10v control side of the rack.. Once you've established its definitely the card, next thing I'd look at is the RS485/DMX chip.. Always found that's a good place to start, when a fixture/dimmers, not wanted to respond to DMX and your down to component level (i.e. sure its not a cable or desk issue). T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 Thanks for the replies so far, folks. I *think* that the downstream DMX still worked, which led me to rule out a dry joint on the XLR for instance, but it's probably worth double checking. We've tried the rack with three different desks so I'm pretty certain that we can rule out a desk or cabling issue. I'll try swapping the cards over next time that I have a chance and see if the problem moves with the card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lxfarmer Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 I don't know the answer to the fault but just for the record ACT 6's DO have built in chases! Its a long time since I tried to access them but its something like DMX channels 900 and upwards do various things. As I say, I can't remember the exact addresses you need to put in but they are definately in there somewhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazeja Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 When it goes faulty, do the built in chases still work?I think you've posted in the wrong topic mate B-) Act6's don't have inbuilt chases! T That's strange. They used to have them when I worked for Strand. I wonder when they removed that feature? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokm Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 I think the difference here is that Act6's and Act6+'s have been confused with eachother. The former being what the OP's said he's got, do not have inbuilt chases. The +'s however, do.. No harm done.. TBH, they're not particularly different in appearance. Would be pretty easy for anyone to get them mixed up! Anyways, hopefully the OP'll get back to us soon with some answers then perhaps we can help him further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted January 21, 2009 Author Share Posted January 21, 2009 They're definitely Act 6, not Act 6+. No inbuilt chases, the only controls on the card are the dials for setting DMX address and the termination switch. I'm not back in the same place as the faulty dimmer for a couple of days, but will post as soon as I get the chance to have a look at it again. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kazeja Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 so I'm fairly sure that the problem is contained in the DMX/D54 card. Sorry to labour on a point, the DMX/D54 card was also refered to as the multimux card (not to be confused with the 48 way 1u demux) and was fitted to ACT6+ racks. http://strand.jcwilts.co.uk/data_pages/ACT_6_.pdf It may have been retro fitted to an ordinary ACT6. Either way, the card does contain built in effects as per the brochure. Will PM you switch settings for you to try when I'm next in the office. Out of interest, are your dimmers black or grey? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 I've now had the chance to swap some cards around, and it's definitely the card. (The card is the Multimux type that Kazeja links to above, and it seems I was wrong about the inbuilt chases. They are very well hidden though!) Can anyone recommend a good place to get them repaired? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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