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[Andrew Roof]

I do the lighting and sound equipment for my church, but I know very little about lighting and lighting equipment. I know enough that I can get the equipment to do what I need, but not nearly enough to troubleshoot more advanced problems. We have recently been having issues with some of the lights flashing. They will randomly go from the level they were set at to about 50%, whether it's set below or above that amount. We are currently using a Leviton MC 7024 board, and four Leviton d4dmx-md5 dimmers daisy chained, using microplex. Any idea why this might be happening?

[Jeff Lelko]

Hi Andrew,

Aside from this being a known issue (that I'm not familiar with) involving your specific equipment, the best way to troubleshoot lighting is to isolate every piece of the system until you find the problem.

I'd start by unplugging three of the four dimmers, so you just have your console running to a single dimmer.  See if the problem still occurs.  If it does, swap the cable and test again.  If the problem goes away, the cable was the faulty item.  If not, swap the dimmer for another one and test again.  If the problem persists it's likely the console.  Is there any particular pattern or trend that the problem follows?  Good luck and hope this helps!

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

I do the lighting and sound equipment for my church, but I know very little about lighting and lighting equipment. I know enough that I can get the equipment to do what I need, but not nearly enough to troubleshoot more advanced problems. We have recently been having issues with some of the lights flashing. They will randomly go from the level they were set at to about 50%, whether it's set below or above that amount. We are currently using a Leviton MC 7024 board, and four Leviton d4dmx-md5 dimmers daisy chained, using microplex. Any idea why this might be happening?

when this happens, does the channel LED on the lighting board Change brightness too?  If so, you have faders on your board that need to be replaced.

You can swap addresses of two of your dimmer packs and see if the problem follows the dimmer or the channels.

By the way, are you using Microplex or DMX?  Your board may support both, and the model number of your Leviton packs suggests they may be using DMX rather than Microplex.

[Scott Hofmann]

Two things to look at:
Check your Microplex cables and make sure pin 1 is not connected to the shell of the connector. This could cause ground loop problems.
Also,the console gets its DC operating power thru the Microplex cable from a dimmer pack when operating on Microplex.
If the cable from the dimmer pack closest to the console is a long distance, 150'-200' perhaps, there will be too much voltage drop for the console to work reliably. You could try using a power supply at the console (the one specified when using the DMX output).

[Andrew Roof]

when this happens, does the channel LED on the lighting board Change brightness too?  If so, you have faders on your board that need to be replaced.

You can swap addresses of two of your dimmer packs and see if the problem follows the dimmer or the channels.

By the way, are you using Microplex or DMX?  Your board may support both, and the model number of your Leviton packs suggests they may be using DMX rather than Microplex.

I'm using Microplex (the newer [or older, not sure] models of those boxes have Microplex capabilities).
The signal light on the board doesn't flash, but the signal lights on the boxes do.
Ill try the troubleshooting that Jeff suggested, and get back with the results.

[Scott Hofmann]

I'm using Microplex (the newer [or older, not sure] models of those boxes have Microplex capabilities).
The signal light on the board doesn't flash, but the signal lights on the boxes do.
Ill try the troubleshooting that Jeff suggested, and get back with the results.

Any results?

[ProSoundWeb Community]