Need help with lots of issues of running Dmx with LOR

[big joe]

Hi everybody Big Joe here!!  Ok- so here's what's happening---- this is my second year with LOR ( trolled around for 3 years so i do think i

 

might have somewhat of a clue of what to do... but not in this case.) ok. i originally bought the 16 ch. starter kit . ran that last year, no

 

problems. (raised 61 lbs. for the local Food Pantry, and was also on the local news for my display) in the off season, i've been

 

programming for 3 additional controlers and also for two RGB Floods. So last week i went and bought the Rainbow Flood Extreme (2), the

 

LOR to DMX adapter, a swichable 12.5 amp AC/DC Power Supply, the Blender and two 10 meter waterproof cables from Seasonal

 

Entertainment ( the power supply came from Skycraft)         Hooked it up as follows- USB 485 to LOR /DMX, cat-5 to Blender,then onto

 

Flood Extreme 1, then Flood Extreme 2.     i didn't buy a new rs485, because i figured i would use the one i have already, so i went to

 

network config. and changed it to run in DMX.   at first i set the address on the first flood light to 1 and the second to 6. when running a

 

sequence it seems that the second flood is all over the place ( isn't running blue when it should be blue, it is off and also when only

 

flood 2 is on, it sometimes flashes red when nothing is programed to run on flood 1)  Thought it might be the light and swiched them

 

around but it still does the same thing .(yes I changed the DMX address when I did this)   then I tried setting up the address with the +1

 

thing. That didn't work either. Then I thought ok, I'll change the address to a high number because maybe it's getting feed from the other

 

channels or something and set flood light 1 to address 24, and flood light 2 to address 17.  That didn't work. Then I thought maybe the

 

drivers on the rs485 needs to be updated and I think I did that but not sure.  Tried to load with the cd, then ended up going to lightorama

 

and found "install latest drivers for rs485"        side note- I 'am getting a little orange box in right hand corner telling me that "no comm

 

set", but I think this is because in network prefances, I selected "none" on the LOR side of things. Also when I was in Network

 

Prefances in advanced, the little box that said something about old controlers was checked orginally with last years show, I did uncheck

it so just the top box is now checked  SO>>> I got it narrowed down to the things I don't know--      1.     On the power supply- it is

 

adjustable. I didn't check it from the store, I figured that it should always be

 

putting out 12volts no matter what, and it wold have to be turned almost to off for two floods not to work. ( when the Floods do come on,

 

they are very bright!)        Has anybody ever checked if these power supplys come turned down from factory?      2. This has got to be

 

an address issue --- is this not working becuse I don't have a seperate rs485 for the LOR side?   3. ???????   I really need somebody to

 

call me and spend some time to talk me though this- 715-218-1295 my cell.    3. Considering sending this all back !!

       sorry for the long post been working on this for 3 days!!

                            BIGJOE

[iflights]

Just so I'm clear, is the 1st Extreme behaving perfectly as you'd expect with the sequence playing?  If so, then you're in good shape with DMX signalling.  If not, that's where you'd start debugging. 

 

If the 2nd Extreme is where all the problems are?  These are 5 channel devices.  If you are setting the 2nd one to channel 6 as the starting channel, that means 6,7,8 become your RGB channels, Channel 9 is strobe on/off, Channel 10 is strobe flash duration.  Is there anything else in the sequence that might be addressing channels 6, 7, 8, or 9,10?  Perhaps in a different track?  

 

Also, is the on-board terminator jumper set on Extreme 1?  it shouldn't be if you are daisy-chaining these, but it does need to be jumped on Extreme 2 just as a matter of good practice.

[big joe]

iflights- thanks for responding!!!      ah , no... the first extreme isn't working right either- here's what it did - i read your post and checked to see if the terminating jumper

 

is only on one side of the pins on light 1., it is.,  the terminating jumper is on both of the pins on the 2nd Extreme. i then went and unplugged the 2nd. extreme and ran a

 

test just showing red, green, then blue its all over the place does not stay steady at all. i expected with these things that they would be smooth transistions with the

 

lighting color changes. um, i never played with differnt tracks yet, so don't think that could be an issue, i did set it up like you say with 1 being red, 2 being green, 3

 

being  blue , 4 being on/off , 5 duration.  also went back and made sure chs.4 & 5 & 9 &10 are off in the test.  ???? anything else?? thanks for helping , i haven't tried to

 

get a hold of greg yet (seasonal entertainment)  also the power lights and the green dmx lights on both units are on ( power one steady, green one blinky)

 

                       BigJoe

[iflights]

The problem looks to be DMX signalling in my opinion.  I've only used an Enttec dongle with the Extremes and all 11 of mine work perfectly daisy-chained with it.

 

I researched your config a bit.  http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/26678-stupid-question-on-dmx/?hl=usb485#entry251883

 

Seems like others have used the USB485 but have had problems.  Also, you might want to confirm you have the Advanced version of the software to use DMX, Otherwise, S3 will let you configure for it, but will not actually output DMX.

 

I think this is where you'll want to spend your time.  The devices themselves are probably fine.

[big joe]

Thanks iflights, i did what you said and check on the software, and i do indeed have advanced with superstar demo.  and also a little update-- today i disconected

 

everything and started over and set it all up again, even opened an animation only sequence and they both don't want to show the color blue or any color that look like

 

blue or purple. even when told to stay on one color (blue) constant they shut on and off.  also made sure i was registreded with lightorama, don't know why i had to do

 

that again--- where do i buy one of those Entec Dongle thingys?

[Dennis Laff]

You can use the holiday coro acti dongle for dmx

[big joe]

thanks Dennis, i was just looking at those.  i was out in the garage just now and thought mabe this cat 5 e i got hooked up isn't right so i went and bought a standerd cat-5 to check... i gots to know... so here it goes...

[big joe]

nope. didn't work. i guess i will order that dongle that iflights said to use... need this here yesterday... all programming is at a standstill until i get this working.

[big joe]

just ordered the holiday acti dongle for dmx. shipping time 1 to 4 days. we will see if this fixes it, thanks for everybodys input, i'll let you all know if this works or if i can think of anything else..... back to building mini-trees for now.... Big joe out-------

[Steven]

I used 2 RFX last year with a multi-port blender and an ELOR. They worked perfectly. Since the ELOR optimizes channels in groups of 3 (RGB), I set the RFX's to DMX addresses 10 and 16.

[big joe]

ah steven- i don't know what you mean by RFX's and what is ELOR?

[Ken Benedict]

Don't know what a RFX is, but here's the ELOR: http://www.sandevices.com/ELORinfo.html

[Dennis Laff]

you don't need the elor with light o rama anymore

[big joe]

oh ok thanks ken, and ponddude.

[Ken Benedict]

you don't need the elor with light o rama anymore

 

Actually, you do if you want to run a light show without a PC, as in a turn-key commercial setup.

 

Running from an MP3 Director without any Ethernet or networking, it will give you E1.31 and a spare DMX channel. And audio.

 

Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

[Steven]

you don't need the elor with light o rama anymore

That is true, but there is an advantage to using the ELOR over the built-in E1.31.

 

Because the ELOR offloads the DMX processing from the show machine, the shimmer effect is faster and consistent, and fades are smoother. (At least compared to the show player running on my 2000's Windows XP machine.)

[big joe]

hey everybody!! Big Joe here!!!   well i got it working!!!! yea!!!  here's what i did - i got the acti dongle from holiday coro, installed the latest drivers, and still had nothing -

 

i was getting dmx out and all the way to the rfx's ( because i could see the light blinky-flashy inside) then as a last resort upgraded to 3.9. that seems to have done it.

 

only thing now is when i play the sequence, i always go and make sure "control lights" is checked, then when it plays nothing is happening, until i go back while it is

 

playing and the box is not checked do it again and it will work. nice and brite lights greg!!! hope this dosen't become an issue come showtime. any thoughts people? thanks go to all that tried to help!!       Big Joe