Turning the Mini-director off

[Torqumada286]

A few weeks back I bought a mini-director from someone who had already adapted it with an external power cord. As soon as I got it open, I got out a controller, hooked up some lights and tried it out. I used some of the sequences I was working on for Halloween. Everything worked fine.

My wife asked me how to turn it off and I said I just had to pull the power, which I did. It was by coincidence that I pulled the power, just before the Exorcist theme sequence started. I was standing there with the plug in my hand, when it started playing the Exorcist theme, which caused my wife to scream and grab on to me. It was funny.

It was then I remembered that the mini-director can get power from the system as well as the power cord. Power being turned on through the power cord can be used to start the system, but unplugging or stopping power to the mini-director, will not stop the system from working.

So, how do you turn the thing off to stop the show at the end of the night?

Torqumada

[Don]

Torqumada286 wrote:

So, how do you turn the thing off to stop the show at the end of the night?

Torqumada

In this case you would need to cut off power to the controller that the mini-director is attached to.

[Surfing4Dough]

Don, you are wrong. Torqumada, it doesn't appear that you removed the jumper from inside the mini-director. Removing it bypasses the normal ability of the nearest connected controller to supply power to the mini-director. Therefore, once it is removed, your problem will be solved.

See page 11 in the manual:
http://www.lightorama.com/PDF/mDM-MP3_Man_Web.pdf

[Torqumada286]

I bought it from somebody already modified. I'll check that jumper and see if it's the problem. Thanks for the help.

Torqumada

[George Simmons]

Torqumada286 wrote:

So, how do you turn the thing off...

Great save, Surf...

But think of how funny it could have been if you hadn't butted in and Torq still couldn't "turn the thing off..."

His wife might have insisted that a priest be brought in, even if they're not Catholic..

[Torqumada286]

George Simmons wrote:

Torqumada286 wrote:

So, how do you turn the thing off...

Great save, Surf...

But think of how funny it could have been if you hadn't butted in and Torq still couldn't "turn the thing off..."

His wife might have insisted that a priest be brought in, even if they're not Catholic..

 

We are Catholic, Anglican Catholic. Catholic-Lite with 1/3 less hierarchy and guilt than your traditional Roman Catholicism.

Torqumada

[olmsb4d2]

Torqumada286 wrote:

George Simmons wrote:

Torqumada286 wrote:

So, how do you turn the thing off...

Great save, Surf...

But think of how funny it could have been if you hadn't butted in and Torq still couldn't "turn the thing off..."

His wife might have insisted that a priest be brought in, even if they're not Catholic..

We are Catholic, Anglican Catholic. Catholic-Lite with 1/3 less hierarchy and guilt than your traditional Roman Catholicism.

Torqumada

Sorry but if you didn't attend Catholic schools back in the day when you were taught by Nuns that you can't really claim to be Catholic

[Torqumada286]

olmsb4d2 wrote:

Torqumada286 wrote:

George Simmons wrote:

Torqumada286 wrote:

So, how do you turn the thing off...

Great save, Surf...

But think of how funny it could have been if you hadn't butted in and Torq still couldn't "turn the thing off..."

His wife might have insisted that a priest be brought in, even if they're not Catholic..

 

We are Catholic, Anglican Catholic. Catholic-Lite with 1/3 less hierarchy and guilt than your traditional Roman Catholicism.

Torqumada

Sorry but if you didn't attend Catholic schools back in the day when you were taught by Nuns that you can't really claim to be Catholic

I have and did and will. I had a nun tell me that I was going to hell because I am left handed. Hard thing to take in Kindergarten. Anyway, the word catholic only means universal and that applies to many strains of Christianity, not just the one overseen by Pope Benedict, who isn't even the only Pope in the world, either.

Torqumada

[olmsb4d2]

Torqumada286 wrote:

olmsb4d2 wrote:

Torqumada286 wrote:

George Simmons wrote:

Torqumada286 wrote:

So, how do you turn the thing off...

Great save, Surf...

But think of how funny it could have been if you hadn't butted in and Torq still couldn't "turn the thing off..."

His wife might have insisted that a priest be brought in, even if they're not Catholic..

We are Catholic, Anglican Catholic. Catholic-Lite with 1/3 less hierarchy and guilt than your traditional Roman Catholicism.

Torqumada

Sorry but if you didn't attend Catholic schools back in the day when you were taught by Nuns that you can't really claim to be Catholic

I have and did and will. I had a nun tell me that I was going to hell because I am left handed. Hard thing to take in Kindergarten. Anyway, the word catholic only means universal and that applies to many strains of Christianity, not just the one overseen by Pope Benedict, who isn't even the only Pope in the world, either.

Torqumada

Wow...for the second time today I've learned how truly small the world is. I to am left handed and to this day I remember Sister Elizabeth taking the pencil out of my left hand and putting it in my right hand. The threat of hell came after that though so I guess you had some really serious hard core nuns if all it took to get a pass to hell was being left handed.

[Guest guest]

I didn't go to "Catholic school", but I did go to a Private Christian School in the first grade, I started out left handed myself, but was FORCED to change hands and use my right for writing, etc. Although I am still very ambidextrious, since I was changed, I've become more right handed than left.

Once I got into the "Public Schools", which was starting in the 2nd grade, they continued on with the "right hand only rule" that some idiot apparently came up with, or some unwritten rule from who knows where.

I tried to go back to using my left hand in Public School and got smacked with a ruler across it, and then a STERN: "NO, we don't use our left hand, we use our RIGHT hand to write with."

Of course today, none of this would fly, well not in Public Schools, don't know if the Private or Catholic schools still use these methods or not, wouldn't think so, but you never know!

Wow, we went from how to turn off a mini director to left handed and parochrial{sp?} schools! Talk about a thread hijack taking a real turn.:shock:

[George Simmons]

Well, since the OP got his answers, first the incorrect one and then the correct one (thanks again SFD), and since this thread is already hopelessly hijacked...

I've long wondered what percentage of us are left-handed? And is that percentage higher here than in the ordinary adult population? Whaddaya all say???

[Guest guest]

I didn't see anyone getting upset until now...why would we even bring it up?

And...we'll ignore the fact it's George's birthday, and not one person has wished him well on his special day. How hateful is that?

[Guest guest]

DonFL wrote:

I didn't see anyone getting upset until now...why would we even bring it up?

And...we'll ignore the fact it's George's birthday, and not one person has wished him well on his special day. How hateful is that?

Well darn, I didn't know it was George's Birthday!:shock:

But since you just told us:



HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE

and

MAY YOU HAVE MANY MORE TO COME!

[olmsb4d2]

Interesting question and according to my indepth analysis, that's right I Googled it, approximately 10% of the adult population is left handed.

Happy Birthday George

[George Simmons]

Thanks guys for the birthday wishes. Turned the big 60 today - which means I believe I'm now officially a member of the old-fart club.

And thanks for the in-depth lefty research olms.

I'm still curious, though, about how the percentage around here compares with the national averages. Since it's looking like a thread sanitization is likely heading this way, I started a different Coffee Shop thread asking the lefty-righty question. Chack in and pipe up.

[Max-Paul]

This thread is full of win.

And happy birthday George, belated as it is.

[Shubb]

Sorry to re-direct this thread back to the original question. (btw, Happy Birthday George)

But isn't the internal jumper to allow for an external power supply? The manual says: Leave the jumper in place if the miniDirector is to be powered by the nearest controller.

I also have had the case of setting up the system and turning the power off to the controller that was connected to the miniDirector, but the director and most of the lights kept going. I had to reprogram to allow a trigger and wire a start/stop switch. However, it would have been much nicer to be able to kill the power since the customer had a outlet wired to an inside switch.

So will removing the jumper allow it to be powered by only ONE controller?

Thanks,

Scott

[EARLE W. TALLEY]

AS PER THE MANUAL
mDM-MP3
Page 12
Remove this jumper if the miniDirector is to be
powered by an external power supply that will be
used with a timer or power switch to turn the
miniDirector on and off. If the jumper is left on, the
attached controllers may continue to supply power to
the miniDirector, so it will not obey the timer or
power switch. If the miniDirector is not attached to
controllers by a cable, but rather by wireless units,
then leave the jumper on, otherwise the power from
your attached external supply will not reach the
wireless unit.

[Shubb]

So somehow I guess I missed the first line where the OP said it had been adapted with an external power adapter.
(I feel stupid)
So it looks like my original work around is the only way without using a seperate power supply.

[Surfing4Dough]

Shubb wrote:

So somehow I guess I missed the first line where the OP said it had been adapted with an external power adapter.
(I feel stupid)
So it looks like my original work around is the only way without using a seperate power supply.

So you do know when they mention using a "9V DC Power Supply" that they aren't meaning anything fancy right? One of these will do the trick:

Just cut off the small plug at the end and attach the two wires to the the appropriate screw terminals. If you save these from old broken electronics, you probably have one laying around the house. If not, probably <$10 at Radio Shack. Then you can plug this into a timer and control your on/off time of your show with just the timer.