# Never enough dmx



## RGermain (Sep 18, 2006)

Okay so a while ago I was futzing with the Inteligent Power System in the booth trying to figure out why it wasnt working when I realised someone had removed the DMX that should have been running to it. The genious that I am I figured that I could fix it if I could scrounge together some dmx cable, which I managed to do. I soon realized that I had no idea what I was doing so I started to wire it the way I figured that it should be wired, forgetting that I had disconnected the board from the DMX outlet. Thankfully we have a Unison system which will keep the lights on for 10 minutes after a DMX disconnect has been detected in the system. So ten minutes go by and I suddenly hear shouting because the lights were going out. I started frantically trying to undo what I had done but I really couldnt figure it out, but I eventually got it undone and fixed. Needless to say I never played with that again.


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## audioslavematt (Sep 18, 2006)

That ten minute feature is a blessing. When our board crashed during a show last year, the IPS strip saved us and forced the actors to do some mad crazy improv.


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## Peter (Sep 19, 2006)

The first thing we do when we realize that the connection has been lost is run to the dimmers and hit the bump buttons on the dimmers so they will stay on until the bump buttons are hit again. That way at least the stage does not go dark. Then we can go about trying to fix the problem.


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## RiffRaff54 (Sep 19, 2006)

i wish my dimmers would stay on for 10 minutes. when i turn the board off, any lights that were up will stay on until you start the board up again. that happend once when i forgot the turn the house lights off, that really confused the janitors when they hit the off button and nothing happened.


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## Footer (Sep 19, 2006)

RiffRaff54 said:


> i wish my dimmers would stay on for 10 minutes. when i turn the board off, any lights that were up will stay on until you start the board up again. that happend once when i forgot the turn the house lights off, that really confused the janitors when they hit the off button and nothing happened.



What kind of dimmers do you have? Most dimmmers worth their salt have this feature, but most of the time the person that sets up your dimmers did not turn it on. If they do not have that feature, you can get a backup console that will do this. The only problem with the save last scene thing is that when the console does come back up it will regain the DMX and drop your stage to black, untill you get the console re-cued. What I have done in the past it reach behing the console, unplug the DMX and only after I have the same cue back up on the console, do i re-plug it. A legit backup device usually has a switch on it that will let the console take control back.


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## RiffRaff54 (Sep 19, 2006)

we have CD80's


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## Footer (Sep 19, 2006)

RiffRaff54 said:


> we have CD80's



What version? packs, racks....


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## RiffRaff54 (Sep 19, 2006)

as far as i know, they're just plain CD80 racks


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## Footer (Sep 19, 2006)

RiffRaff54 said:


> as far as i know, they're just plain CD80 racks


 http://www.strandlighting.com/US/Index.htm

The CD80 line has been around a long long time. There are many different versions out there. If you have one of the older racks (most of which dont accept DMX) you will have to pull out the supervisor module and physicaly move a jumper to turn on this feature. On the newer racks its a simple as thumbing through the menues on the LCD. So basicly, figure out what kind of rack you have, and find the manual on it. After you do that, look for anytype of backup look control.


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## len (Sep 19, 2006)

I'm so glad to be doing other work and not have those kinds of problems. All our dimmer racks have test buttons on all the circuits, so it is theoretically possible to do a show directly from the dimmer rack by hitting test buttons. Not my idea of a good time, but there it is.


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## Footer (Sep 20, 2006)

len said:


> I'm so glad to be doing other work and not have those kinds of problems. All our dimmer racks have test buttons on all the circuits, so it is theoretically possible to do a show directly from the dimmer rack by hitting test buttons. Not my idea of a good time, but there it is.



Well if ya wanna play that game... all sensor racks with the digital CEM have 10 backup looks as well at # thru # @ lev control. There is no release button, but it is there. And the backup looks are pretty usefull if you are doing set it and forget it type stuff.


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## saxman0317 (Sep 27, 2006)

Weve had similar things. We have those old "panic" buttuns in our house that shut down EVERYTHING (go NYS standards).. But usually we can shut them down during a show and transfer compleate control to the board, but theres always that time you forget. But last year we didJulius Caesar. Computer crashing left and right, actors forgetting mics, lines dropped, lamps burning out in the middle...it was bad... Then someone leaned on the buttun and we remembered what we didint do that night as the house loses all power..sound, lights, everything. Joyous...


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