Still Troubleshooting Issues

[tkodarkside321]

Well, I have just about tried everything I can think of and have been recommended and the system still continues to randomly freeze up on me. I have a few test currently running and hopefully that will give me more to go off of.

However, upon doing some more digging, I found that on the initial installation of our lights, the majority of cable used were standard audio/mic 3 pin XLR cables. Apparently this is not ideal due to the rated impedance on xlr's vs dmx 512 cables.

My question is in 3 parts.....

1. Could the incorrect cabling be causing issues with the system freezing up?
2. What brand of cables do you recommend that are competitively priced, yet good quality?
3. I noticed some of the 5 pin cables we have in the chain are labeled as "dmx audio". Should I continue to use the cables labeled this way or order new cables?

Personally, I want to replace all the cabling and use cables that are recommended for the equipment. The setup is going to continue to get bigger and we will be adding moving lights soon. If we spend thousands in nice lights, we outta put a little extra money into it to get the right cables.

Let me know what you think and thanks again for the input!!!

[Jan_K]

Have you looked here.

http://www.freestylersupport.com/wiki/dmx_basics

http://www.freestylersupport.com/wiki/d ... lt_finding

/Jan

[malykazio]

Try to use good usb hub with own power supply. For me it's solution for all freeze problems.

[tkodarkside321]

I believe I may have solved the problem. After replacing all cables with DMX Accucable brand cables, we haven't had anymore issues. After examing the cables I found that we were using mostly xlr audio mic cables. One of them even had slice/gouge in it with tape wrapped around it. I was dumbfounded!!!

So far, we've ran the system in total of 10 - 12 hours without a single freeze!!! Thanks to all the suggestions and help!!

[tkodarkside321]

I think our next thing to get/make will be a dmx cable tester.

[Jan_K]

Hej again.

A cable tester will not show if it is a nic or a dmx cable.
There you have to read what is printed on the cable.

Also there is a max lenght of round 30 m. I have been in that limit a couple of times.

/Jan

[tkodarkside321]

Right right, I had to inspect each cable to find out if it was dmx or mic cable. Regardless, I ended up replacing every single cable. I simply want a cable tester for future troubleshooting needs.

[PeetuXD]

Hello. Can i ask you, how did your Freestyler freeze? Lights didn't move? Freestyler didn't do what you wanted? I have problem that sometimes lights just keep on doing what they were doing, even if i try to change cue or something. Samekind of problems?

[Uriahdemon]

Hi, I had issues like that and sought some advice. Changing the cabling for all DMX is a good move. What I also got was one of these -
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Showtec-DMX-S ... 2a259f9c64

I also made sure that at the end of each string I added one of these -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DMX-Terminato ... 2c5e030572

I have not used the rig without them so cannot say if they have made a real difference however I have had no freeze ups at all and using via Wifi with great results. Its what this and other forums recommended so hey as I was learning I went along with it.

Rgds Mac

[PeetuXD]

Hello,

Oh man, like i told, i have just known about 6 months even what dmx is, so i thought that if i buy cables from Thomann, they would be good ones. Well, now i understand that even if they sell those as lighting cables, they are not 110ohm cables. I thought that they would be good cause those were for sale in lighting cable category. And i have bought those A LOT!!

I use dmx terminator's and splitter, so the problem can't be that. It seems that those cables are only thing that can cause problems.

Hopefully i don't have to change all my cables

[PeetuXD]

Oh man, please somebody help me. I have started to get more and more weird error's. One comes when i open Freestyler, "error loading preset data, default values were loaded" and the other one comes when i open sequence creator "subscript out of range"... Do i have to re-install Freestyler AGAIN?

[Jan_K]

your "Script out of range" is that when you open the sequence editor or when you try to open a sequence file in the sequence editor.
If it is the last one then it may be the numbers of steps/ scenes in the the file. You can change that in the Freestyler.ini file.

If not then I would make a backup file and then clear the location and start on a new to see if the problem is still there.

If still there then delete Freestyler from the registration database and set the reset flag true in the ini file.

And if still there reinstall Freestyler.

There are a bit more info about this on the wiki - trouble shooting. ("Learn about FS")

/Jan