neilalexrose Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 I've been tasked with selling some kit from a theatre company, and obviously it all needs testing before it can be sold on. As the title suggests I have a Zero 88 level 24 analogue desk, 2 pulsar analogue dimmers, a zero88 analogue beta pack and an analogue strand act 6. The level 24 has 'pulsar configuration' written on the back, and in opening it up, the wiring confirms this (wiring pinout here for reference) My question is this. If I rewire one of the analogue sockets to be the standard Z88 pinout (a simple job, as there are screw terminals on the PCB inside the desk), in order to use and test it with the betapack, and leave 2 of the sockets in the pulsar configuration to test the pulsar dimmers), will this be bad for the desk if all the different types of dimmers are connected at once? (I don't have the pulsar dimmers in front of me at the moment to check the control voltage, but google suggests it should be 0-+10v) It would be good to sell the whole system as one 24 channel analogue system, using all 4 different analogue packs. (I'm not investigating the strand act6 as yet, I know it could well be a different control voltage! That's a job for another day!) Many thanks Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokm Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 IIRC, Z88 & Pulsar analogue control voltage & polarity is the same.. It's just the connector (8pin Din's) pin-outs that are different, so no, I can't see a problem with you wiring one output to a different configuration. Just be sure you connect the right packs to the right sockets! HTH, T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 We have a old system installed outside of our main venue that has an analogue Pulsar dimmer connected to an analogue Zero88 desk - what we have instead of modifying either of them is a short 8-pin DIN cable we made up that we keep stuck in the back of the Pulsar dimmer to give it a Zero88 input instead - just six inches of cable with the appropriate pins connected. These shouldn't cost more than a fiver in parts (even from Maplin) and if labelled correctly and kept stuck in the back of the dimmers they should be more idiot-friendly as well, as someone can't connect the wrong dimmer to the wrong output. If it was me selling the equipment on, I would probably modify the desk back to it's intended configuration, and build two of these adaptor cables for the Pulsar dimmers. That way you hopefully won't get a call in a couple of years when the end user you've sold it to can't work out why it doesn't work with another Zero 88 dimmer, or if they've connected a Pulsar dimmer without an adaptor cable - and any advice they get from elsewhere about the pinout etc should be accurate as it's not been modified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swampman Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 To try to get a coherent system you'll have to try the following:Decide which to use: Pulsar or Zero88 8-pin convention, preferably the latter since it will coincide with the Strands....Check the forum for an invertion circuit to run the 0v to minus 10v of the Strand. I do forsee a problem with the lighting curves i.e. position of slider (signal V) and output voltage (light intensity output) of the dimmers, which may not be ideal for pro work .(you're not the only one to run mixed rigs!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimWebber Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 I am going to add a little bit of a warning here. If you are going to swap the wiring over, be careful if you are dealing with "Commoned" pins - Quite often +V and / or 0V lines. If these are commoned, but on different pins, you might (Note I did not say "Will") end up with a dead short across either a channel output and zero volts, or even +V and ground. If these shorts do occur, admitedly it will not be Chernobyl style bangs, but it could destroy internal circuitry. I do not want to worry you unduly, but do please do check what is connected to what before you mix 'n' match. HTH Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
springgrove Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 To try to get a coherent system you'll have to try the following:Decide which to use: Pulsar or Zero88 8-pin convention, preferably the latter since it will coincide with the Strands....Check the forum for an invertion circuit to run the 0v to minus 10v of the Strand. I have rewired my Pulsar dimmers internally to the Zero88 pinout and fixed a label next to the control input to that effect. This is better than having 'hybrid' desk, and, as has been said, the Zero88 pinout seems more common. Nigel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lxtechman Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 We have a old system installed outside of our main venue that has an analogue Pulsar dimmer connected to an analogue Zero88 desk - what we have instead of modifying either of them is a short 8-pin DIN cable we made up that we keep stuck in the back of the Pulsar dimmer to give it a Zero88 input instead - just six inches of cable with the appropriate pins connected. These shouldn't cost more than a fiver in parts (even from Maplin) and if labelled correctly and kept stuck in the back of the dimmers they should be more idiot-friendly as well, as someone can't connect the wrong dimmer to the wrong output. If it was me selling the equipment on, I would probably modify the desk back to it's intended configuration, and build two of these adaptor cables for the Pulsar dimmers. That way you hopefully won't get a call in a couple of years when the end user you've sold it to can't work out why it doesn't work with another Zero 88 dimmer, or if they've connected a Pulsar dimmer without an adaptor cable - and any advice they get from elsewhere about the pinout etc should be accurate as it's not been modified. Thats exactly what I had to do.Made up 4 little jump leads of the appropiate configuration bit time consuming but worked brilliantly as as of march this year still was (after being made up 5 years ago) Simple though time consuming, efficient and allows for any further adaptions or modifications to the control system in years to come to be made with ease and no chance of confusion or blowing up of kit TTFN A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on. To try to get a coherent system you'll have to try the following:Decide which to use: Pulsar or Zero88 8-pin convention, preferably the latter since it will coincide with the Strands....Check the forum for an invertion circuit to run the 0v to minus 10v of the Strand. I do forsee a problem with the lighting curves i.e. position of slider (signal V) and output voltage (light intensity output) of the dimmers, which may not be ideal for pro work .(you're not the only one to run mixed rigs!) Strangely enough ive had the same problem but in the end it was solved when the desk was changed from pulsar to a zero 88 sirius and a switchable voltage dmux put in and when a strand system was put in for specific shows just put another switchable voltage dmux in to run them. Though not much help on an analogue system but it is an option. The curves with the right adaptions didnt seem to cause to many issues before the dmux that was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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