Control/Dimming Lights configured the same but acting different?

T

Toadie

Member
I have two Chauvet Vue 1.1 LED lights hooked up to a DMX 40 with some Chauvet Omega 1's. I've verified that all the lights work, all the DMX addressing is correct, and that individually I can control all the lights. Here's the odd thing...

Light two, channel 3 (DMX 33) looks like it's in auto mode due to the fact that it keeps flashing through it's routine. If I take control of channel three and run through the R,G,B sliders I can get it to stop blinking. As soon as I take off the manual control though it goes back to blinking through the routine. Oddly enough though if I go into programming mode I can make it stop blinking, switch to another light and it will stay off :rolleyes:

Light six, channel 7 (DMX 97) turns on and goes dark until I activate it manually. Everything functions normally, I switch manual control off and the light goes dark again.

Can anyone tell me what would cause this to happen or what makes them do this? All other dip switches are set to off, the lights appear to be identical and configured the same in every way.
 
Is there a chance you could have accidentally added something to the scene without realizing it? With the DMX-40, it's hard to know exactly what it is doing at any given time. It could be trying to send data to another fixture and this is overlapping your Vue.

(Sorry if that is confusing, I am hungry and not functioning well. ;) )
 
I didn't mean to offend you. I'm not very familiar with the board you are using, Is there a pre-programmed effect set? If there is, how is it controlled?
 
ah sorry Jordan I must have read into it. I belong to other forums and I know the pain of noobs who don't do the work themselves so I guess I took it personal thinking that I was one of those lazies lol.

So here's the deal, I don't believe any signals are being sent. I've erased all the all the chases, and most of the banks as I bought this system from someone else. Music mode is off so I don't believe there is any traffic being sent. The other reason why I think this is that all other lights aren't doing anything but maybe this is something...

Channel 1 I'm not using as I intend to hook it up to a dimmer pack
Channel 2 is an Omega 1 - Comes on as a white spot (not sure why)
Channel 3 is the blinking Vue 1.1
Channel 4 is an Omega 1 - Comes on with an orange Gobo (not sure why)
Channel 5 and 6 are Omega 1's - and both stay off until activated, and go back to off when I leave manual mode.
Channel 7 is the other Vue 1.1 and works like I would expect, off, on when I go to manual mode, and then off again when I switch off manual mode.

When I start up the system I turn on the controller, wait for a bit, and then turn on each light in order since I wasn't sure if DMX needed to be started in that fashion or not.
 
Just trying to cover all bases, I'm assuming by "Channel 1-7" you are referring to the buttons on the left of the controller and not the actual DMX channel, correct?
 
Sorry yes you are correct. My DMX scheme is inline with the manual, sixteen addresses per channel.

Channel 1 address 1 - currently not in line, removed completely to take it out as a factor
Channel 2 address 17
Channel 3 address 33
Channel 4 address 49
Channel 5 address 65
Channel 6 address 81
Channel 7 address 97

Here's some more information and stuff I tried. I began wondering if maybe the dip switches weren't what they say there are so I changed them. Dip 10 on both units seem to have no effect in either position. Vue 1 still blinks, Vue 2 still shows no light, and in both positions DMX can override either dip setting.

I also noticed that Vue 1 only blinks Green Blue, no Red if that makes a difference.
 
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Have you tried moving the lights to different possitions in the DMX chain. Take the first one that is working and swap it with the last one that isn't, then see if everything stays the same. Sometimes lights won't pass the DMX properly and corrupt the data. You can try adding a terminator just to see if it changes anything.
 
I know you have read the manual/have done some homework/having an understand of DMX/etc., but for the sake of making a troubleshooting method this assumes nothing except you understand the basics or less of DMX/fixture programming.

1. Double/Triple/Quadruple check that you have the dip switches properly set for the address each fixture should be set to. Even after check number 5 I've found a fixture improperly addressed, or seen an experience electrician address a fixture wrong because they had dip switch directions for on/off reversed. It can happen to anyone so check it again.

2. This is me assuming you read the manual, but stating it just for the sake of reiteration/ double/triple checking. Dip 10 on the Vue should merely turn auto standalone mode on and off. I would recommend setting it to off. On the Omega it merely inverts pan and tilt. Set it to whatever you would want.

3. The Omegas are easy. As long as they have a DMX signal they should enter DMX control mode. Using the faders 1 through 4 on your DMX 40 for the specific control channels, you should be able to work them. WHAT I AM NOT SURE OF, is if the Omega will pass DMX through in a daisy chain fashion. I can tell that the first Omega in line is capable of acting as a Master, but I do not know if this happens in DMX mode or not as I haven't personally worked with them, only researched their manual.

4. The Vues are slightly more difficult. Channel one MUST be set to a DMX value of 24 or lower. This means less than 9%. As the DMX 40 doesn't seem to have built in profiles for fixtures, it just utilizes 8 hard faders/16 virtual faders to adjust values, you must make sure that you are especially careful with the first DMX channel for the vue and what fader it is mapped to. The same goes with DMX channel 6 on, as dimmer actually means as you raise the value of the DMX channel the light will get less bright.

5. The Vues may not properly pass DMX through in a daisy chain fashion either. Again, I do not know from personal experience, I just can't tell from the manual.

If neither unit properly daisy chains for the DMX protocol, they may be expecting that units after them are in successive 1-4 or 1-6 increments. This may result in some of your problems, as they might be trying to slave units that don't correspond to this layout. Without a diagram of the physical cabling, and a working knowledge of how the units respond to DMX, I can not begin to address these issues.
 
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Not a huge thing, but some of your nomeclature is off and it makes it a bit harder to read for some of us...
Where you are using the word channel, the word bank would be more conventional. That way channels are DMX channels...

As to the problem at hand, my guess is possibly a soft patch quirkiness in the console. The only copy of the manual on Chauvet's website is in Spanish, which I don't speak...
 
Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.

The manual I'm reading is the DMX 40A which is in in English but you're right Chris, for some reason the DMX 40 manual is Spanish. Thanks for the tips on the terminology as well.

jglodeklights and mstaylor, I'm going to try everything you suggested as well. Bank 1 is open so it's no issue for me to pull the lights down and run each from that position as well as stand alone fixtures.
 
It sounds like one of your questions is " is it the board, the fixture, or a problem with dmx signal degradation"

You might try swapping the addresses of your two vue's. IE put light two at dmx 97 and light six at dmx 33. If the behavior tracks the fixture, that takes you in one direction. If it tracks the dmx address it is more likely in the console.

Another possibility would be to get something like the entice USB pro, connect it to a PC and use their utility to see what dmx values are going out over the wire.
 
Well that is weird... so it's fixed but I'm not sure I understand why. Here's what I did...

I took the working Vue Channel 97 and hooked it up to the controller as a standalone device. Since the DMX 40 has pre-assigned channels it was Bank 7. Worked fine. Term, no term, everything worked fine. Then I decided to try some of the advice below and changed it to channel 1 and it freaked. Same symptoms as the other Vue. Basically I went up from there by channels in increments of 16 to match the controller and the first one it liked... 97. So basically if I had put this anywhere else in my chain both Vues would have worked the same way and I would have thought that's just the way they are.

Then I took the second light down, channel 33 and sure enough same symptoms as a standalone as I get when it's in the chain. Jump to channel 113 Bank 8 and no more symptoms. So it would seem from my experience that the Chauvet Vue 1.1 doesn't like DMX channels that are less than 97. Now I just need to build a couple new cables due to the fact that my run has changed.

Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated.
 
You do know that the fixtures don't physically be in the same order as their DMX addresses, right? When you mentioned building new cables, it just made me wonder.
 
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