Obey 40, Followspot 75ST, DMX Assistance Needed

[jr4927]

Hello,
I have a new Chauvet Obey 40 and Followspot 75ST and am having issues using DMX with the lamp. I have followed directions explicitly, address is correct, etc, and am using a Accucable DMX cable, but the light isn't responding to the controller. No light using the first slider. I do see the colors switching in the spotlight using the second slider so there is a connection and some control. I have tried everything, including polarity switching and the lamp will not respond. The light works perfectly in manual mode.

I'm hoping there is something obvious that I am missing here. And of course, we have a production in a few days and I didn't budget so many hours on such a simple rig, one spot and the controller.

Thanks for your help.
JR

 

[CraigV]

One of the theaters I work in just bought a couple of these followspots and we were having trouble turning the lamp on with our Element 60. As it turns out, the 75ST has a third channel for the shutter, which needs to be at 255 (or 100%).

For some reason, when it's profiled on the Element, this is set to 63 (not 255 where it should be).

 

[jr4927]

One of the theaters I work in just bought a couple of these followspots and we were having trouble turning the lamp on with our Element 60. As it turns out, the 75ST has a third channel for the shutter, which needs to be at 255 (or 100%).

For some reason, when it's profiled on the Element, this is set to 63 (not 255 where it should be).

Thank you! Yes. I opened the third channel fader 100% and the light now responds. I'm new to this type of equipment, but I don't remember, nor can I find now, any instructions about this in the manual. Perhaps the jargon masks them for novices like me. Anyway, thanks much for your help.

 

[CraigV]

Haha, sure. For me it was also a surprise. Chauvet doesn't really write manuals that are clear to theatrically trained people. Their target audience is DJs, I suppose.

Glad I could help!

 

[techieman33]

Haha, sure. For me it was also a surprise. Chauvet doesn't really write manuals that are clear to theatrically trained people. Their target audience is DJs, I suppose.

Glad I could help!

Yeah, the fact that it has a strobe function over a dimmer function points it pretty heavily at the dj market. And most theaters would probably never touch it with that color wheel to contend with.

 

[jr4927]

Yeah, the fact that it has a strobe function over a dimmer function points it pretty heavily at the dj market. And most theaters would probably never touch it with that color wheel to contend with.

Agreed. Those colors are...well...lets just say none of those colors are going to grace our Twelfth Night stage.

 

[CraigV]

The three channels are Intensity, Color, and Strobe. It's a nice followspot, just a little quirky. Operating it feels a lot like operating a converted Colortran, minus the burns.

We have found that R3442 (Half Straw CTS) almost perfectly corrects its color.

 

[JD]

I don't think it's a Theater vs DJ style of writing the manuals. It is more like their own way of thinking. Often, I will read a Chauvet manual several times and still have no idea why something behaves like it does! What I have found that works is that you start to learn how they think, and at some point you say to yourself, "well, they probably were trying to do this (or that)" and sure enough when you try that, it works! They just approach the design from an unexpected vector.
I find the same thing with computer software. To truly understand a program you have to get in the mind of the designer or design team and at that point the software begins to make sense.
...and then again, sometimes there are just outright omissions and/or wrong values