Analogue Dimmers and the Ion

[nicola_a]

Hi everyone

 

Our setup in our venue is as follows:

 

40 x JTM analogue dimmers

24 x digital dimmer (2 Jands portable racks)

2 x linklights to convert the analogue signal to digital

ETC Ion console

 

The signal comes out of the console and into the Linklights, then through to the Jands dimmers.

 

Yesterday we had a situation in which mid-show; most of the lamps in the rig stopped working. The assessment showed that all the lamps in the analogue dimmers stopped working, but the ones in the digital ones were fine.

 

Because I was not present at the time and noone can tell me exactly what occurred post-shop to fix the problem (except that a console reset and turning all dimmers off then on again fixed the situation), I figure one of two things occurred.

 

The linklights failed which resulted in all analogue dimmers not working (most likely?)

or

The Ion had a glitch that somehow meant that maybe it stopped coping with a converted signal?

 

Just trying to establish whether the fault was with the linklights or the console. Would anyone have any more definite ideas on this?

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Nicola

[GridGirl]

The Ion can't have had an issue coping with converted signal, as the signal comes OUT of the Ion and not into it - it will have continued to spit out DMX regardless. I would think that your Linklights had some sort of glitch - very much doubt the desk had anything to do with it.

[pritch]

I'd agree with Gridgirl that the desk wouldn't be at fault, however I would ask why BOTH Linklights (which is a Jands badged demux, right?) stopped working at the same time.

 

The only thing that immediately comes to mind is some sort of power issue - are they both powered off the same socket or something?

[matt_beal]

Agree, your demux could be the suspect.

 

Also, if you lost power to a phase of dimmers because of an MCB going, you could end up with a similar situation with a group of dimmers going. Did anyone check whether the dimmers were actually still on? What part of the show did they go in and how close to capacity are you running the power at that part of the show?

[Jivemaster]

Having the channels on TWO demux fail but stuff further down the DMX line still working, I'd be looking for something common to the TWO demux -like a power switch or some kind of trip or breaker! What would happen if someone -for whatever reason turned off the supply to the two demux?? Would they feed DMX through? The probability of two big brand demux independently developing the same fault at exactly the same time is nil so there must be external input somewhere.

 

I'd be looking for traces of a kettle or hairdryer being swapped into the power supply that fed both the demux, or wondering if the power to both the demux is shared with something somewhere else where an unexpected item could be plugged in tripping a breaker to a ring circuit also feeding the demux.

 

Look VERY carefully at the power feed to the two demux.

[dmxtothemax]

Why dont you send an e mail to Jands electronics and ask for there advise?

My jands dimmers sometimes do funny things,

I have had to turn them off sometimes to reset them

Dont be afraid to contact them no matter how old your gear is,

My dimmers are 20 years old, and Jands are still helpful and freindly people

when I have problems,

I think there service is excellent, and there equipment is very well made.

The fact that there dimmers are still giving good service after 20 years,

plus there helpful friendly service has convinced me

My guess is a software glich causing a crash,

 

Moderation: Unnecessary quote removed

[LiamM]

I've had this problem with some equipment on a DMX universe working and other types not working and have solved it by slowing the data rate of the DMX down. Some equipment, generally the older or cheaper stuff doesn't seem to cope with a high data rate.

 

Liam