Control/Dimming Having Problems with My DMX. show goes up in three days.

[jjdrummer]

I'm working on a small scale show of Disney's "Frozen" and since it is small scale, we're using American DJ's My DMX Software to run 32 LED Units, 14 incandescent units and 4 moving lights. Everything was working perfectly (with the usual number of 1-2 hour bugs,) until all our LED RGB Pars, (36,56,64) stopped working with the scene-builder function of 'My DMX.' They all still work with the faders, but it makes programming a pain in the everything. Not sure if there is a lock function I have to undo, as this is not my usual control system.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[FMEng]

If the lights all work via faders, that pretty well rules out a converter or DMX hardware issue. That leaves software and operator.

 

[jjdrummer]

thank you @FMEng . We got everything unlocked in live mode, which was a bit of a hassle, but the color wheels work fine now.
Another problem we're having is after 10 minutes-3 hours the lights go crazy. we have all 50 units on one universe, so we're going to try a DMX terminator, so we're gonna get that at lunch, but does anyone have experience with a problem such as this? the lights just bug out and strobe and chase.
Is a DMX Terminator a good solution? or is there something else we should try?
-Jared Jacknow, Award nominated Lighting Designer... but not programmer extraordinaire.

 

[Footer]

Do you have any optos or repeaters on the line? DMX is limited to 32 fixtures per leg. That could be a part of your issue.

 

[xander]

Do you have any optos or repeaters on the line? DMX is limited to 32 fixtures per leg. That could be a part of your issue.

Technically, DMX is limited to 32 load units. The console is included in this count. There are many new DMX chips out there these days that have a rating of 1/4 or 1/8 load unit, thus allowing more than 32 devices. However, it is hard to determine what chip is in your product without opening it up, so it is best to just assume each device is 1 load unit. Therefore, as Footer has said, you really should put a opto/iso in your system to ensure proper operation with no output having more than 31 devices (as the opto chip counts as 1). Terminate each line with the proper 120ohm terminator.

-Tim

 

[BobHealey]

Technically, DMX is limited to 32 load units. The console is included in this count. There are many new DMX chips out there these days that have a rating of 1/4 or 1/8 load unit, thus allowing more than 32 devices. However, it is hard to determine what chip is in your product without opening it up, so it is best to just assume each device is 1 load unit. Therefore, as Footer has said, you really should put a opto/iso in your system to ensure proper operation with no output having more than 31 devices (as the opto chip counts as 1). Terminate each line with the proper 120ohm terminator.

-Tim

I've had issues with long runs where I couldn't have 12 devices on a chain. I don't remember exact path, but terminating chain in middle and running another universe out to resume that chain solved the problem. Do remember it was a Road Hog 3 with ADJ Accuscan 250s, 5 HES Trackspot Bolts, 1 Antari ICE-100 fog machine, and a Wybron PS-150 with 4 Forerunners attached to it.

 

[wolfman005]

Sounds like your USB->DMX is the problem of the cutout after time. Make sure you don't have any screwy power saving modes turned on your computer. MyDMX is not something I'd ever wanna use because as you've seen it's reliability is not that great.

Also make sure you have the latest firmware and software but definatly back up your show to a external drive of some sort in case it blue screens your PC.

 

[gafftaper]

I'm working on a small scale show of Disney's "Frozen" and since it is small scale...

Beware. The mouse can get very angry over unlicensed productions. Your fun little small budget gorilla production could cost your theater group a LOT of money.

 

[porkchop]

Beware, the mouse can get very angry over unlicensed productions. Your fun little small budget gorilla production could cost your theater group a LOT of money.

I was thinking the same exact thing. They spend a lot of time and money to search through social media and look for any and all unlicensed use of their intellectual property. They go as far as having long lists of which characters are and are not allowed to be tagged as the performer on Facebook.

 

[gafftaper]

You are taking a huge risk of both getting sued and also getting your theater company blacklisted and unable to produce legitimate productions in the future. Furthermore, I would guess that in order to protect it's extremely valuable current property (as well as the yet to be created musical they will someday sell) Disney is likely to be extra vigilant about watching for rogue productions of Frozen. My advice to anyone considering it is run away, FAR away, from working on blatantly illegal productions.

 

[josh88]

The company my school bought went bankrupt and shutdown (before the purchase) for that exact reason, they were doing adaptations of Disney stuff that wasn't out yet and they didn't have the rights to. Their logic was "it's just little stuff for kids it's ok yeah?" And Disney sued them and then they got checked out by MTI and caught doing more unlicensed stuff and were fined and blacklisted out of existence.

My department head still can't get MTI licenses because she worked for them at the time and they had applied for things with her name and she's still on their no fly list.