Crestron equipment/programming advice needed - Page 13

I think I may have figured this out. Find the end or ends of the rope where the power is attached. That yellow jacketed wire with the red, black, white and ground goes to there. The black wire that is powering the ropes is in the same jacket as the red. You will have to play detective and find the junction from that black wire to the ropes. When you find it...Digital camera please.

This whole red wire on burned terminal 6 has me really bothered. Until we know what it's actually connected to, I want you to pull it out and wire nut it.

Along with finding the red wire at the other end we need the brand, model and how many feet of rope lighting there actually is. Most rope lighting watts is calculated by the foot. You could have to much for one circuit to handle or a short in the rope someplace.

One other thing to consider while you are scoping things out. Both the Dim4 and Dim8 have the same max watt capacity (1,920 watts/16 amps). Each output is also capable of handling 1,920 watts/16 amps. So if you use all 8 or just 1 as long as you dont go over. Both the 4 and 8 should be on their own 20A circuit.

Next time you have a chance you should turn everything on and use your clamp over amp meter on the black feeds to each dim module. That should be below 16 amps each.

"I noticed something interesting. When the backlight button is selected on the touchpanel, the backlights come on and occasionally the ropes come on too. Maybe some cresnet issue related to faulty dim8?"

See the last post on pg 12

"The ropes are 120v american lighting brand. They plug directly into 4 receptacles. No transformer. The receptacles with the ropes do not have a red wire. I checked all receptacles and the only one with red wire is the fan dimmers. 2 fans with two lutron fan blade dimmers. Both fans work without the red wire connected. Also of note, the red wire ascends out of the panel. Only ceiling loads are fans and lighting. All the lighting though works with red disconnected."

One of those 4 rope outlets has to have the other end of that 14/3 wire in it OR there is a junction box somewhere between the CAEN enclosure and the outlets for the rope lighting. Code dictates it. It is against code to make mechaincal electrical connections un-serviceable. Wire nuts burried in the wall is a big no no.
There is also the chance that another wall outlet is the junction box for that 14/3 wire. All outlets can be configured for one live and one switched on the same plug. One of those may have been set up as a switched outlet for a free standing lamp that was supposed to come on with the ropes.

With the red still connected, check every plug top and bottom at every location for power then pull the red and do it again. Use a lamp or test light to do this. I do not want this red wire connected to the new dim8 when it gets here.

My last thought for the morning. Is there a chance that the red wire powers up something that leads you to or in the bathroom or kitchen. Is there a light outside of the entry to the theater that you would also want to go dark at movie time???

Here is what I think happened and I don't think it's a result of you trying to put this back together. I think some time before you bought the house, the dim8 failed and the rope lights would not turn off or dim. The easy fix was to move the wire that was supposed to be on terminal 6 (ropes) and move it to terminal 5 (back lights). That way when you turn down the back lights, the ropes turn down with it. The back lights are working so they must be getting their power from the dim4 on terminal 1 or terminal 5 on the dim8 (I suspect 1). The red used to be on terminal 5 and the black from 5 was on 6.
That red wire which is supposed to be on terminal 5 goes to a "incandescent" light someplace.

1. Is there a light fixture in the pocket for the projector?
2. Is there a light of some sort outside of the entrance to the theater that you wish you could control from the TP? It may even be on a switch but may be getting it's power from that red wire that is always hot.
3. Is there a media storage cabinet with a light in it. How else would you find your cd's and dvd's in the dark.
4. The equipment room. That's probably on a switch but you never know.
5. Any plugs in the middle of the floor near the seating that a lamp may have been plugged into.

The fact that it's associated with the "back lights" and not the "front lights" leads me to think that it's also in the back of the room. Look for signs on the carpet indicating a large furniture item was there perhaps a lighted hutch.

After we get the new dim8 in place and run network analyzer again to make sure all the cresnet errors are gone, it would be interesting to re-try hooking up the jandy spa controls. If you remember, we were trying to control and monitor it from the TP1000's They are on the cresnet which at the time was riddled with errors because of the dim8.

You better figure out where that red wire goes before I make you fly me down there and find it

Just so you know, there is one last circuit of lights to figure out. That is connected to the dim4 on terminal 4. That is the one that is associated with the pad8 audio controller (hundred). All the other lighting is listed as incandescent but that one. That one is listed as "no dim". Do you have lights that shine down on the LC1000's when you touch the screen? I ask because the signal for terminal 4 originates within the audio zone logic and not addressable from the lighting screen on the tp.

When the new dim8 is installed, split the back lights the way it was intended and put the ropes back on six. Wire nut and tape that useless red wire and push it off to the side. Tomorrow night we can swap out the dim8 and I should be able to reset the cresnet address for it from here. That'll be a first for me. See, I'm learning something too

I did some more poking around in the program you sent me. This is incomplete. None of the serial device drivers have serial strings entered in the correct fields so these drivers are sending nothing. But one thing at a time. Lets finish the lights up.

When the new dim8 shows up and you see it on the table in front of you, it will become obvious to you how to change it. Just do it
I'll be home from work between 4 and 5 PM tomorrow. I just looked because I haven't done it in a while but it should take me no longer than a minute to change it's cresnet address from here.

Damn. I was sitting here with my finger on the button

Not sure what time zone you are in. Is 12:00 for you 1:00 for me??? That means 2:00AM or later at best before I could change the address. I'll check in the AM while I'm having coffee. If it's there and plugged in, I'll know it and change it.

Good job.
Net address is set. The replacement was at 11 and is now set to 65. Net light should be on now. I scanned it again with network analyzer and now what's connected is clean. You did however forget to connect the TP1000's as they show N/A. Now everything (should) be working OK. You are however still over budget on the cresnet power. Tonight we will go over how I'd like you to use that 75 watt supply so that you don't torch the 50 watt supply in the Pro2 and loose everything.

Sorry for the delay. I was having trouble with a mousetrap
My son has a physics project due tomorrow and I thought it was next week.
Try and build a single mousetrap powered car that can go 15 meters and stop give or take a half a meter. No one in his class has done it and some of these dads are hot shot engineers. I built him one that goes 15 meters and stops give or take a half inch That ain't easy. I'd rather be troubleshooting cresnet problems from 1,500 miles away blindfolded

Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out this power usage thing. The pro2's manual states 50 watts output. I have been told that it actually has a 75 watt supply but only makes 50 at best from the cresnet connector. The more options you ad to it like the C2ENET1 reduce the available power accordinly. So 27 watts is being used by the Pro2

Pro2 27 watts
3 LC1000's @ 3 ea 9 watts
CNX-PAD8A 10 watts
C2N-TXM 8 watts
--------
54 watts

So if it is a 50 watt supply, you are over budget by 4 watts. Now if it is a 75 watt supply (manual does not say so) You do (on paper) have 21 watts to spare. Now you do have to take into consideration wire length and wire gauge. I don't know how many feet of cresnet (especially that, that is cat5) you have. Cat5 even using twisted pairs is way smaller then the 24 and G on real cresnet wire and being smaller gauge does require more power to overcome the resistance of the smaller wire. That said, power supplies especially those that have been pushed hard weaken faster with age. So my thought is as you already have it, put that 75 watt supply in service and take some of the load off the Pro2. You can do this a couple of ways but I would, let the pro2 do nothing but power it's self and 75 watt supply handle everything else. That way both would be coasting along with plenty to spare.

Oh yea, plug the Jandy stuff back in and try it from the theate TP.
Now that we have reasonable communication everywhere else.

I ran network analyzer again this AM and all devices came back OK. However there is still quite alot of noise on the "Y". Are you still using 4 twisted pairs?
If so, drop the twisted pair that is now on the "Y" at all connectors ALL OF THEM or it won't work and use the twisted pair from "Z". From that pair use the solid color for "Y" and the white with stripe for "Z" at all connectors. I have been told that the use of one twisted pair for Y and Z helps in rejecting the noise.

Something that can cause alot of problems with cat5 that is used for any reason is the use of hand staples to secure the wire to the rough framework.
If the staples are driven in to hard, it crushes the wires insulation enough to cause shorts between wires or break wires in the pair.

"I'm Sorry for the delay. I was having trouble with a mousetrap
My son has a physics project due tomorrow and I thought it was next week.
Try and build a single mousetrap powered car that can go 15 meters and stop give or take a half a meter. No one in his class has done it and some of these dads are hot shot engineers. I built him one that goes 15 meters and stops give or take a half inch That ain't easy. I'd rather be troubleshooting cresnet problems from 1,500 miles away blindfolded"

I know this is just a bit OT but I'm batting a thousand this week.
My son took his mousetrap car to physics class today and it performed perfectly on the first try. There was three tests. You got X points if it could go five meters and a additional X points if it could go ten meters.
To go for the gold it had to go 15 meters and stop within a half meter of the finish line. The finish line was a 1/2 inch wide strip of tape. The cars front wheel stopped on the tape, 1/4 inch from the center line of the tape.
But that's not the best part. The cars design made it pick up speed at the end of the run. The teacher almost jumped the gun and failed it because he was sure it would blow way past the finish line. It did......but then it shifted into reverse, backed up and stopped right on the line. I was told everyone in the room cracked up. His is so far the only one that has even gotten close

I AM THE MASTER OF THE MECHANICAL.............STUFF.

A family member was supposed to be involved in the project because part of the written part of the project was to discus tool safety. It must have been pretty obvious he had help as most of the kids cars were consructed of wood and plastic. The frame on ours is TIG welded aluminum.

I DON'T LIKE TO LOSE, it's not optional

OK, back to work. There's a few things you should do before you get your reprogramming. I would like to see you split up some of the load on the cresnet. I'm sure those long runs of cat5 are sucking up their share of power.
If it were me, I would let the power supply in the Pro2 just take care of it's self. I would make up a three wire (Y,Z and G) interconnect to go from the Pro2 and say terminal 1 on the CNT-block. Then I'd make up a four wire and plug the 75 watt supply into say terminal 2. Then all you have to do is plug all the rest of the Cresnet devices into the CNT-Block. You have enough ports for that and you won't be mixing power.

Then I'd like you to replace as much of the cat5 as you can with the real thing. You really do need to reduce the amount of noise on the cresnet,
I actually did come up with a couple of fails since the dim8 change but it was not a hardware problem this time. I could see that it was just outside of what would pass and it was noise.

You said you'd like serial control of the projector. How many feet is it from the Pro2 and the projector and is there a way to get a serial cable to it.
You have a IR feed to the projector. That's still a option.