TRINITY ELECTRONICS SWITCH PACK QUICK START
GUIDE
This guide should help you to identify
& properly connect the cards in your control box to your
lighting and control systems. Based on the particular configuration
you need for your application, your box will contain one interface
card (either ‘control voltage’ or ‘DMX’
type), and 4 triac cards (4- or 8-channel regular capacity
cards, or 4-channel high capacity cards). Click on pictures
on this page to see a larger higher resolution picture. Before
proceeding to connect your box, make sure to check the special
note regarding DMX and phase wiring at the end of this guide
to see if it applies to your situation.
16 channel control voltage interface card
This card takes up to 16 DC ‘control
voltage’ (CV) inputs (on/off only), and translates them
into inverted 5volt (TTL) signals for the triac cards. For
inputs, this card is designed to be connected to any device
that outputs 0-3 volts for an off signal, and 5-12 volts for
an on signal. Simply connect the common (ground) line from
your control device to one of the terminals marked ‘GND’,
and connect your signal lines to the terminal inputs labeled
with the channel you want to control. You can also use the
terminals marked ‘GND’ and V+ as a 16V power source
to run your own moderate-power-drain components (small control
desks etc.)
The card/fan gets its operating power through
wires running over to the triac cards, so once you’ve
connected power to the triac cards (see below for help), the
CV interface card & fan power up.
16 channel DMX decoder interface card 
This card takes a standard DMX signal
as an input and decodes it into 16 inverted 5volt (TTL) signals
which then run up to 16 channels worth of triac cards (most
commonly 4 cards x 4 channels each). Simply connect your 2
or 3 wire DMX source to the terminal marked ‘DMX IN’,
and you’re done wiring this card. If you’re hooking
into a ‘standard’ DMX XLR cable, Pin1 = Ground
(shield or SH), Pin2 = -signal, and Pin3 = +signal. The card/fan
gets its operating power through wires running over to the
triac cards, so once you’ve connected power to the triac
cards (see below for help), the DMX interface & fan power
up.
First wire up your DMX input and power
supply, then set your configuration mini-switches (see below
for help), then turn on the power. If the card is powered
& functioning properly but not receiving any DMX signal
at it’s input, the LED will flash once every few seconds
(saying “I’m awake, and DMX is timing out”).
Once the card is receiving DMX commands, the LED comes on
more or less steadily.
Setting the offset address
switches
You will find 2 switch blocks on the DMX
interface card – one with 8 switches & one with
4. The 8 switch block is for setting the DMX address offset.
For example, if you have a 16 channel lighting box, and you
want it to respond to channels 33-48 of your DMX controlling
device, then you need an offset of 32. Turn on the switches
to create the binary value of the offset you need. If you
aren’t familiar with binary numbering, do it this way:
Each switch has a number associated with it. Figure out which
combination of the numbers will add up to the offset amount
you need, and turn on the corresponding switches: sw1=1, sw2=2,
sw3=4, sw4=8, sw5=16, sw6=32, sw7=64, sw8=128. So for example,
if you need an offset of 40, 40 = 32+8, so you need to turn
on switch 6 (32) and switch 4 (8). If you want it to respond
to channels 17-32, you need only switch 5 on. For channels
1-16, leave all address switches off. Switch 3 of the 4 switch
(‘Mode’) block adds an offset of 256, so turn
it on if your offset needs to be more than 256.
Setting the other ‘Mode’
switches
The smaller block of 4 switches is used to set some other
options available to you:
Switch 1 is reserved for future use –
leave it off.
Turning on switch 2 turns off dimming and
forces channels to be either fully on or fully off. We call
this ‘Switch Mode’. If you need your control box
to ignore partially dimmed signals, turn this switch on, and
then any input signal over 50% will turn the channel on, and
any signal under 50% will turn the channel off.
Turning on switch 3 adds 256 to the address
offset. So for example, if (for some bizarre reason) you need
an offset of 341, so that channel 1 in the box dims up when
you slide up fader #342 on your DMX lighting control desk,
turn on switches 1,3,5 and 7 of the address switch block,
and turn on switch 3 of the Mode switch block. In this example,
fader #350 would then control channel 9 of this box.
Switch 4 puts the DMX card into inverted
output mode. If for some reason, you need an input signal
of 100% to be turned into an output signal of 0% etc. (reversed),
then turn this switch on.
Triac cards  
Think of these cards as 4 or 8 remotely
controlled dimming switches. The card takes a 110 volt input
and turns that into 4 or 8 separate 0-110 volt (dimming) outputs,
based on small electrical control voltages it receives from
the interface card. To ‘wire up’ this card, connect
the neutral (white) wire from your power source to any of
the terminals marked ‘neutral’ or ‘N’
(near the center of the card), and connect a black line (also
referred to as ‘hot’ wire) to at least one from
each pair of line input terminals at either end of the terminal
row. These are labeled ‘L’ on the 8 channel cards,
and ‘LINE A’ and ‘LINE B’ on the 4
channel cards.
With 4 cards in a box, there is a total
of 8 line inputs to be fed (2 per card). In a simple, low
power situation, you can feed both sides of all 4 cards from
the same source – just jumper all 8 points together,
and connect your source wire to one of them. Or at the other
extreme, if you need to, (perhaps you are dealing with low
capacity circuit breakers, or you are controlling very high
power lighting), you can feed each of the 8 input points from
a separate power source. Just make sure your neutrals are
always in fact neutral, and your hot wires are always hot.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING PHASE WIRING AND DMX
This applies only if
your box has the DMX interface card, and you are using dimming
mode (not switch mode), and are using more than one power
source to feed your box.
If the above statement applies to your
situation, you have to make sure the box is wired so that
all line inputs on the 2 left side cards are being fed from
the same phase as each other,
and that the 2 right side cards are fed from the same phase
as each other. Otherwise, the dimming card
will not properly sync to the 60hz sine waves, and will produce
unpredictable dimming levels. (The left &
right sides can be on the same phase or not, it doesn’t
matter.) So, for example, if you are using a 220v 2 phase
wiring scenario, both left cards should be fed from the same
phase (say the black wire), and the same situation for the
right (say the red wire). You can safely tie the neutrals
(white) all together (assuming the building is properly wired
– see ‘checking power sources’ below for
help).
If you need to feed the upper card from
a different power source (eg: breaker) than the lower card,
that’s fine – just confirm that they are on the
same phase. (again, see below for help) Remember – this
only affects the smoothness of dimming – nothing else.
CHECKING POWER SOURCES
PLEASE NOTE: use this info at your own
risk. This involves close proximity to live high voltage –
only perform THESE TESTS if you are qualified and comfortable
around such situations.
If you have 2 110 volt power sources in
front of you and need to find out if they are on the same
or different phases (ie: you can’t be sure where they
are coming from), here’s how you do it using an AC voltmeter.
Before turning on power, position all involved bare wire ends
so that none are touching ANYTHING. With the power sources
tuned (on, and not yet connected to the box,) carefully measure
the voltage between the black wire from each power source
(be VERY careful not to touch the wires with
your fingers). If 2 110v power sources are on the same phase,
you will see almost no voltage difference between their line
(black wire) sides (typically 0 to 2 volts). If they are on
different (opposing) phases, you will see roughly 220 volts.
If you see roughly 110 volts of difference between the 2 black
wires, something in the building is wired wrong – have
someone rectify the problem before continuing.
Also, in a properly wired building, there
will be almost no voltage between any neutral (white wire)
and any ground (green wire, bare copper wire, metal box) If
you find 110v or so, you have a dangerous backwards wiring
problem. If you have ~8vac or more, you have a ‘very
poor wiring’ situation. If you install a box in a ‘poor
wiring situation’ (and I wouldn’t), expect problems
& customer complaints to occur later. Alternatively, suggest
that the wiring be replaced at least to the location of your
box (if not entirely). In any case, DO NOT CONNECT ANYTHING
WHERE THERE IS A WIRING ERROR PRESENT! (because if someone
later corrects the wiring problem, box goes boom! Or walls
go on fire! And guess who gets the blame!)
Finally, remember that getting shocked hurts,
blowing up things costs money, and electricity can even kill
you. If you are unsure about ANYTHING, please... please ask
for some assistance from someone more experienced.
Thanks for reading this guide. If you've
found it helpful, or if you have any questions or would like
to make a comment, we’d love to hear from you.
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