Bizarre Fog Machine Behavior

[LesWilson]

Thanks, I'm leaning toward the Unibar but came across this non-DMX solution. https://www.stagelightingstore.com/relay-packs/97303-adj-airstream-wifi-pack

 

[sk8rsdad]

The Chauvet Hurricane Flex is a 1400W load. The ADJ Airstream wifi has a 600W per circuit limit. Powering the one from the other is going to let out the blue genie that makes the electrons flow.

 

[LesWilson]

Yikes. The Unibar is only 10amps.

 

[LesWilson]

Leaving another bread crumb... Most $100 units are 5A per channel and a scant few more are more money and 10A but those won't handle the Chauvet Hurricane Flex's inrush of 1400W. Geez. I did find one with open air relay: The ETC CSR-D that has wireless variants in addition to wired DMX. But that's clocking in at $250. Thinking DIY more and more.

 

[Ford]

Take a look at the Synapse 4 from Chauvet Professional.
https://www.chauvetprofessional.com/products/synapse-4/

 

[LesWilson]

Thanks @Ford. I was wondering if Chauvet had a 15A unit!. Looks like a well thought out professional unit. Especially the mounting options and DMX sensing. It makes me rethink leaving my 10 LED Pars powered up all the time. However, they are distributed across 3 electrics each with 4 20A circuits of their own power.

Unfortunately I don't have the budget and I'm $120 into wasted replacement circuit boards sooo a single channel DIY DMX Relay or bailing on the whole thing and throwing breakers is looking pretty good right now...

Now a two channel fog machine with a built-in DMX controlled power relay would be a nice product feature. Please feel free to steal the idea for the next revision of the Hurricane. Better yet, a stand alone product so we can all get our machines off these dimmer circuits!

 

[JChenault]

Take a look at the Synapse 4 from Chauvet Professional.
https://www.chauvetprofessional.com/products/synapse-4/

Re the Chauvet unit. I have a couple and some things I like a lot, some things not so much. Thought I should share.

What I like.
You get four separate relays. You can set delay on and off times for the relay. This means that you can avoid any issues with inrush current by staggering the start times a bit.
The built in DMX splitter is quite nice.

What I don't like.
The unit is not really designed for hanging in the air. It is designed to go in an equipment rack or on a shelf.
There is a clamp available for it, but the thread size for the bolt to attach is ( I believe) metric.
If you are hanging it, you can't adjust the rotation exactly. IE to make the large box line up with your pipes. This is due to the mechanical way the clamp attaches.
Getting the safety cable to attach is a bitch ( attachment point very tight)


All of that said - they have been performing very well for several years for us.

 

[LesWilson]

EPILOG:
Meteor has a single channel DMX controlled relay (makes a click and everything). Much more $$$ than I wanted to spend.

http://www.meteor-global.com/new/products-2/light-stands/dmx-relay/

I picked one up on eBay and it solved the bizarre behavior. Period. It's 3-pin so if you are 5-pin DMX like I am, you'll need do some cabling. The DMX addressing scheme is one I hadn't run into however. The switches are not binary as you can see on the printed chart. It's explained in the manual but basically the DMX address is 1 plus the binary number indicated by the switches. EDIT: The binary number created by the switch is bit swapped so the least significant digit is on the left.

 

[derekleffew]

The DMX addressing scheme is one I hadn't run into however. The switches are not binary as you can see on the printed chart. It's explained in the manual but basically the DMX address is 1 plus the binary number indicated by the switches.

Not that unusual. HES Dataflash, and I think other products from Chauvet and Martin, used the same scheme.