This is a bizzaro one.
First, I start my day off late, but I won't go into all that crap and them the constant time wasted windows that went by.
My 2 LTS-2 stands get populated by 4 64 LED Pros each. I run my 200-foot DMX cable and hook up DMX from my Elation optobranch/4, driven by my MyDMX dongle. Lights are working.
I then later on get my Chauvet Q-Spot 150's hooked up. Lights still working.
Now, I got my pair of Mega Panels, and I set those up at FOH, then walk them up during a break and get them power and DMX singalling. Things seem OK. I set the DMX mode up wrong, but the manual cleared that up. 7 channel mode, or DMX mode 6. I don't see why they can't use better numbers, but hey, I'm not a developer.
I add in the P64 LED UV. All is well.
Performer 1 goes on. Smooth show. Nothing major, works fine. Lights are just basic washes for now. This guy has some instructions, which is good, it's always good to have some guidance.
Suddenly, everything goes to crap. Everything is like acting like it's in it's own universe, MINUTES before the band goes on. Band has to go on to a non-controlled light show. I have no choice.
I have to disconnect BOTH Mega Panels(1 per LTS-2) to make the problem go away. I can't bypass either I have to bypass both. I power off the Mega Panels to make things stop and behave properly. I simply disconnect the DMX cables from the Mega Panel IN/Out and plug them into each other to maintain DMX continuity.
Yes, I did test all links with a very BASIC DMX test that can only show presence of a DMX singal, no sniffing or diagnostics.
So, after the band goes on, I disconnect the MegaPanels and get through solo performer 2, where I lost audio console Aux 15 or at least anything being able to send to it outside of talkback. Muddle through performer 2's lights. Audio was spot on, the dude was killing!
So, now comes my Repo! show, where lighting is critical. I have to plug it all back up and hope for the best.
It f***ing works... Oh thank goodness! A day of tech issues resolved. Lights work flawlessly during that preview performance.
Now, 1 MegaPanel is new in box, the other is what appears to be an open box item, flawless best I can tell, at least in appearance. If I was to point blame, that's where I'd start though.
While trying to fix the lighting issues, I restarted my laptop without the dongle plugged in, power cycled off all lights, even power cycled the optobranch/4. Nothing made the problem go away until I had unplugged those Mega panels.
Any clues as to why things went to crap and then came back fine later? NO cables where changed, from USB to DMX.
All cabling is Accucable DMX cable. All tested good. DMX Terminated HAD to be used, and was used.
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