ETC Elations

[shakenblaken]

I am the master electrician on a show that uses 2 Elations, 6 LED Moving Heads, and 8 k9 pups which are addressed correctly, but when I put in a DMX line into the 6 moving heads and the 8 pups one of the moving heads is not functioning correctly. And when I put the line in with the Elations everything messes up which I don't know how to fix this situation. Can anyone help? I know it's the Elations that are causing the problem

 

[techieman33]

2 elation what's? My guess is that it's not the fixtures, it's a bad cable. If your problems occur when you plug data into the "elations" then I would suggest you swap all the cables going in and out of them one at a time and see if replacing one of them makes all of your problems go away.

 

[Brandofhawk]

Without specifics on the unit types, the console used, signal chain, what the units do SPECIFICALLY that is "messed up" it makes it a little bit harder to diagnose. These are the things I would check.

Are they addressed correctly in the board? Are you sure you have the right profile selected?
I know that some profiles in the EOS software are designed to have certain addresses set to different levels automatically. For a mover it may set the pan and tilt to a home position automatically, but if something is misaddressed, it will be sending that same information to the fx wheel or similar. Since it is more than one unit messing up, probably not this.

Check each Unit for correct settings. Is the matching profile you have in the board set (most elation units have an extended mode for example)? Is the unit set to a sound activation mode? Is the unit in a slave/master setting? Do you get control of each unit if you plug them in individually?

(as techieman suggested) Cable maybe the issue here, are you using 5 or 3 pin DMX cable? Did you use some 3 pin MIC cable instead? There is a difference, most of the time you will not see anything bad happen, but every once in awhile something funky does happen. (It has to do with ohms / resistance / shielding and other things that I know about enough that I know it causes issues, but not enough to know what needs to happen.)

Something else to consider may be that you are extending your data line farther than is suggested. 1000' is considered the farthest you can go TOTAL (including units) on a single line of 120 ohm DMX cable (the standard).
http://www.dfd.com/dmxbasic.html

It could be that the line is reflecting signal for some reason - a terminator may help.
http://www.dfd.com/whyterm.html

DFD also has this to say (by Milton Davis)
"When absolutely everything in a system doesn't work except for one piece of equipment, it's probably that one working thing that's causing all the other problems."

Good luck!

 

[rsmentele]

Also, are you using 3 or 5 pin dmx? If you are using 3 pin, are you sure its DMX and not mic cable?

 

[shakenblaken]

I started with 5 pin DMX then switched to 3 pin to the first light then started using XLR mic cable because the theatre ran out of DMX

 

[TheaterEd]

I started with 5 pin DMX then switched to 3 pin to the first light then started using XLR mic cable because the theatre ran out of DMX

Odds are, you just found your problem.

 

[rsmentele]

DING DING!

 

[robartsd]

Did you use some 3 pin MIC cable instead? There is a difference, most of the time you will not see anything bad happen, but every once in awhile something funky does happen. (It has to do with ohms / resistance / shielding and other things that I know about enough that I know it causes issues, but not enough to know what needs to happen.)

The correct term is characteristic impedence. A change in impedence along the line causes part of the signal to get relfected. The impedence of mic cable is not the same as the impedence of DMX cable. The longer the run and faster the data rate the more likely the reflected signals will be a problem. The terminating resistor at the end of the line prevents the reflection that would otherwise occur by being electrically equivilent to the line continuing an infinite length without a change in impedence.

 

[icewolf08]

Also, depending on which Elation fixtures you are using, you may need to turn off RDM on the DMX outputs you are using. I have a couple Elation PowerSpots that get all kinds of bent out of shape if they are on a line with RDM enabled. It took a lot of time to solve that issue...