Thread: DMX Basics

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HI, all, been a while, this thread and discussion has just been brought to my attention and Ill try and help out where required, sorry, but my life has changed a little over the past year and I no longer have the time to devote to Halloween that I used to have.... but Im stil available to address DMX support issues (especially DMXorcist related)

I've not read this thread entirely, one question that got raisd was the difference between the open and pro enttec, yes processing power sums it up, as the Pro has processing power and the open doesn't (zilch, zip nada, sod all)

The open works using the PC processor which is fine for simple stuff, but as soon as you complicate the system and start to overload the PC then the PC doesn't have enough power to drive the DMX stream and it gets erratic, because the Pro has its own processor its immune to this issue.... DMXorcist can address both open and Pro.

Ill try and monitor this thread now I know its here, I tend to monitor all old threads, its when people start new ones that I tend to miss


Phoenix

Oh yeah Phoenix! Nice to see you here. I understand this stuff fairly well now but very shaky on diagnosing problems.

Missed you by the way

If you are having trouble connecting to a simple light try a broadcast test

lets say your light is set to channel 32 and has 5 channels

In VSA setup channels 32 to 40 (enough to cover the range and then some

For each channel set it to braodcast a continuous signal of 200.. check your documentation that this signal on all channels will give an output of some kind

Check the settings on your device make sure that its set for DMX control and not audio or slave control

Play the VSA routine, ans see if you have light

If no light then check you have a termiator

If still no response you may have a reverse DMX device, open the plig and swap the wires on pins 2 and 3 and try again

Make sure you are using DMX cables not audio cables

If you do get an output then experiment with the channels to check which ones control what, the manual should be treated as a guide, but be prepared to fins that channels are 1 or 2 places out from where you expected them to be

I'm using VSA v4.002 on Windows XP. AMD Athlon 3000+ 2.1ghz, 512MB ram.

VSA recognizes that DMX Pro is present as in the Port settings, it displays 2 additional options when the DMX Pro is present. It shows ENTTEC-0 and it shows COM10. Other users of Enttec Pro have different COM ports show up but I don't think this is the issue. Enttec's troubleshooting page says that the port number may vary.

After much testing, I have determined that for some reason, a DMX signal is not being generated.

With the DMX Pro connected via USB to the computer and via a 5 pin male dmx to 3 pin female dmx cable (about 8" in length), to a Matrix DMX Dimmer pack. The dimmer pack is set to receive DMX (no standalone routines). It is set to receive at address 1. (VSA is set to 0 (but I have also tried same event on the first 5 VSA/DMX channels). I have a 3 pin female connector on the DMX out of the Dimmer pack with a 1/4 watt 120ohm resistor soldered across terminals 2 & 3. The DMX dimmer is set for 1 channel operation and I have a test lamp plugged into channel 1. I have been unable to get the lamp to respond and the DMX signal led on the dimmer pack shows no activity when playing events. I tried swapping pins 2&3 as suggested, still with no success.

The VSA values I'm using in the settings are as follows. Track 0, enabled. Name=Dimmer, Type=DMX Dimmer, Port= ENTTEC-0, Address=0, +value=255, -value=0, Default=0. I duplicated these settings for the first 5 channels in VSA except for address. Track 1 is address 1, track 2 is address 2 & etc. I created events on all 5 lines. I tried both pulse and linear bar type events beginning with a value of 0 and ending with a value of 255. No luck!

Originally Posted by buckaneerdude

Hmm, no luck so far. I did notice though that the dmx lights I got are 5 channel lights. The first channel is for strobe, the second is for overall brightness and then 3,4,5 are red green blue.

Here's the instructions I got online:

DMX mode:

he 120-LED-86 is a 5 channel dmx light so you start DMX value 1. Set dip switches #1 & # 10 on the first fixture to the on position. Dip switch 10 is on to tell the light it is in DMX mode and does not have a value. This will allow the first 5 sliders on your controller to control the first light. So now set the next fixture at dmx value 6 which is dip switches #2 & #3 & #10 to the on position. This will allow you to us sliders 6 through 10 to control the second fixture.

On your DMX controller:
Slider #1 is:
0-15 = Off
16-79 = Strobe, slow to fast
80-159= Pulse strobe (fades out and back to bright, slow to fast)
160-255 = On
Slider #2- Brightness, low to high (controls overall brightness).
Slider #3- Brightness of the red LED’s
Slider #4- Brightness of the green LED’s
Slider #5- Brightness of the blue LED’s

Hi, I am new to the boards here and hope I can help, I had a similar problem like this which really was not a problem until I figured that I had to create an event for power to the DMX light to turn on. I see in your above post that on your first slider (don't know what channel you have it on) however you may want to create an event for that channel to be on when you want one of your led channels to be turned on,brightness, or strobed.

I hope this helps.

PS. Terra, your posts have really saved me in last years Halloween pertaining to DMX. Just want to say Thank you!

Terra helped me go through all of the settings and we were able to eliminate a lot of stuff as possible problems. We decided that for some reason, a DMX signal was not being sent. I suspected the Enttec box but what it turned out to be was the version of VSA I was using. I had version 4.02 and I needed 4.021. The folks at Enttec responded quickly to my inquiry and advised me to download their utility software which installs firmware upgrades and then allows you to test signals sent from the utility software to your DMX devices. When I ran the test the light responded perfectly so I turned to Brookshire. I didn't see an upgrade or update for any VSA software so I downloaded the demo version. The demo version worked. SO, I downloaded a new version of VSA, installed it and all works well now. I just have to figure out how to get my lights running like I want. So many options....

I'm getting a little better at this DMX stuff. I've had a few hurdles to jump over and each time I come away knowing a little more. I thought I'd share a video of where I am today with this. One of the reasons we wanted to use DMX this year was to try and direct people's attention to the main character when he is talking and to another particular character at the end of the skelly routine. We also wanted to have some time with a thunder and lightning storm and graveyard sounds and such.

Because of how I have the skelly heads mounted on pieces of plywood, I couldn't make enough space between the characters to get the separation of light I wanted, but you get the idea of what I'm trying to do.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B0kXlayvN8]YouTube - Grimsley & Friends.mp4[/ame]

Oh, that's great and I love the lightning storm at the end. Fun to watch and this must have been a lot of work so far. So many skeles!

Oh I so want to learn to do this stuff now.
is there doing animation for Dummies LOL?