# Board Clearing Itself



## SketchyCroftPpl (Nov 28, 2005)

Hey

Well, we seem to be having a bit of a problem with our old board. A few times in the past it has cleared itself which is very odd because we do so regularly but this time it did it completely w/o us telling it to. 

Monday before break we had the board set up so that it worked exactly the way we wanted it too and nothing was wrong with it at all. Today I went up to talk to some people before a rehersal and they asked what I had been doing to it. When I said nothing they gave me a very stumped look because apparently everything on the board had been cleared. Our TD managed to write the cues for the show that is going up this week w/o the correct soft patch and w/o knowing where anything was because all the text on the screen was cleared. Well thats a pretty good feat but now we can't load the new soft patch in w/o it totally messing up all the cues. Plus, the stage screen is now incorrect so its basically lying and saying that the wrong lights are on all the time. To go with that becuase of the soft patch not being there the macros and the effects don't work. And we also have the same problem that the submasters when we put them in don't register.

Well the board is working well enough that they can get through the show (Which I'm not on crew for) but its a pretty big pain in the butt that it keeps doing that randomly. I hope it doesn't do it in the middle of the show or right before it starts. What a pain.

~Nick


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## asb002 (Nov 28, 2005)

Heh, our old board (an Acclaim 300) decided to pull a temper tantrum in the middle of production for a school drama. Luckily, it was only during rehearsals, so I was able to scramble and appropriate a working board from another school.

The Acclaim likes to randomly freeze up, or decide not to boot up, or complain of non-existent memory problems. Oh well, I guess a 15 year old board will do that. Time to look for a new 24/48.


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## sandals1621 (Nov 29, 2005)

Most memory lighting consoles have an internal battery, sometimes attached permanately to the motherboard, at other times a smaller battry omewhere in the console.

At any rate, if it's dumping memory the battery is most likely in need of replacement


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## avkid (Nov 30, 2005)

What type of board is it? If it is a Colortran I can definitely tell you it is the batteries. Temporary solution: do not turn it off!!


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## saxman0317 (Apr 23, 2006)

There are reasons that i prefered using an old anlog board and not digital.. All i have to say is that habits die hard. We just did our full production with a digital board, and i found myself keeping EVERYTHING in my cue book just like i was doing it the old ways and having to actually set everything. But it came in handy. For some reason, there was a concert schuduled the night before the opening night, and our board went ditzyey on me to (or maybe it was because i was in the show and had a new person touching it), but everything went "Bye Bye". So of course, i only had a day to reprogram over 190 cues which even with a laptop isnt fun on a macke. But i got about half of it done, and i learned just why i decided to do more than i needed to when doing rehersals. Always keep track of what you do, computers can screw up, but papers dont change.


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## cutlunch (Apr 23, 2006)

asb002 said:


> Heh, our old board (an Acclaim 300) decided to pull a temper tantrum in the middle of production for a school drama. Luckily, it was only during rehearsals, so I was able to scramble and appropriate a working board from another school.
> 
> The Acclaim likes to randomly freeze up, or decide not to boot up, or complain of non-existent memory problems. Oh well, I guess a 15 year old board will do that. Time to look for a new 24/48.



As has already been mentioned there is likely to be a battery inside and after 15 years it will have died. Also there can be dirt built up on the tracks of the PCB.

Since it will be well out of warranty see if there is a teacher at school that does electronics and get them to open it up. They can change the battery and also clean the PCB. Also they could look at cleaning the faders as well.

It will probably be soldered to the PCB board like was the case in some earlier PC's. Even if you can talk someone into a new board it would still be good to fix this one as a backup.


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## Dustincoc (Oct 8, 2006)

This is why you backup everything before shutting the board off if you've changed any of the programming. I usually back it up twice and store the disks in seperate locations., just in case something happens to one of the disks. Typically, I keep one with my paperwork and the SM keeps one with their scripts.


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## Van (Oct 9, 2006)

Knowing what type of board would be a huge help. I echo what has been stated it is most likley a battery problem, however here are a few other to consider. Corrupted c-mos, corrupted eprom, possible bad contact in power switch, and possible bad contacts from IC's to sockets. Double check owners manuals or with the manufacturer when you replace the battery Several older models of boards require you to " drain" the c-mos or eprom prior to installing a new battery this is usually done with a resistor or wire place between the #6 pin and Ground 
< Earth for all you non-American speakers > ( personally I prefer Earthed it sounds better than grounded, I knew an electrician who was very well grounded but very well earthed,... was. )

Just something to think about.


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