OptiPar LED's and Show Designer 1

Two things come to mind. First are you using a terminator on the end fixture as the manuals describe, Long runs like you mention very well could cause exactly what you are describing. If you are, then what I would do is disconnect all the lights except the first fixture and see if that works. If no, then either your first cable has gone bad, or you are running it very close to some power cables, florc lights, transformer or something that could be interjecting noise into the wire (For long runs, be sure your using a good, hign quality SHIELDED cable. If yes, plug in the next light only and try again. Keep goijng down the line until you find the trouble light or wire. (dont forget to move the terminator to the end fixture)

If you have a bad wire, you know what to do. If you have a "bad" fixture, check the settings of the dipswitches and be sure that one of them is not in the "master" setting which could be sending its own information through the same wire causing confusion.

Lastly, completely unplug your controller (from the controller side) but leave your lights (dmx line) hooked up. Do the lights still act strange? If so, your fixtures could be going into audio mode. Some fixtures will go into automatic mode if it looses a dmx signal.

If not, then all thats left if your controller configuration. double check your settings.

greg

Oops, too quick on the send button.

This may sound strange, but If you ARE using a terminator, unplug it. I know it goes against the grain, but I have found it did fix a few problems. Some fixtures have a "built in" terminator. Adding a second causes problems.

Keep in mind that not all lights have all the "features" I mentioned. This is just good general troubleshooting steps for DMX wireing.

greg

It hasn't been mentioned, but should be said:

Use DMX cabling and not microphone cabling. The impedence is different.

Although I am running mine just fine through 200-feet of XLR mic cable through my 56-channel snake, I am looking to do a 200-foot run of DMX 120-ohm 3-pin DMX cable when budgetting allows.

Thanks for all the advice. As it turns out, the LED parcans were pretty simple.

ADVISORY: IF YOU HAVE OPTI-LED PARCANS, YOU MUST RUN UP CHANNEL 7 FOR THEM TO WORK!!!

yeah that would be the main dimmer channel. study ur user manual. lol

Yup, read those manuals. I had the same issue wiht my Color Fusions: There's a master dimmer channel, and sepparate channels for the red, green and blues, which are lower priority than the master dimmer. Really, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense to do it this way, but when you're using them for the first time and under the gun, man, it's trying!

Read manuals. Make cheat-sheets. I have a "show binder" I carry with me to each show, giving me notes on all gear that I need assistance with remembering funky settings. Serves two purposes: First, the intended purpose of saving your behind at the event. Second: By doing that work, it helps bury it into your brain a little more. You may still forget, but you'll remember you have a cheat sheet on it.

Mine are real simple: Fixture, channel listings and descriptions. Pretty much a re-hash of that section of the manual.