supergumby Posted April 21, 2010 Posted April 21, 2010 I posted this on the general questions page, but i think it may be better to ask here....I have connected one of my LOR controllers to a DMX console to use for theatrical lighting in our church. I needed to do this to get scene selection of static lighting combinations, not sequences.But I'm having a problem.....The DMX program will connect to the controller, the status light becomes steady, and all of the channels respond correctly..........for about five or ten minutes. After that, the status light will start flashing, the lights go off and I have a very difficult time reconnecting, even after cycling the power to the controller and rebooting the computer. Sometimes I have to connect the SC485 to the PC and the controller, run the hardware utility, then re connect the DMX and it will resume operating....for another 10 minutes. Nothing is getting hot; I can run this same setup in an LOR network for hours.The controller is running 4.3 firmware and the controller ID is 01.Any ideas?
Ponddude Posted April 21, 2010 Posted April 21, 2010 Frankly I would lose the SC485. I think it is too slow to handle DMX. Do you have one of the USB adapter? I would try that and see what you get.
-klb- Posted April 21, 2010 Posted April 21, 2010 Try upgrading the firmware to 4.32... I vaguely remember some changes relating, but can't remember which version of the firmware addressed it...
LightORamaDan Posted April 22, 2010 Posted April 22, 2010 Hi,What type of controller are you using?ThanksDan
supergumby Posted April 22, 2010 Author Posted April 22, 2010 Dan,It's a CTB16PC. Do you need more info?
LightORamaDan Posted April 22, 2010 Posted April 22, 2010 supergumby wrote: Dan,It's a CTB16PC. Do you need more info?We will run some tests...We generally keep things connected to DMX for weeks during tests. Can you think of anything that is happening with the DMX or the controller, power, etc... when this happens? Any pattern you have detected?ThanksDan
supergumby Posted April 22, 2010 Author Posted April 22, 2010 This is my first experience with DMX. These controllers ran flawlessly this winter (in an LOR universe). I have not been able to use them yet in this DMX application because they won't stay connected.I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I don't know where to start.
LightORamaDan Posted April 22, 2010 Posted April 22, 2010 supergumby wrote: This is my first experience with DMX. These controllers ran flawlessly this winter (in an LOR universe). I have not been able to use them yet in this DMX application because they won't stay connected.I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I don't know where to start.The fact that they sync up and start working and then "stop" working makes me think that you are not really doing anything all that wrong.So you have these connected to a DMX console. Did you make your own XLR/RJ45 adapter or do you have one from LOR?When connected to the console you can control the lights for a while then it looses connection. Are you doing anything at the time it looses connection?Are there other things connected to the DMX universe or just this one controller and a DMX console?Long / short cables?
supergumby Posted April 22, 2010 Author Posted April 22, 2010 Dan,I'm going connect everything back up and see if I can get some more symptoms for you.Thanks.
supergumby Posted May 6, 2010 Author Posted May 6, 2010 Well,at the end of the day, LOR is still the perfect product. My problem was a bad crimp on the RJ-45 cable to the LOR board. When I was disconnecting the DMX and connecting the SC485, I was moving it enough to make it work for a bit.It's always the simple stuff that gives me the most trouble.Thanks for all of the help.
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