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Man, i can not seem to get a break from this issue. It seems to keep coming back to bite me in the butt after i 'resolve' it. Anyone else having this issue?

Each time i go to the Editor or go to another program or window, or even change a scene, the program goes to a blackout, with the exception of one light, for which goes to a green (chauvet par 32 proLED)

Any suggestion is helpful. I have thought it to be a driver issue, reinstalled countless of times, went into sys32/drivers and sys32/driver cache etc., and found that this fixes the issue only temporarily.

NOW, one possibility is my LOVELY youth pastor decided to, without consulting anyone, install chauvet's lighting program (show express). I uninstalled and removed its drivers, seeking the driver installers and believe to remove them as well. Could this be the issue?

Any suggestions would be helpful.
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Yes, that is the release i have. I installed a fresh new one on another laptop, and experienced the SAME issues. The only thing in common is lights, release date, driver edition, saved show. So it HAS to be one of these issues. Can you think of any other things in common? They are different makes, different OS's, Different processors, video cards, etc..
J1,
First and most important questions.
1) Do you use a terminator at the last fixture of your run?
2) Are you using DMX cable or mic cable? There IS a difference, and although many times you can get away with Mic cable, it can cause weirdness with DMX.
So most importantly make sure you have a terminator on your last fixture. Then make sure you are using DMX cables, not Mic cables. Also you may want to try to duplicate the results hooked up to one fixture at a time utilizing different cables. You may find out you have a flaky cable in there. I'm not pointing blame, just trying to help you troubleshoot, and eliminate all possibilities.
It can also be your USB cable and/or Interface box.
Ha dont worry, im not going to protect my equipment from slandering. To me, all of it is the culprit until proven otherwise.

We do have a terminator, and a backup terminator and the cables should be DMX, but i will double check and try the backup terminator.

Just ruled out lighting cables and terminators. No fix with different cables and etc unplugged the feed to out main lights and did a separate feed to some extra LEDs and it did the same effect.

It has to be a program issue or dongle issue. Getting our backup dongle about 4 pm central, so i will update then.

Any other thoughts? Another thing i noticed: In order to reset the DMX output, i have to unplug the USB cord, not the DMX XLR. To me, this either indicates the dongle is screwing up the DMX values it is sending, or the driver is reset each time i unplug it, and it is a driver/program issue. Any thoughts?
Last edited by Former Member
That's a long line. you might want to consider getting one of these: http://www.elationlighting.com...gory=DMX%20Solutions
This will help boost and stabilize any signal loss you may have occurring. Also one way to tell is if you look at the rubber insulator on your cable and it says shielded data cable it's DMX if it does not it could be audio. I'm thinking maybe this issue is a combo of both software and long cable run without using a splitter/booster. This would be why no matter what PC you run it on it happens. Would like me to explain to you why my dmx would be a very good candidate to have a booster put on the line? Let me know.
Sincerely,
Sweet ill look into that. That makes logical sense, i didnt think that length would be a factor, but now i understand. This issue popped up after we installed about 100 feet of new lights. I guess it would have been helpful to mention that - ha. Thanks for your help Jingles and DJ Stevie Ray.

So to use this, i would have to send the PC DMX output to it, then send four seperate sends to 4 section of lights?
Last edited by Former Member
Yup it is a DMX splitter. so you would go out from my dmx interface to the input on the opto and then you have outputs of the same one dmx universe the my dmx is outputting. The reason for the degrading signal is due to the fact that the my dmx is being powered via USB power whereas a Console would be getting power from a 120 volt wall outlet. so to make up for the lack of power to the dmx line a booster is a good solution. And you also just helped reinforce what I tell a lot of people after 100 feet you can get signal loss. Thanks!
Sincerely,
Also i have another thing i would like to ask you about.
Under another venue name, we own about 60 LED cans, 20 LED pallets, 14 Moving Heads, and some effect lighting. (Its a large concert setup)

We are looking for a new program to control these lights. We started out using myDMX, but that is not working as well with such a large setup.

Our lighting guys want to stick with a pc controller, but im considering both pc and consoles.

What would be the best route to take? I can email you about this if you would like.

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