LOR +1 channel frustration

[mmkooiman67]

Hello All,

This is my 7th year with LOR but my first year with DMX. I bought 30 of those small 3 channel contollers to control a bunch of RGB strips. I used the Holiday Coro programmer to set the start addresses. I assembled all my control boxes(controller,power supply,etc). Now I am testing and I am having all kinds of issues. I have some controllers, but not all, that are flickering on fades, but not on solid colors. But my biggest quondry is some of the controllers I have to do a +1 on the start channel and others I don't. This wouldn't be a big deal but I have three controllers that are supposed to be channels 4-6, and one works like that and the other two are 5-7. I am using the LOR usb45 dongle and version 3.4. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance,

Mark

[JonB256]

Get a "real" DMX dongle. Either Open or Pro. They put out cleaner waveforms in the required Break signal needed to start the channel count.

The USB RS485 dongle just doesn't work as well. Yes, it works and some will tell you they have no problems. But being off by one channel is not acceptable and not dependable.

[ShaggySS]

I spend hours in my garage trying to get the Holiday Coro programming dongle working on more than one element. Here is what I learned.

1. Plug your controller into lights when programming them. Make sure after you push the button to write the channel config the lights go out for a second or two. If they don't its not programming. The LOR USB connector can't be plugged in when programming.
   
2. Make sure you have a 100 or 120 ohm resistor at the end of your controller string between orange and orange white.
   
3. If you are doing the power injection method over CAT5 make sure you test your connection all the way though. Most importantly your orange and orange white strand. To do this I use a very simple method. I hooked up a multimeter to a long piece of CAT5 cable with one end cut off and when I completed the circuit it beeped. So I would test after my first controller and if I heard a beep i moved onto the next. If I had a problem it was typically those CAT5 splitters. I had the old model which I concluded are crap. I got my continuity tested all the way though 17 controllers.
   

After that I made sure they all lit up and cycled though the default programming. Once that was done for the hell of it I ran a sequence and to my surprise it worked. After I would guess about 6 hours fiddling I took the time and tested all aspects and it just worked. My real dongle should be here soon but for now I have a working show.

[jerrymac]

Agree with JonB256. Holiday coro programmer is not intended or sold as a dongle, Save your sanity. Get an Entex PRO, works everywere with everything out of the box everytime.

Sovled my issues immediatlly.

[mmkooiman67]

Thanks for the responces. Enntec Pro it is. Don't have much confidence in the LOR dongle.

[Tim Fischer]

Are you sure the devices are set to the starting ID"s you think they are? It seems very unlikely that any dongle would consistently output incorrect DMX information that is always 1 off, but only in certain cases.

[rmturner54]

After setting start address, I use xlights( a free utility program) to test and make sure that only the addresses I programmed will turn on an rgb strip.

[mmkooiman67]

I also used Xlights after setting the start address and it showed correctly. Let say I set the starting address to be channels 4 thru 6. In Xlights I verified it and it worked fine. But when I hook it up to the LOR dongle and try it out it is working on channels 5 thru 7. I know this has been an issue with some people but what has got me bugged is that the +1 channel is only on half of my 30 dmx decoders, the other half stay with the programmed setting.