"ACTIVE" leds on racks??

[Joseph Pearce]

With the redundant snake system it is possible to use one IN and one OUT from two different snakes at the same time.

I have seen this graphically represented in the Devices tab of the D-Show software.

Unfortunately on both FOH and STAGE racks the active LEDs cannot show this.

If I I need to know which IN/OUT of which snake (1 or 2) is active at any given time, I cannot rely on the rack LEDs but must instead use the picture in the Devices tab.

Would anyone be in agreement? Am I missing something?

I know that this sounds confusing, it is. I believe that there should be two LEDs per snake- representing IN and OUT individually- not one.

Why would I want to know this? Because when the snake card switches from it's primary to the redundant, i then need to troubleshoot the primary...which can mean, amongst other things, unplugging and plugging back in...which is unnerving when the active LED is lit.

I'm sorry if this is confusing to read but if anyone has any experience with this, please feel free to let me know.

Redundancy is great but once you start using it, you no longer have it, so to speak.

Thanks,

[Kenmillerjr]

I believe the answer to your question (if I am understanding it correctly) would be that the stage rack only will display one active at a given time, even if you are using IN on the primary and OUT on the secondary.

I do agree that each "connection" should have a status LED, but that is not how it was designed. It seems as though it was designed in pairs. If you have a redundant system setup, and the primary snake drops, it will automatically with to the secondary (both in and out) if available...not just jumping to the backup connection of the one which was lost. If you are using one pair on each snake (the IN on Snake 1 and OUT on Snake 2) and one is lost...it is just that, lost because there is no redundancy setup. As you stated in your post, it does graphically show the connection in Options > Devices.

[Joseph Pearce]

Thanks Ken,

If the snake system was designed- it may well have- to be used in pairs then yes, the LED indicators would make sense but I don't think that that is how it is used.

Like I said, redundancy is great but once it is used it is gone and I need to do something...what?

Maybe the hardware monitor could be improved or a CRC error log could be accessed...

what would be best is if, after troubleshooting a failed snake channel, I could then PREVIEW its working order in much the same way we preview snapshots...at the moment, however, all I can do cross my fingers, which isn't good enough.

Has any one else found this?