GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers
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I think I remember some people on here having a bit of experience with GrandMA2 (or similar) and the DMX protocol.
Today I ran into something I don't have the experience to properly diagnose and basically just want to know if it's something I could fix by carefully reading the manual or better left alone for professionals (might also be a situation covered by our warranty).
So, our stage at school has 4 moving lights and 18 full-spectrum LED lights, I can access them all through the GrandMA2's interface and everything was fine.
Today, during a performance, 4 LED lights next to each other went dark. The GrandMA2 doesn't act like anything is wrong, I can still send commands and it displays the result of my commands as expected, like "Shutter open at 100%, Colour White". While being completely dark. Everything else still works, it's just those 4 lights which won't respond at all.
Rebooting didn't help, I didn't change the config during the performance and the cables are all ok.
So, any ideas where I might look?
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@Rhywden Did you check that the lights are getting power and the bulbs aren't broken?
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@Rhywden Flip the breaker. Obvs.
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@JazzyJosh said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
@Rhywden Did you check that the lights are getting power and the bulbs aren't broken?
They're LEDs, no bulbs there. Also, 4 of them at once would be a bit of a huge coincidence. As for the power: The other ones on the same circuit are still alight.
Here's what those things roughly look like (don't have the exact type at hand):
@blakeyrat said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
@Rhywden Flip the breaker. Obvs.
If it was the breaker, all of them would be dark. Obvs.
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@Rhywden said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
So, any ideas where I might look?
Swap DMX addresses between a working and non-working luminaire and see what that does to the situation?
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@Cursorkeys said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
@Rhywden said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
So, any ideas where I might look?
Swap DMX addresses between a working and non-working luminaire and see what that does to the situation?
Yeah, had that idea myself but as those things are 4 to 5 meters up I probably have to ask around first if I'm even allowed to climb up there (and if so, under which conditions).
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@Rhywden said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
If it was the breaker, all of them would be dark. Obvs.
I lack the telepathic power to see your stage's wiring diagram from thousands of miles away.
If you ask a question and don't state that you tried the obvious thing first, people are going to assume you didn't try the obvious thing. Cope.
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@blakeyrat I'm not sure which circuits you've come in contact with but from my experience, a circuit breaker for every single light in a set of 22 lights is a bit of an overkill.
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@Rhywden Household kitchen lights? Yes. Stage lights? No.
Anyway you said 4 lights were out, not a single light.
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@blakeyrat said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
@Rhywden Household kitchen lights? Yes. Stage lights? No.
Anyway you said 4 lights were out, not a single light.
Would still make it overkill. You usually have wires with a capacity of at least 32 Amps. Case in point: Our stage has only 2 circuits.
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Simultaneous failure in that batch? May be a hardware failure that mysteriously affected four at the same time...
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You mentioned a warranty.
Is there a warranty?
If so, this is easy.
Call them.
Burma Shave.
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@anotherusername said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
Burma Shave.
ah.... someone else remembers those ads...
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@Rhywden said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
having a bit of experience with GrandMA
Anyway, I know shit about the setup, but if you're getting responses from the lights despite them not working, I'd probably assume it's not an issue with whatever data go over the wire, but with the lights themselves. Are the four lights in question connected to something common that nothing else is?
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@Rhywden said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
Also, 4 of them at once would be a bit of a huge coincidence
While it's probably fairly unlikely, and I bet it's probably going to be a PITA to go up and check, it's not as if it couldn't happen.
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@accalia said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
someone else remembers those ads
I've been too Maine. Those signs should be long gone, you whippersnapper.
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@Maciejasjmj
In Flemish there is a saying that you should learn to ride on an old bicycle ...
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@FrostCat said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
Those signs should be long gone, you whippersnapper.
yes, they are looooooong gone, but
pepperidge farmAccalia remembers.
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Something else I've just thought of. If the person who installed them liked DMX repeaters/isolators there could be a failed one on the lighting grid itself with those 4 luminaries running after it. I've seen repeaters in weird places for no real reason. Worth checking if you get up there along with cable integrity, maybe those are at the end of the run or something.
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but if you're getting responses from the lights despite them not working
DMX is unidirectional, so there is no response. There is a newer protocol called RDM that includes bidirectional communication, but it's not widely used, yet.
@Rhywden, where are the four fixtures located? Are at the end of a row? DMX is typically daisy-chained, and a cable, connector, or fixture failure could disable everything downstream of the failure point.
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@Rhywden Also, be glad they're dark. DMX failure can cause some fixtures, especially inexpensive ones, to throw a fit and start flashing uncontrollably.
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@anotherusername said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
house on the rock has a whole wall full of them.
Sure, but that's not in Ogunqueer[1] or elsewhere in You Can't Get Theah From Heah.
[1] do people still call it that, or was that triggering? NB: "yes" is an acceptable answer.
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@FrostCat said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
Sure, but that's not in Ogunqueer[1] or elsewhere in You Can't Get Theah From Heah.
It's in Wisconsin. Depending on where you live that may be a few minutes to a few hours to a few day's travel both ways.
@FrostCat said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
[1] do people still call it that, or was that triggering? NB: "yes" is an acceptable answer.
I never heard of it.
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@anotherusername said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
It's in Wisconsin.
I know. I googled it.
@anotherusername said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
Depending on where you live that may be a few minutes to a few hours to a few day's travel both ways.
G'ville, SC to Green Bay, WI, is an 18-or-so-hour drive. From Dallas I bet it's a lot longer. It might not be from Maine, but you've probably got mountains to cross.
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@anotherusername said in GrandMA2 and fixtures being bonkers:
I never heard of it.
You wouldn't have if you're not from (roughly) coastal southern Maine. It's a snarky way of referring to a local tourist trap that's also a traffic nightmare in summer because of same.
