Control/Dimming EOS DMX Speed/ Meteor Elipscan

[Pie4Weebl]

Hey All,
Another EOS/ION question for the board. I've got a half dozen Meteor Elipscans Meteor Light and Sound Company for Discotheque Lighting and Disco Effects - Theatrical Lighting which are as old as dirt, and when I connect them to DMX they all start making clicking noises, I have a sneaking suspicion that slowing down the DMX speed will solve this, but I can't seem to find that setting on the board.... Also we have a Net 2 or 3 system, if that makes any difference. And yes they are terminated.

 

[icewolf08]

As a user of Elipscans, I can say they are the most finiky units ever. Do you have them set up correctly? I find that it always takes me at least two tries to get them addressed right, and when you feed them bad data, they go wonky. Also, you have to make sure that the speed channels on the units are up or they don't do much. The ones that I have make lots of noise all the time.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

This is try #3 at addressing! They all respond just fine, they just click frequently when idling, much like a VL1K sounds like when it resets.

 

[FatherMurphy]

Since you linked to the Meteor Ellipscan page, I assume you've already looked over the instructions pdf available there. I'd suggest calling Mike Burnett at Meteor and going over your concerns with him.

If the units are responding to DMX and panning and tilting as desired, you have them addressed properly. They either operate on DMX or as standalone bump-to-music, so there's no other protocol you could have accidentally set them for.

The clicking you describe reminds me of some old ColorWiz scrollers we have - the midrange pots are constantly going out of adjustment, and the scroll will jitter back and forth, hunting between winds on the feedback pot. It might be that your units are getting worn/corroded and thus are second guessing themselves as to where they're supposed to be aimed.

Another possibility is that the fifth channel, the relay channel, is floating back and forth across the 127/128 values, and the relay is cycling, producing the clicks you hear. Something intermittent in the relay circuit (bad solder, loose wire) could also produce that effect.

 

[derekleffew]

When they "just click frequently when idling" does the mirror twitch/move?

Back to your question,
On the ETCNet2 DMX node, under "DMX Node Output Port Properties," is:
• Port Speed
Port Speed sets the DMX output port’s refresh rate via a pull-down menu to Maximum,
Fast, Medium, Slow. Refresh rate is (on average): Maximum=42Hz, Fast =39Hz,
Medium=35Hz, Slow=30Hz.

from ETCNet2 Network Configuration Editor (NCE) v4.3.0 User Manual, pp. 44-45.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

There is no visable movement.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

solved, not quite sure how, but we fixed it.

 

[Footer]

Whenever I use elipscans I park the speed channels and just go from there. I agree with the addressing thing as well. I hate dip switch address where they don't label the +1 -1 thing. Elipscans work... just not great.

You might also want to check to see if the "DJ Mode" switch is thrown on any of the units, I have done that one and it throws some really weird things on the line. As far as the resetting thing goes, the second they lose DMX they start randomly moving. I have no clue why, but its what they do.