Enttec OPEN DMX loses connection at random moments

[lightman1990]

Hii,

First of all, sorry for my bad Englisch grammar.

I'm using Freestyler for some DMX lights in my basement bar. It works great and fits supper in my needs. But for some weird reason is the DMX signal lost at random moments. I need to close and restart Freestyler DMX and it works again.

Things i tried to solve my problem:
- Install latest enntec drivers
- Disable USB sleep and powersaving options
- Used another USB cable
- Tried on another pc(all windows 10 but shouldn't be the problem?)
- Installed all latest drivers for pc hardware
- Installed all windows 10 updates

I use a bit older PC with windows 10 pro x64 installed and a dual core processor with 6GB of DDR 2 ram so i think this should also not the problem?

Does some one have the same problem or a solution?

[DJDaveSA]

Try using a dmx optical splitter. I had problems with power surges Eg using a big smoke machine, that would sometimes make my enttec drop signal.

[Partyman]

Go into device manager and select each USB hub, then select power management and make sure the checkbox that allows it to disconnect to save power is unchecked. Do this for each usb hub

[lightman1990]

I tried the folowing:
- Unchecked the "disconnect to save power" option for each USB hub in device manager
- disabled the "configuration for selective usb disabeling" in the powermanagement menu of windows
- changed the usb cable
- tried another pc with windows 7, did same steps for this as for win 10 pc.
Nothing solved my problem.....

If i restart freestyler dmx, it works fine again for a sertain time.... I'm not sure but as far as i know is the time before it breaks each time different.

Extra info about my light equipment
- 2x quadgem LED
- 1x RGB laser DMX
i want to fix the DMX problem before i want to buy new equipment.

Does someone have other suggestions i can try to fix the problem? Is it the enteq open DMX dongle or is it the software?

[lightman1990]

EDIT: Sorry double post...

[Partyman]

Must be the dongle because I run all day with no disconnection issues. I use mostly Enttec Pro dongles but do have an "Open" that I use rarely.

[lightman1990]

So Partyman,

if i understand well, you are using the same dongle rarely without special configuration to you windows installation or freestyler?

Can you tell me which windows you are using and which version of Freestyler as the problem is still not solved.

Thanks in advance!

[Partyman]

I have installed dozens of Freestyler systems without problems with Windows XP-10. I do not do anything other than install the correct Enttec drivers and the suggestions above. I have been been using various enttec devices with no issue for 10 years. My guess would be that you have a bad driver.

[Nathanrs93]

When you're updating your drivers is it via the Enttec website or windows updates?

Please make sure it's NOT via windows updates as it messes up your drivers. It happened to me when I first started. Make sure it's updated from the actual website.

[Newalli]

Also had this issue. However, it turned out that in my case it was Windows 10 shutting down the hard drive after 20 minutes.
Right click 'Start'
Power Options
Additional Power Settings
Change Plan Settings, Change Advanced Power Settings. & then change the HD time out from 20 mins to never.
Good luck....

[lightman1990]

@Newalli

I did not use my light equipment for a long time but i need it this weekend so i checked this topic again. And also in my case, Windows shut down the HDD after 20 min (i missed this setting in the power settings). I set this to never now and it already runs fine for about 1 hour now. I think this could really be the issue.

Thanks for your post!

=========
UPDATE: The problem is solved by disable the HDD shutdown. (tested on Windows 7)
=========

[lightman1990]

To re-open this topic, i did not use freestyler and my lights for long time. Unfortunately i noticed that the problem still exists..

I did some research and figured out that some devices drop USB signals for very short time which can result in problems with the dmx output. It resets to 0 or something???

It seems that this problems can be solved by using a dongle with an FTDI chip. I bought an Eurolite Pro DMX interface and hope that it will solve the issue. It seems that the buffer function of the chip solves it.

If it still does not solve the issue i'm thinking to exchange the interface to the opendmx pro version as it advertises with buffering.

I keep the topic up to date