Can someone please tell me what this is?

[Jel]

Hi one of my commercial clients has just sent me a photo of this?
They sent the following message
"Please see attached image.
All we know is it keeps turning itself off.."

 

[Pete999]

Impulse/Warp drive interface, not a clue

 

[spary]

when it turns off what does it effect?
or is it affect......

 

[Jel]

Lighting

 

[spary]

so i'm guessing it's not a disco light control panel

 

[Andy78]

How much lighting ? What sort of lighting ? what sort of building ?

totally pising in the wind unless someone actually recognises the specific unit or you take a trip down to site really.

Addressable lighting interface possibly ?

 

[YoungBart]

Could be some sort of dimming control, Thinking the triangular buttons are + - and the Buttons with the green neons are zone selectors. But as Andy says, More info needed.

 

[DPG]

Surely before it 'turns itself off' it must do something. Can they not tell you what the 'something' is? Daz

 

[Jel]

Ive asked all them questions just waiting for a reply.
The job is really far from me so would like to try have a bit more of an idea before i make the journey.

 

[spary]

Think its a HAL 9000

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[Andy78]

Think its a HAL 9000

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You could be onto something there. OP, ask them if they have a guy called Dave who keeps trying to open the pod bay doors.

 

[Marvo]

Looks like a lighting scene controller maybe. Not sure what make but it's not Lutron....

 

[Adam W]

Looks like a lighting scene controller maybe. Not sure what make but it's not Lutron....

:iagree: I don't recognise that specific model but it could be connected to a dimmer or switch pack, possibly by CAT5 or some other data cabling. At a guess I'd say the 5 buttons to the left are for different scenes, the up/down arrows scroll through different channels (circuits) and the button to the right could be a selector button, master power button, or something else.
If it always turns itself off at the same time I'd say it's been programmed to do that.

I would have a look for any identifying markings on it and google it to try and get some instructions of t'internet - without them you could be randomly pressing buttons for a while, especially if what looks like a screen doesn't work any more. It could be that to enter programming mode you have to hold down more than one button and save using one of the scene selection buttons.

Of course I could be completely wrong about all of that.

 

[rsgaz]

Are they a person who takes pictures sideways all the time?

The thing 'underneath' is this Xpelair unit...

So maybe the photo should be like this...



Which sort of makes it look more like an intercom or something, but sticking with the ventilation theme, I'd say they have electric blinds or windows up high somewhere which you can control individually or all together with this unit.

Gaz

 

[Deleted member 26818]

If it keeps turning itself off, does it then also turn itself on?
If it doesn't and it gets switched on by someone, perhaps they could ask that someone what it does?

 

[richy3333]

Why is it you say electrician and people hear magician (complete with crystal balls)?!

 

[Marie-Claire]

I'd assume this may be an air conditioning controller?

 

[davesparks]

My guess would be the control panel for a dimmer


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[Mark42]

I reckon Adam W has it bang-on. It's an old-skool, first-gen lighting scene controller. I saw a load of these a few years back in the Far East. There will be a programmable control unit somewhere, connected to this unit by CAT5 or Belden cable, and to which all the lighting loads are connected. (Although some are stand-alone units - I still have one such four-channel model at home in the UK.)

Check out Lutron, Futronix or Elan for similar products. But I don't think it's from any of those manufacturers. Almost certainly obsolete technology, probably best junked.

Programming is usually via a serial RS485 connection to a laptop. A complete bugger to fault-find if you don't work on that model everyday. I once wasted weeks with similar system.

Good luck, Sir: you have my sympathy!

ps. If there was a beer on it, my guess would be that the five left-hand switches are programmable as either individual scenes (ie preset levels for all the lighting channels) or individual lighting circuit selectors, all dimmed by the up/down buttons; and the bigger right-hand button is a master on/off.

The black window is either an IR receiver, or a portal to the Eye of Sauron.