Switching DMX wires?

[Tibby]

Hi Freestylers. I bought a dozen of the 7x10 watt Chinese moving heads (Stagg Headbanger clone) for my rear light truss. I had 12 of the same thing made by Lixada on there for the last two years, but all the red leds are burning out. Thought I'd try a different brand. As soon as I plug these new lights in and assign a DMX channel, they respond for about 5 seconds, and then reset......stay on for 5 seconds and reset. This goes on indefinitely. I thought I read on this forum a while ago about a problem with a certain Chinese light that required you to switch the + and - around on the DMX board, or something like that. Does anyone recall this? I searched the forum, but couldn't find anything. I'm getting desperate at the moment because I have a gig this weekend and want to get them functioning. I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks!!!!

moving head.JPG

[remco_k]

I don't think swapping polarity would be a good solution.

Try a DMX terminator at the end of your chain, before trying anything else. Those cheaper units might be more sensitive to cable issues. (Are you using proper DMX cabling? Or just regular mic cabling?)
If that still doesn't work: try connecting ONLY one of those lights to your DMX output with a short DMX cable and see if it works properly. Depending on those results you can continue searching for a (proper) solution while building up and testing your DMX chain light by light, cable by cable.

[remco_k]

Or... Maybe there's just a problem with the fixture file...

[Tibby]

Thanks remco_k. My first thought was the polarity issue when I plugged them in, because I read about that somewhere on the forum. But you are correct in diagnosing the fixture file. The Ebay ad said these were 14 channel just like the ones I had. So I had it in my mind that I was just gonna address them as before, and they were gonna work. Even the manual shows a picture of 10 or 14 channel operation. In reality, they are an 11 and 15 channel fixture when you read the actual DMX addressing chart. Rookie mistake thinking these would be plug and play. I'm still trying to get the existing fixture file in all my 80 programs to work with this new fixture, by editing the fixture file. Otherwise I fear I will have to reprogram all 80 programs, which took a couple months of nights after work. I'll keep working at it. Thanks for the reply!

[remco_k]

I'm afraid chances are that you'll need to reprogram all of those 80 programs. :-X