Pearl expert - no Dmx output

[Sparky]

I am operating a show currently using a Pearl Expert with Titan 5.0 installed.

Today I experienced a crash described below.

All fixtures are being triggered by programmed cues on subs on the roller cue.
I was in a very simple state with a generic wash to stage and some house lights. For no Obvious apparent reason. All the heads started to move around randomly and then come to rest in the home position. Approximately 10 seconds later I lost all generic lighting. After this I was unable to control any fixture via my programmed cues or via single preset. After looking At the dimmers i could see that no data was being output from the desk. After rebooting the desk, everything appeared to be back to normal and I carried on with the rehearsal. 6 hours later I was doing a re-colour of some generics and I noticed the heads moving randomly again as they had done previously. I went to the desk and could not get any cue to respond as before. No cues were output on the desk and all faders were at 0.

Now, here is my dilemma. I have a second desk with me as a back-up. I have transferred the original show file onto this desk and all appears to be good. My only concern is that have I potentially transferred the problem to the back-up desk via the show file or is it more likely to be a console issue? I have 1 hour tomorrow to replot the show. Would this be advisable in regard to the situation I have described.

Advice ASAP would be much appreciated.

Kindest regards

[niclights]

I would not be concerned about showfile migrating the problem. The only way this could happen is if it was actually a programming error, which seems unlikely from your description.

However, it is possible that the problem might not be console related. It suggests bad DMX which could be faulty cable or device which might be a bad fixture. Unfortunately, as with any intermittent fault, this will be difficult to prove. But certainly if it does occur with the spare console then I'd definitely be looking elsewhere for common factors (ie. are all affected fixtures on the same line/splitter etc.)

[Sparky]

Nic,

Many thanks for getting back to me.

I have migrated the show to the other console and all appears to be fine currently. FYI- the movers are on one universe and the genrics on another. Both of these lines are going to the integrated splitter in the 48 way art and distributed accordingly from there. I am running both desks into a passive chroma Q A/B Switch and into the splitter via foh multi. The only non common denominator in the system (other than the desks) are the 2 data lines running from the desks to the A/B Switch. Everything else is a constant. After the issue, the back up desk functioned as normal when I switched over the first time and all movers and generics were all good and behaving.

I shall keep you informed of any further developments.

Thanks for your advice.

[niclights]

In terms of whether the console is causing the problem after the show I would look to change lines so they output on C/D rather than A/B. This might narrow down problem to one of the DMX boards.