Strand 300 Lighting Desk

[congo5]

Our Strand 300 Lighting Desk, Automatically Wiped all functions and Saved shows. It was working fine last night, when we powered it up this morning, the system has been completly wiped all data and user settings. no one has access to the Lighitng desk apart from the 2 technicians.

We have noticed a few other problems with the desk, but theese are to do with the age of the desk.

 

Any idea's what has caused this, any idea's on what we can do to stop this happening again ?

 

Many thanks in advance

[andrewt]

Perhaps it wasn't shut down correctly? The only time I've had a desk wipe itself (not a 300, though) was when the power was pulled during its start-up.

 

What other problems had been happening?

 

Saving the show and settings onto floppy mean that it isn't so much of a problem if it happens again.

[congo5]

I know it wasn't shut down incorrectly as this has happened before, and a message pops up upon start up.

 

The wheel has a mind of its own, and cannot replace it as Strand went into administration years ago and now philips own them, the buttons all need attention as well. The floppy drive is out of order, and again cannot replace it due to strand not operating anymore.

 

The desk could do with some serious TLC, but I cannot find any company that repair strand 300 console's

[Ynot]

OK.

the operating system software is still available as a download from the current Strand pages - check what version your console is/was running and make sure you have the latest (last) version available - 2.8.5 as I recall.

 

There was a symptom of software bugs commonly known as 'mad-mouse syndrome' particular to earlier versions, so that MAY explain your errant wheel issues.

 

The floppy drive is replaceable with any standard floppy drive - replaced ours a few months back with a £5 jobbie off Ebay.

 

When you say the buttons need attention, what do you mean?

[mac500]

I'm sure all the major hire companies that operate in the country can look at your console. Whitelight offer the service company and im sure they'd look at the desk for you.

[congo5]

The buttons are not very sensitive, And sometimes will not work when pushed, they will need pushing three or four times for that command to work. Have you got a link to the strand page for the operarting system download ?

[JohnMac]

You are going to have to get your floppy disc drive working as without it your not going to be able to load anything into the desk.

 

Does the screen display sensible text?

My Strand 300 at work has crashed loosing the operating system on several occasions, resulting in very strange hieroglyphics on the screen.

 

The software is stored on a Silicon disc (using integrated circuits), rather than a hard-disc). It's been found that there's only just enough space for the operating system, and all show files on the desk had to be stored on the floppy disc drive.

 

We've found that by rushing the operating system, (i.e. not giving it enough time to complete one task, before getting to do something else), one can completely 'screw-up' the desk.

 

In the past the cure has been to reformat the silicon drive, which was done by a Strand engineer putting a floppy disc in and running a file from a 'boot-able' floppy disc.

Once the drive has been reset, the software could be reloaded.

 

I seem to recall a directory for DOS, and a directory for the strand files.

In unzipping the Strand operating system files, you will have the slight problem of one of their files exceeding the 1.4Mbyte maximum file size for a floppy disc.

 

In this I was lucky in that I was able to use an old parallel port Zip drive and it's 'Guest' software which allows you to temporally connect it up to the DOS system.

(But not enough working memory to run both the lighting desk software and leave the Guest software resident in memory).

 

The other big No No.. is allowing my students to use their mobile phones , or two way radios adjacent to the desk. RF transmissions from such devices in my opinion were sufficient to make the processor crash.

 

Hope this helps and all goes well for you

 

Regards

 

John Mac.

[Ynot]

Interesting points there - and slightly OT in my response...

I have all the relevant files here on 3 floppy disks - downloaded direct from the strand site. Never had any issues loading up a 1.44MB FDD on that issue.

 

There is indeed a DOS directory on the solid state 'HDD' and the Strand directory is the 220OS. As well as that there is a \shows folder as previously star=ted which is where the system stores the .ssf show files. It's good husbandry to clean out these files (done in DOS mode) that are no longer required because yes there IS limited space on the chip drive.

 

As for mobile phones, I have had no such issues at all in the 7 or 8 years our 300 has been in use. Maybe we've been lucky - maybe others have had similar problems...

[IRW]

Just to add on the disk space point- If you want to save a lot of space, don't install the online help files.

[rooftop]

Sorry to semi-hijack the thread, but it's kind of related. Occasionally, on booting up, our 300-series reports a DOS error reading the C: disk - Abort, Retry, Fail, Continue. Pressing continue allows the boot up to continue as normal, and doesn't appear to affect the operation of the desk.

 

I've run the OSCHECK (is that what it's called?) and it doesn't report any errors.

 

I'm wondering if re-installing the software (I think we're on 2.8.5, so it would be an upgrade to 2.8.6) might help?

[Ynot]

Sorry to semi-hijack the thread, but it's kind of related. Occasionally, on booting up, our 300-series reports a DOS error reading the C: disk - Abort, Retry, Fail, Continue. Pressing continue allows the boot up to continue as normal, and doesn't appear to affect the operation of the desk.

 

I've run the OSCHECK (is that what it's called?) and it doesn't report any errors.

 

I'm wondering if re-installing the software (I think we're on 2.8.5, so it would be an upgrade to 2.8.6) might help?

That sounds a bit like the problem ours had a couple of months back. It seems to have settled a bit now, but do intend a re-install when I have time.

 

And (as I recall) 2.8.6 was the US version of the UK 2.8.5....

I think.

[congo5]

Thanks for the help on this matter,

 

I've currently installed Strand 300 OS on my laptop, I've got a USB Universe, but in way of connecting the desk to my laptop, can the desk be connected through the LAN Port ?

 

Hoped to use the laptop as a backup until the Strand PC is fixed.

[Ynot]

Thanks for the help on this matter,

 

I've currently installed Strand 300 OS on my laptop, I've got a USB Universe, but in way of connecting the desk to my laptop, can the desk be connected through the LAN Port ?

 

Hoped to use the laptop as a backup until the Strand PC is fixed.

Nope, sorry.

That's NOT something you can do, I'm afraid.

You can't subsitute either portion of the desk with a laptop - you HAVE to have the discrete Strand pieces to do the job.

[brianeades]

I know it wasn't shut down incorrectly as this has happened before, and a message pops up upon start up.

 

The wheel has a mind of its own, and cannot replace it as Strand went into administration years ago and now philips own them, the buttons all need attention as well. The floppy drive is out of order, and again cannot replace it due to strand not operating anymore.

 

The desk could do with some serious TLC, but I cannot find any company that repair strand 300 console's

 

I got a 300 series repaired at AC Technologies, contact Kieth Harvey Tel No. 01133869096 Mob:07901382144.Mine needed Operating system reinstalled

[themadhippy]

Has anybody sucsesfully swaped the silicon drive for a normal hard drive? Seem to recal there a standard ide interface

The wheel has a mind of its own,

pressume youve checked is the elastic band is tight and the center screw hasn't worked loose.