Power Sequence

[Ethan]

Hello all,

I am in a permanent church environment, coming from an analogue mixer that was powered up via a sequencer. Now we have the SQ-6 and two stage boxes. I’m wondering what is the best way to power up all the equipment? Right now I have the SQ and stage boxes on a separate outlet and the amps still on the sequencer. So I turn on the SQ and stage box ‘power conditioner’, turn on the SQ, then turn on the sequencer. Any suggestions on how to make it more streamlined?

Thanks

[GCumbee]

Why not just put the mixer/stage boxes on the first stage of the sequencer? That’s what I do on installs with other mixers.

[Ethan]

Would that be enough time to do a proper shutdown before the sequencer kills the power, without being too early to cut the signal to the amps/speakers? Or are you just killing the power without doing the SQ6 shutdown procedure?

[lightingman117]

Ethan, if I’m reading between the lines correctly. You are concerned about shutting QU/SQ boards down without running the ‘shutdown’ command from the GUI.

Basically, can you pull power from SQ/QU without harming the boards?

I’d like an answer too, because I’ve never read about that either.

[Ethan]

Yes, Lightingman, I come from the IT world, so I like to properly shutdown computers via the GUI (unless theres a problem of course). So I would assume that is the best and safest way to shutdown the SQ6. But this is my first non-analog board, so I could be wrong.

Thanks

[GCumbee]

I’m not advocating power off the console prior to shutdown procedure. I would do that prior to activating the sequencer. That said. I have several consoles out there that I’m sure don’t get shutdown and so far there haven’t been any problems that I know of. The consoles will generally reboot like they were. Can’t guarantee that but that’s what I’ve seen.

[Ethan]

Hi GC,

If I do the proper SQ6 shutdown procedure before activating the sequencer, there will be a loud pop since the amps/speakers are still on?

[Mfk0815]

No, the shutdown procedure will not cause pop sounds for the speaker. Additionally when yoz run AR2412, AR804 or AB168 stageboxes you can switch of the board without danger after the software shutdown. This is because the stageboxes have relays on the outlets which will be opened once the connection to the board is lost. The same you can observe when you switchon the board after you switched on the stageboxes. The relays will be closed after the digital connection is established to the SQ.
Unfortunately the outlets of the board itself do not have relays. They will pop on power up and power down.
Since I do not own a DX168 I can’t say how they will work.

[GCumbee]

Not if you don’t power off the console.

[MikeShand]

I don’t know about the SQ, the problem may be fixed there, but on a GLD, if you have phantom on an input, and you leave the fader up when you power down, then on power up you will get a pop as the phantom engages after the mixer has booted up. Since it takes a few tens of seconds to boot this comes AFTER the sequencer has turned on the amps. Our sequencer doesn’t have an adjustable delay. It is fixed at 10 seconds, although I am told that by jusicious changing of the components in the RC timing network, this can be extended. I haven’t tried that yet though.

Other than that, the sequencer works fine with the mixer and ar2412 on the first feed and the amps on the second.

It doesn’t always get powered off using the GUI before the power is cut, but that has never caused any problems. In theory, I believe, it may not correctly save the state if something has changed just before the power is cut, but that is unlikely. I guess there may be a slim chance that something could get corrupted if the power was cut while it was in the process of writing to the SSD, but I’ve never observed that. Always a good idea to keep a backup show on a USB stick though.

HOpe that helps.

[Author]

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