# How to blow dimmers wide open



## Grog12 (Jun 19, 2008)

So a while ago I posted this thread in which I was troubleshooting a couple of Portable SmartPacks.

Part of the story that didn't make it into the thread is that I got electocuted by a male stage pin plug.

Turns out when they were connecting our patch panel in the dimmer room and the raceway in the performance space they messed up. And as opposed to tieing the hot from from the patch panel to the hot in the race way, they instead tied it to the hot of another circut back in dimmer room. Same thing with the neutral.

Now that that's fixed I've got to swap out some power cubes...it never ends.


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## gafftaper (Jun 20, 2008)

Grog12 said:


> Part of the story that didn't make it into the thread is that I got electocuted by a male stage pin plug.



Now Grog we've been through this before... Either you got "SHOCKED by a male stage pin" or your write very well for a dead guy.


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## Hughesie (Jun 20, 2008)

Grog12 said:


> male stage pin plug.



Point to the part of the doll where the dimmer attacked you

but remember kids, learn from grog's mistake because life is too precious to waste on simple electrical repairs


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## Grog12 (Jun 20, 2008)

gafftaper said:


> Now Grog we've been through this before... Either you got "SHOCKED by a male stage pin" or your write very well for a dead guy.



How do you know I'm not posting from the dead?


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## gafftaper (Jun 20, 2008)

Well that is an excellent point! Hmm... especially with the new server, who knows how much better the bandwidth is. I stand corrected. I also have to say I would be REALLY stunned if I got shocked by a male stage pin. I think I would sit there and asking myself, "did that just happen?" for a long time.


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## Grog12 (Jun 20, 2008)

gafftaper said:


> Well that is an excellent point! Hmm... especially with the new server, who knows how much better the bandwidth is. I stand corrected. I also have to say I would be REALLY stunned if I got shocked by a male stage pin. I think I would sit there and asking myself, "did that just happen?" for a long time.



Stunned....for about a moment then truely angry and confused as to how something like that happens. At least that was my expierence.


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## gafftaper (Jun 20, 2008)

Grog12 said:


> Stunned....for about a moment then truely angry and confused as to how something like that happens. At least that was my expierence.



Yeah I imagine the amount of time spent thinking about how screwed up things were was directly proportional to your anger level. It takes a special kind of stupid to do that. They are lucky they didn't kill themselves in the process of the installation.


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## Grog12 (Jun 20, 2008)

Funny thing is the room is set up so that you have to run portable racks into the room and plug all the circuit (via stage pin since they're Smartfades) by hand so they probably never even got to that troubleshooting.


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## Grog12 (Jun 20, 2008)

For those curious to see my crappy diagram drawn in paint in 5 minutes on the situation.


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## photoatdv (Jun 21, 2008)

We once had "district electricians" come in to fix some wiring problems- the connections in a junction box on the electrics were just twisted and wire capped and the rigging inspectors for-some-reason pulled apart the junction box (And don't think they were being through-- They missed several RIGGING problems... I guess they were too busy with electrical...). I asked them to replace a plug that was melting every time I turned it on (to be honest this was on the top of my to do list-- I was just swamped and decided it would take them 5 minutes instead of me an hour). Well I show up, assuming it to be fixed the next week and that light doesn't work. I go and take a look....

THEY TOOK BOTH PLUGS OFF AND JUST WRAPPED A LITTLE BIT OF E-TAPE ON THE LIVE WIRES!!! Had I noticed once the tech reh started I would have sent an assistant to check it and they could have been killed!!! I told the head maintnance guy who didn't care!!! (They didn't turn off the dimmer or anything!!!)

We did fix it-- by twisting the two sets of wires together and putting on a wire cap (after throwing the breaker). That sounds like the original problem...

What can I say, school's wiring. One day I will bring a multimeter over and check our voltages- will post when I do, I'm sure they are quite interesting.


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## Malabaristo (Aug 26, 2008)

Grog12 said:


> Funny thing is the room is set up so that you have to run portable racks into the room and plug all the circuit (via stage pin since they're Smartfades) by hand so they probably never even got to that troubleshooting.



Incidentally, under circumstances like this where you have a male connector that feeds into building wiring, the NEC requires that you have a circuit breaker in line. It probably wouldn't have protected you in this case, but it's something that should definitely be there.


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## Grog12 (Aug 27, 2008)

But is the open air conduit feeding the raceway considered building wiring?


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## Malabaristo (Aug 27, 2008)

I'm not completely sure I'm picturing your system properly. If you have portable cable from each male stagepin to the raceway and the conduit is essentially just a cable pass through a wall, then you might be okay. 

The NEC (Article 520.50) describes, "A panel designed to allow for road show connection of portable stage switchboards to fixed lighting outlets by means of permanently installed supplementary circuits. "

The big question then is whether what you have is considered temporary or permanent wiring. Something like a junction box with terminals to allow you to transition from a bunch of indivual 12/3 cables to a larger multiconductor would most likely put you into the permanent category. I'm not sure what the box labeled "patch panel" in your drawing represents, but it may very well qualify as permanent too.


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## Grog12 (Aug 27, 2008)

Yeah problably does...thankfully I don't work there no more.


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## zmb (Mar 27, 2010)

District electricians, ugh... The ones in my district aren't even aware that there would be dimmers in a theatre.


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