djohnson1810 Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 I am trying to learn how to program my DMX lights with S3. I am currently using the LOR dongle (but I have ordered the Enttec Pro). While everything works fine with x-lights, meaning that all of the colors appear correctly, when used with LOR the colors are wrong or don't come up at all. I made a short video to demonstrate. Any ideas?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJenPV0F8FQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Can you provide some more info about your setup to help troubleshoot?what Channels are the flood configured for?what universe and channels did you configure in S3? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djohnson1810 Posted May 6, 2012 Author Share Posted May 6, 2012 Channels set to 1, 2, 3. Universe is set to Universe 1. The RGB Controller is set to 1-3 (confirmed through x-lights). Hope this helps. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonB256 Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Many previous posts. When using the LOR Dongle, channel 1 is frequently "skipped" and that will shift everything by one.When your ENTTEC arrives, I'm sure it will work better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djohnson1810 Posted May 6, 2012 Author Share Posted May 6, 2012 That was it. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Has anyone come up with an explanation or resolution for the +1 channel issue?I've run both with Enttec Pro's and with the LOR Dongle (USB-485B) and have never had this issue.I've used the LOR dongle with the $7 dmx controllers, DMX Controlled moving heads, commercial DMX driven pixels, and other cheap dmx devices and have never had an issue.just figuring there must be an explanation why so many people have the issue, yet I don't (and presumably others don't either.)dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 Dave,Yes, there is an explanation...The LOR USB adapters and the actual ENTTEC devices are true to spec DMX dongles. The software transmits the data as it should to the dongle and they work according to your network assignments.However, there are a lot of other cheap chooses out there, such as the adapter HolidayCoro is using the Lynx dongle along with some other commercially available dongles. These are not true to spec in the sense of the USITT states should be the DMX protocol. That is why the channels are off by one. LOR has added the Lynx dongle to their supported devices but I don't know of the status of the HolidayCoro device(this is where I get the most complaints from my customers) and whether or not LOR plans on supporting it. There has been no disucssion in the beta forums about it.Frankly, for the cost, the LOR USB adapters are the best way to go. They are reliable and built to the quality you can expect from LOR. At Seasonal Entertainment we offer the adapter to convert from the LOR pin outs to the DMX pin outs.http://www.seasonalentertainmentllc.com/store/en/adapters/107-lor-dmx-adapter.htmlSo basically for around $40 bucks you can have a fully functional DMX network that is quaranteed to work with LOR.Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flogger7 Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 Greg, I have a LOR USB 485 and it requires a channel offset by +1. Lots of others have had the same issue. So perhaps the USB 485B is different in regards to the issue, but there are lots of us out there with official LOR USB adapters that require this offset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 I have heard people tell me that and they usually don't have the latest version of the software. Make sure you update because all of the adapters are now officially supported by LOR. If you are having issues after you update you need to contact LOR and let them know. I pretty much have every DMX dongle on the market and haven't had any issues with any of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonB256 Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 Greg, about this time last year, I looked at O-scope screens of an RS485/USB DMX output and an Enttec Open DMX output. There is a noticeable difference in the BREAK waveform shape. (The Enttec is much cleaner). Some decoders have no problem with the difference and count things correctly. Others miss the first break and count the first Data point as the break. That causes Channel 2 data to be sent to Channel 1. If you tinker with the driver software to compensate, it can sometimes reverse the problem, and it will count the Break as Channel 1, thereby putting Channel 1 data onto Channel 2.All decoders (that I own) correctly read the Enttec Open and Enttec Pro. I used 1 Enttec Pro and 2 Lynx dongles without problem to run last year's show.Most decoders (that I own) correctly read the RS485/USB dongle. I only use these for setup and testing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 Jon that certainly makes sense but most people who want to use DMX here don't want or need to understand that...haha. Frankly I don't blame them.Again, the LOR adapters SHOULD work as designed so if they do not you should contact LOR to get it repaired/replaced.Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmoore Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Ponddude wrote: Dave,Yes, there is an explanation...The LOR USB adapters and the actual ENTTEC devices are true to spec DMX dongles. The software transmits the data as it should to the dongle and they work according to your network assignments.However, there are a lot of other cheap chooses out there, such as the adapter HolidayCoro is using the Lynx dongle along with some other commercially available dongles. These are not true to spec in the sense of the USITT states should be the DMX protocol. That is why the channels are off by one. LOR has added the Lynx dongle to their supported devices but I don't know of the status of the HolidayCoro device(this is where I get the most complaints from my customers) and whether or not LOR plans on supporting it. There has been no disucssion in the beta forums about it.Frankly, for the cost, the LOR USB adapters are the best way to go. They are reliable and built to the quality you can expect from LOR. At Seasonal Entertainment we offer the adapter to convert from the LOR pin outs to the DMX pin outs.http://www.seasonalentertainmentllc.com/store/en/adapters/107-lor-dmx-adapter.htmlSo basically for around $40 bucks you can have a fully functional DMX network that is quaranteed to work with LOR.GregThere isn't really a "true to the spec" adapter - the LOR dongle, our HolidayCoro dongle and the Enttec Open are all just USB Serial to RS485 adapters - nothing more, hence the term that is sometimes applied to them as "dumb". These dongles have NO idea as to what "protocol" is running over them, be it LOR, DMX or for that matter MODBUS.The active dongles such as the Lynx (which does work) and the Enttec Pro are not just simple Serial to RS485 adapters - they take a DMX protocol and repeat the DMX signal and can only be used with application that are specificly designed to use them.Any application can be made to write to pretty much any serial to RS-485 adapter/dongle - this has more to do with the software than the hardware. This is why our HolidayCoro dongle works fine with xLights but doesn't work with LOR S3. We've sent a dongle to LOR in the hopes that they would address the shifted channel issue (which also affects their own LOR dongle) but nothing has occured to date.It is my understanding, based on communication from LOR, that they only support the Enttec dongles and that is what I tell my customers to purchase. I personally think running the sequences in xLights is a better option as it allows you to use pretty much any DMX/LOR output device (including E1.31) and it is much more robust in it's design - plus it has great testing routinues.We do not sell our "programmer" cable as a device intended to be used with LOR S3 - we never have, we sell it for what it is intended to do - program the start address of our DMX controllers and to work with xLights for testing. That said, again, there is no reason it couldn't work with LOR's S3 - it's just that LOR hasn't adjusted their application to work with our dongle...which is pretty much the same thing as the LOR "dongle". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmoore Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Ponddude wrote: Jon that certainly makes sense but most people who want to use DMX here don't want or need to understand that...haha. Frankly I don't blame them.Again, the LOR adapters SHOULD work as designed so if they do not you should contact LOR to get it repaired/replaced.GregHave you confirmed this with LOR that the LOR dongles work 100% with LOR S3? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I do not have direct word from anyone at LOR I just have my personal experiences. I have tested all the LOR adapters that LOR lists as supported. I have not had issues with any of them. We have been running our pixels through their paces for weeks now and haven't seen any coloring issues. However, I will state that I have no actual confirmation from LOR about this topic.Perhaps Dan or John can jump in here with their answers?Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NINtender Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Certainly I'll be ordering an Entec Pro or equivalent next year, but my budget this year, and unexpected expenses on my build force me to use the LOR USB I ordered in March for testing. with multiple channels set, it was suffering from the +1 issue. What I've done is created an export file for the layout, then when I sequence with visualizer, on my design station, I use the correct one. Once I copy them to my show station, I load each sequence with the other layout, which has the channels programmed for each RGB channel increased by one (RGB channel 1 is 2,3,4; channel 2 is 5,6,7 etc.) This fixed it. Quick short fix for this year, and lessons well learned.But in the end, everyone sees really cool lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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