Dimmer's on the fritz

[metti]

I am working with a school that currently has 4 channel chauvet dimmer packs for their system. they are acting really weird and sometimes turning but not always or turning on a bunch of lights together when they are only receiving DMX to turn one on. I know that this type of dimmer isn't really good for much more than DJs but the money isn't really there this year to replace stuff and if there is some way to nurse them through until the summer when they can buy a more suitable system than that would be good. Any thoughts on what is causing these problems and/or how to fix them.

[MNBallet]

also need to know what DMX board you are using. My first thought is that these packs can be set so that it has 1, 2 or 4 dimmers. Is it possible that it's set in the 2 mode, where what's labled 1 & 2 are linked, and 3 & 4 are linked?

The second thing to check is that your DMX adresses are lined up. It's possible that your lightboard is sending multiple channels on one fader? knowing how your trying to control these dimmer packs makes a big dfference in trying to help you.

Kenneth Pogin
Production / Tour Manager
Minnesota Ballet

[church]

normally these are reasonable enough dimmers and you can pay musch more money to get basically the same thing in a different box. They are sold for a price and do not have any frills.

having said that as was mentioned above they can be programmed to operate in different ways: 1, 2 or 4 dimmers and also as switch boxes. Make sure that they are configured correctly and that you have the DMX addresses correct.

If the DMX LED is flashing then you know it is receiving DMX. When I have this this sort of thing happen I usually go back to reseting the dimmer to work from DMX address1 and wor from there. Some of these have the DIP switches and some you address by pushing a button and watching the display change.

I also know that some of these allow you to reverse the channel assignments - this is used by small bands and DJs using PAr cans on stands where they have two stands in front and two stands behind. It is useful when you don't have soft patch on your board. However you vcan be caught by surprise because channel 4 on the dimmer will respond to slider 1, channel 3 responds to slider 2 etc.

The other thing you sometimes find is that you cannot fully dim a fixture to zero. This can sometimes be fixed by using an opto isolator between the board and the dimmer pack.

Anyway as was said earlier more details will help.

good luck

[BillESC]

Two other things come to mind.

1. Check your DMX cabling. A cold solder joint on a neutral can cause all kinds of unwanted flashing, blinking etc.

2. Try a lower refresh rate on your controller. Chauvet's gear doesn't like fast packet rates.

[JD]

Most of my complaints about Chauvet and Elation 4-packs have to do with the Triac size, and line cord/power switch code issues. Those things aside, they really are a pretty good bang for the buck! They tend to work very nicely. I would suspect set-up or patching issues in this case, as compared to an actual failure. As was said, go over the cables as well.

When a Triac goes, the light usually comes on full and stays on, so the fact that things change around puts them in the clear for the most part.

[metti]

I have tried them with a Zero88 frog, a super simple elation six channel thing, and a Chamsys MQ100Pro an they exhibit the same issues with all three. I tried swapping around cables, resetting the addressing, and checking the channel modes. None helped. In the chase mode they operate as you would expect them too.

[JD]

Try using one pack with one cable on the Elation board, with terminator. Some of what you are saying reminds me of what happens when you have a reverse polarity cable.

[metti]

By reverse polarity do you mean that one of the cables was wired wrong with two of the pins swapped?

[JD]

Yea. 2&3 swapped a one end so that pin 2 on the male is connected to pin 3 on the female etc.