Un Sequenced Lights Flickering At Random Times

[Struax87]

I just played back my first show and there seems to be some lights flickering at un scheduled times. It seems to get better after the show runs a few few times. Does aanyone have an idea what causes this?

Thanks

[Don]

What type of lights? (LED or Incandescent)

What controllers are you using? Are these newer G3 controllers or the original controllers?

Are you running the shows from a computer, mini director or Showtime director?

You say it gets better after the shows run a few times. Does it completely go away, or just get better? Do these flickers seem to happen in the same spots each time, or different times?

[Struax87]

I'm using incadesent rope lights for the signing faces. I have new controllers which I purchased this year. I'm running the show from my computer. It's like somethting is bleeed in the the sequence. Its a dim rapid flicker even when then the show is inbetween songs.

[MtDew4me]

Just a thought.....You might want to check your sequence to make sure you haven't double assigned a channel. Also, make sure you're not running an animation sequence while running an audio sequence. The animation sequence will run continuously not sequentially within your show.

[Struax87]

I just pulled out one on the songs in the show and it went away. I was given a sequence for This is Hallowen and I was trying to match it to my lightst. I thought I assigned the right channels to fit my lay out but I must be missing something. This is alll new to me. I took the borrowed sequence and save it to a new name and then inserted my channel config and copied the channels to lay out. Does that sound correct? Thanks again

[Don]

If it were me, I would open both a blank sequence with your layout, and the sequence that was given to you. Then I would copy/paste over the events from the sequence that was given to you over to your sequence.

Yes, it's somewhat of a hassle, but it should greatly reduce the chances of running into issues such as the one you described.

[paulanator]

I have found (the hard way) many times there are tiny "klingons" left over when cutting a fade that is very faint, like at the begining or end of a fade, and they are hard to see with the eye, but they are there.

I will go to that area in the sequence editor, select the area in question, and turn it off. Then I say to myself, DUH....

[Struax87]

I thought I found the problem but didn't. I noticed now that when I disabled the show that the mouth on one of the back up sining face still flickes when show isn't running. I'll check the fades and chsnnel assignments again.

Thanks

[Arnoldc]

Is it only one channel that is doing this? Maybe as a test, move that string of lights to another channel, copy and paste your sequence to that channel (do a test sequence) and see. If it is the channel, you may have a Triac going..

[Max-Paul]

Not real sure I fully understand when this is happening. Is it all songs? I think you said it does this even when a sequence is not playing just idle. IF both all songs and when idle, then I had a problem during my first year that might be related. Although my show uses almost 99% LED so this might not be the same problem for you with icans. I had accidently connected the HOT lead to the neutral terminal on my controller and the neutral lead to the hot terminal. Long story short, ya in most cases it does not matter. But when you have a switch in line, it works better if it is on the hot lead and not on the neutral. So, you might want to confirm that the hot lead is actually going to the terminals near the fuses.

[james campbell]

I would try this,play a song and when you see the lights start to flicker then unplug the usb adapter from the computer ,then if it still flickers it's either the lights or a triac going bad.if it stops flickering then it the program

[Guest wbottomley]

I bet you that somewhere along that circuit, a CFL or motor type device is connected. That would be the noise creator.

[daveo150]

For what it's worth, I'd doublecheck the dmx signal connection into your controller is tight.

I had a solder joint break loose on my DMX+ side, and the light was unexplainably flickering.

The auto-sequence (3 ch. DMX controller) was working fine, but as soon as I hit it with the DMX

signal with Xlights it would freak out. Still not sure why it did ANYTHING if it was only getting the DMX- signal,

but here we are.....works fine now.

D

[kzaas]

If you have your power that runs to your controllers is anywhere close to the communication cable that runs to your controllers, you can get noise on the communications and cause random flickers. Keep them seperated to prevent this and also make sure you terminate the last controllers RS485 line with a resister to prevent echos on the line.

[mmaness]

If all that doesn't work, is it possible that there is something (the little 'Klingons', or very faint pieces of left over ramp/fades) that might be in another track or the background?

Just a thought

[Steven]

I have an ELL that seems to put random commands on the RS-485 network, causing random lights to turn on (and usually stay on).

I worked around the problem by putting the ELL on it's own network, directly connected to the computer. (This means I now have 2 LOR networks, one that I can run at higher speed.)