Ponddude Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I need a little help here. I bought all this DMX stuff because I knew I would find it nearly impossible, and I was right. Let me explain what I have going on here.I got the iDMX. My original one was broken and as per usual the outstanding customer service from LOR got me a new one to my house in 2 days. The new one works fine...as far as I can tell.Now, I also got one of my DMX lights in, the Chauvet MinSpot. I have configured the iDMX, using the "E0" unit ID that it comes with. I power up my moving spotlight, plug in the DMX cable and made sure that the DMX address of the unit was "1". The LOR HU finds the iDMX and when I enter the console I put in the unit idea of E0. I also set my moving head to only 5 channel operation (at least for now). When I use the HU or the short sequence I have created in the SE, I don't get anything happening on the DMX head. I tried the polarity switch on the iDMX and one again nothing happened. Am I doing something wrong? Does anyone have a MinSpot that can help me out?Personally, I think the light is broken, but please confirm this before I go a hurt someone at Chuavet.Any help would really be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Jones Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 make sure the cable is plugged into the correct connectors. The male end of the cable into the iDMX and the female into the fixture. - this is a very common problemAlso make sure the shutter is open - channel 3 on the MiN Spothow are you powering the iDMX? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Will the light work in stand alone (auto mode) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 iDMX is powered via a controller. The controller is working, I get the status light blinking and solid.The cabling is also correct, I checked that about 12 times...lolHow do i go about checking if the shutter is open? How do I get to channel 3 if I can't get any commands to the unit at all?Yes the unit works in stand alone mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Jones Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 try changing the unit id on the iDMXi had issues with one when it ws factory set to E0 - changed it to A0 and it workedwhat version of lor are you using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 I'll change it right now...I am using 2.1.6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 I changed it and still get the same result.The light is funny. When it is on the DMX universe, after about a minute the light spins around into one particular spot and scrolls through all of its colors and gobos. Once that happens I have to reset the controller.Any more ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Go into LORs test console and set the unit id to your idmx1000's id and click "all on" and see if the light responds to anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Jones Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 is the fixture self terminating? do you have a terminator installed?the moving and spinning of gobos, etc is usually a calibration step that occurs at power uphave you updated the firmware on the iDMX?have you tried the iDMX by itself with no controller? ( you will need a 12v wall wart) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 Hmmm...I am not sure if it is self terminating. Does anyone know if the Chauvet Min Spot is self terminating?I also haven't tried updating the firmware, which I will do.The spinning gobos and colors are very interesting. The fixture has a "DMX heartbeat" light. When it is plugged in, the light initially does nothing. Then, after about a minute it does a complete 360 and begins to stutter in one place with the gobos spinning. The heartbeat light isn't blinking as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstein Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I was looking at the manual http://www.chauvetlighting.com/products/manuals/minspot_ug-104.pdfon page 13 you should be able to change a setting so you can test the min spot in an auto mode to make sure it is working properly. i just got an intimidator 2.0 in today and im fixing to try it out in a bit. how bright does the min spot look? i was leary of getting that because a couple people have said that it is not bright enough for them but others have liked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstein Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I also found this about the terminating [align=left]Termination reduces signal errors. To avoid signal transmission problems and interference, it is always advisable to connect a DMX signal terminator.[/align] I think that if you do not have it sitting around a whole bunch of other electronics it should be okay, but if you have a transmitter on and cell phone and all kinds of stuff around you might need the terminator. but besides that i do ot know anything about the idmx. i do not have one yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 So far the light is extremely bright. The real reasons for buying this so early was 1. learning the DMX world and 2. so I could begin sequencing. I want to put the light outside and figure out how far it should pan and tilt. So far, that hasn't been going so well.I will get a terminator tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Jones Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Ponddude wrote: So far the light is extremely bright. The real reasons for buying this so early was 1. learning the DMX world and 2. so I could begin sequencing. I want to put the light outside and figure out how far it should pan and tilt. So far, that hasn't been going so well.I will get a terminator tomorrow.you can make one - it is a 120ohm resistor across the data pins 2&3. solder to a 3pin xlrWhat cable are you using to connect the spot to the iDMX? Check the cable to verify it is good ( pins not swapped or pin 1 grounded out)As i never have powered the iDMX from a controller - I would think there may be an issue with the controller not supplying enough power to the iDMX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 Well this story just keeps getting more interesting.When I got home tonight I jumped back in. If I switch over to 13ch on the DMX light then things were working great, just like they should be, for a while. Then, I go and get a drink and come back and the light has put itself into self destruct mode and is stuttering, flipping through all the light colors. Now I know it is not the light and not the iDMX....both are clearly doing what they should be.Tomorrow I am going to get a wall wart and a terminator and we will go from there. Thank you everyone for the great help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Roberson Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I ran my idmx all season powered from a controller with no problems at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I did quite a bit of testing with my iDMX powered from just the USB485B... Two separate iDMXs ran the whole season just powered from adjacent controllers, but in both cases, there was less than 5 feet of cable from the controller to the iDMX, and there were multiple controllers nearby that could contribute power...I will say that it appears that some DMX hardware is just as robust as LOR about running without terminators, to the point where they aren't even recommended, and other hardware just about requires termination...Also, if the fixture is acting like termination is an issue, it might also be a good idea to look into DMX cable instead of microphone cable.. The O-ring sealed outdoor DMX cables I'm using aren't cheap, but they do seem to be a first rate product... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medman2000 Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Maybe you said this already, but did you try changing the polarity on the iDMX? I had this exact problem at our Hospital display - after a few days and every test I could think of, I read a small blurb about polarity in the iDMX. Flipped the switch on the iDMX, everything worked perfectly. And then I kicked myself for wasting 2 days.Good luck!medman2000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 Well after about a whole day of troubleshooting I have come to the conclusion that it is my light that is broken. Several things happen that lead me to this conclusion. I did everything that you people told me to try...bought a wall wart, added a terminator, updated the firmware, move the light away from anything that could cause interference...I even bought a 45 dollar cable...nothing changed how the light functioned. I know that the iDMX is working fine because for the few seconds that the light does work, it works fine. There is a signal light on the Min Spot that should blink steady when it is receiving a signal from a DMX controller. That blinks in very odd patterns. Usually it isn't even on at all. This tells me that it just isn't getting the signal. What is even more interesting is when the terminator isn't installed the light has more of a chance of getting a signal. When it is in, it never gets a signal.I am going to call Chauvet on Monday and see what they say. Thanks everyone for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medman2000 Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Does the light work when it is not connected to the iDMX? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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