Kozak
Member
Hello all!
I've just got done doing lighting for an event at my church, and something is bugging me. I'll keep is short and to the point: (maybe not)
We rented a fancy board (jands vista s3) and fancy moving lights, and we used the permanently installed lights in the venue. We plugged into the existing Dmx input to control the conventional lights (venue lights) using a separate universe, ran a 100 foot cable from board to input.
Problem 1:
Dmx cable faulty (or too long? ), lights flickered, but I still had control of what I needed...
Main problem:
Issue arises when I switch back from jands s3 to the etc express. (By the way: It worked perfectly when I showed up and tested if the light breakers were on). When I plug the Dmx lead back into the board, after I was done with my show, the lights didn't respond to it. I turned the board on and off, but still got no response from the lights. I assumed that there maybe still be some interference because of the faulty cable I used before, so i thought there may have been a signal still jumping around in the dimmers or something. (Btw, it still didn't work even when I turned the dimmer rack breakers Off and on.)
Then I thought there was a connection issue between the cable's pins and the boards connector, so I lightly touched the pins with my finger, then I plugged it back into the board and it worked perfectly.
Question 1:
How bad is it that I put my finger on the Dmx lead? Can a short happen this way (because of static or anything else)? (I took a lighting class recently, and this was never mentioned, so I'm pretty sure it's harmless?)
Question 2:
How likely is it that the jands lighting board, or the faulty cable could somehow cause the house setup to react this way, because of signal interference?
Thank you for any input.
I've just got done doing lighting for an event at my church, and something is bugging me. I'll keep is short and to the point: (maybe not)
We rented a fancy board (jands vista s3) and fancy moving lights, and we used the permanently installed lights in the venue. We plugged into the existing Dmx input to control the conventional lights (venue lights) using a separate universe, ran a 100 foot cable from board to input.
Problem 1:
Dmx cable faulty (or too long? ), lights flickered, but I still had control of what I needed...
Main problem:
Issue arises when I switch back from jands s3 to the etc express. (By the way: It worked perfectly when I showed up and tested if the light breakers were on). When I plug the Dmx lead back into the board, after I was done with my show, the lights didn't respond to it. I turned the board on and off, but still got no response from the lights. I assumed that there maybe still be some interference because of the faulty cable I used before, so i thought there may have been a signal still jumping around in the dimmers or something. (Btw, it still didn't work even when I turned the dimmer rack breakers Off and on.)
Then I thought there was a connection issue between the cable's pins and the boards connector, so I lightly touched the pins with my finger, then I plugged it back into the board and it worked perfectly.
Question 1:
How bad is it that I put my finger on the Dmx lead? Can a short happen this way (because of static or anything else)? (I took a lighting class recently, and this was never mentioned, so I'm pretty sure it's harmless?)
Question 2:
How likely is it that the jands lighting board, or the faulty cable could somehow cause the house setup to react this way, because of signal interference?
Thank you for any input.