Automated Fixtures LED Altman PHX 250w and Phillips 155 Par Zoom

[RickR]

A slow DMX speed may increase the 'stepiness' of fades. Since packets arrive under 20 times a second rather than 40ish times, timing in general is rougher. Keep in mind that good old 60hz power makes a lot of flicker at 120hz, 3 times fast DMX! 20 times a second isn't so fast it's invisible. If the fixture has built in smoothing then it won't matter.

Ironically most LEDs have trouble with long slow fades rather than the quick ones. A slower DMX rate will effect faster fades more so you may not see any change.

 

[robartsd]

The DMX standard does not require that all 512 possible addresses be sent. If your console only outputs DMX through the highest address patched in a universe (I believe this is how most consoles behave) and the highest address used is 127 then even "slow" DMX canrefresh values about twice as often as a full universe runing at maximum speed.

 

[JD]

I can think of a project/product for Dr DMX, a handheld DMX analyzer. Something convenient to use that you could patch into the last fixture (instead of the terminator) and it would tell you the perimeters of the DMX it is seeing along with the level of background noise. Would be great if there was an error/trip freeze-frame (Like a OBD for a car.) That way when a chain threw an error you could see if anything was captured. If not, you would know you have a bad fixture.
Right now, most of us use the divide/conquer method, mixed with process of elimination.
Hey Doug, Fleenor, sound feasible?

 

[DavidNorth]

The DMX standard does not require that all 512 possible addresses be sent. If your console only outputs DMX through the highest address patched in a universe (I believe this is how most consoles behave) and the highest address used is 127 then even "slow" DMX canrefresh values about twice as often as a full universe runing at maximum speed.

Good catch! Indeed some, but not all, consoles truncate DMX. Trying to save processor ticks by outputting fewer channels is a software trick used from time to time, typically on older and/or less expensive consoles, and yes, I have seen it.

FWIW, ETC consoles for as far back as I can remember [Expn 1, 1986], do not truncate this output even when only a few outputs are patched.

David

 

[RickR]

I can think of a project/product for Dr DMX, a handheld DMX analyzer. Something convenient to use that you could patch into the last fixture (instead of the terminator) and it would tell you the perimeters of the DMX it is seeing along with the level of background noise. Would be great if there was an error/trip freeze-frame (Like a OBD for a car.) That way when a chain threw an error you could see if anything was captured. If not, you would know you have a bad fixture.
Right now, most of us use the divide/conquer method, mixed with process of elimination.
Hey Doug, Fleenor, sound feasible?

The GIZMO does much of that for good data. Bad data is pretty hard to read, I suspect only an oscilloscope would do it all.