CTB16PC flickering lights on DMX from PixCon 16

[Mike H]

I finally got everything setup and testing out my first connection between my PixCon16 and a CTB16PC.  I can play the sequence and the lights do work when they are supposed work but when the lights are in the off state, they just randomly blink.  The pixels attached to the PixCon16 are not blinking so they appear to be OK.

If I remove the cable between the PixCon16 and the CTB16PC, the lights quit blinking.  I've tried this on a couple different units on on different DMX output ports from the PixCon16 all giving the same results.  When I connect the unit up to my computer with the USB dongle they don't blink, so it's something with the DMX ports.  I don't have any other DMX bridge yet so haven't been able to try them any other way.  Below is just a sample video showing how they are blinking (Ignore the unit in the middle, that was my first test box that gave the same blinking).  When the song is playing in the clip there should be only clean blinking on just a couple of the lights sync with the music, not all the random blinking being shown.

Anyone know what might be wrong or do I need to open a support ticket.

 

Edited April 27, 2016 by Mike H

[Grinch]

What happens when you place the PixCon16 in test mode with the DMX lights attached?

[Mike H]

Well, I really feel stupid starting this posting now.  Today I started checking/upgrading the firmware on all of my devices.  Daisy chaining my devices together so I could check several at one time, I wasn't seeing the devices past a certain point in the daisy chain.  At that point I had used the blue cable in my video above.  Removed that cable and everything worked fine.

I then rechecked the setup I had above using a different cable and everything was working correctly.  I put that same cable back in and the lights started flashing.  So it was the cable.  I checked the wiring and found it totally messed up.  I'm not even sure how this cable got wired the way it was since it's definitely one of my own cables and I don't ever know of needing a cable connected as:

1  -  3
2  -  6
3  -  1
4  nc 4
5  -  5
6  -  2
7  -  7
8  -  8

So I'm definitely hacking off the ends of this cable to rebuild it correctly.

So I apologize for the posting and I appreciate the idea of the test mode.  I haven't done that before but I did try it and it doesn't seem to do anything with the AC LOR controllers.  But thanks for the help.  At least my issue wasn't anything serious that would put a hold working on my conversions to DMX.

[k6ccc]

Looks like a "standard" (non-gigabit) ethernet crossover cable except for pin 4 being open.  Back in the days when most devices would not auto MDI-X, those cables were commonly used.  Since pin 4 is used for LOR wiring, it was a problem!

 

[Mike H]

Thanks, maybe I created it for an old computer system hookup.  It looks like the pin 4 should be connected (it's on both sides) but my tester wasn't showing it.  Maybe just a bad connection.  I wonder how many times this cable got into my system and has caused me problems.

[k6ccc]

1 minute ago, Mike H said:

I wonder how many times this cable got into my system and has caused me problems

Who knows.  I have a standing policy about bad cables.  Either they get fixed or destroyed so they can't get mixed back in with good cables.  I recently found a factory made PC power cable that was open.  As it was not worth repairing, I cut both ends off and tossed it into the recycle bin...