Just can't get freestyler to act right.

[steve lynch]

OK, here's my dilemma.....

I have 4 lighting computers...

Macbook pro running bootcamp 2 gig ram xp
Compaq laptop with 3ghz turion 2 gig ram xp
IBM thinkpad pentium 4 2 ghz 1 gig ram xp
quad core AMD 3 gig ram xp

I have both Enttec Open DMX dongles, and Velleman dongles.

Here's the deal.. I'm using the following fixtures....

6 Elation design Spots
4 Revo III
16 Chauvet technostrobe RGB
20 Chauvet Color Palettes
1 200 mw Green Laser
4 ADJ Accu Scans
4 Martin MX4
3 Martin Wizard
1 Martin Wizard Extreme
2 Chauvet Color Strips
1 Martin Magnum Hazer
1 Martin Atomic Strobe
4 ADJ Spectrum LED

I rarely if ever use all of those at once... that's just what I have in the arsenal.
I have been using Sunlite as my main system for 5 years.. I have also been using freestyler for about 3....

All of my fixtures work properly in both sunlite and light jockey... They also behave with my hardware controllers...

Here's the deal.....

My Chauvet color strips.... they work fine in sunlite, LJ and with my board...

they do not work right in Freestyler... The built in macros are working properly, but the rgb color mixing is a mess.. the lights strobe and flicker constantly and erratically when they should just stay lit... cannot figure it out... It doesn't matter which dongle I use...

Here's my other dilemma...

I have a laser with 7 channels..... on my hardware controller, channels 1-7 do what they're supposed to do. in freestyler, I have to create a 10 channel fixture to get it to work right...

channel 3 5 and 7 end up being blank channels.....

why doesn't it match the hardware controller? Also, the 10 channel fixture file works ok, but only with the velleman dongle..... With the enttec dongle, rotation, zoom, and other features of the laser do not work... it will seem to catch for a second, then go back to freaking out....

I have adjusted refresh rates in 10 ms increments with a reboot in between on 3 of my machines...

I'm using a 3 foot DMX cable with a terminator and a single fixture...

I've tried 4 different brand new dmx cables...

I mean, what gives??? why is freestyler no longer keeping up with Sunlite and LJ and hardware?

this is ultra frustrating.. I've been working on this for months with one of your Freestyler gurus, and he's also at a loss...

is there a way to capture dmx data from my sunlite, or board, and then capture the identical data from freestyler, so you could analyze it and see what's not matching up??

the whole deal with having to make fixtures with extra channels is what's really killing me....

Thanks a ton!

If you need any additional info, please just ask...

[remco_k]

I am sure remco_k will possibly have something extra to say about this.

Yep:
"What you wrote, is about what I should do".

Earlier this week I decided to put my knowledge about this subject onto the wiki pages:
http://www.thedmxwiki.com/dmx_usb_inter ... m116_k8062

[djSupport]

Does anyone think this is a recurring FS 3.x problem and that it lies in the coding of FS thats slowing it down...?

[steve lynch]

I am not a programmer, so I'm not really qualified to make that judgement...

However, I can say that back when I was using version f, everything was fine... Version J started getting weird, and 3 has been giving me problems.. I understand the dongles may be part of the problem, but the fact that they're all recently misbehaving leads me to suspect that something in fact has changed in the coding..

[remco_k]

So maybe switch back to one of those older versions to confirm that? That could me important information.
Previous FreeStyler Versions

[Diggler]

I am currently using COLORstrips with version 2.95f because I haven't had the time to redo everything in the newer version.

I can confirm that RGB color fading is a flickering train wreck. I can only use the chase sequences and strobing.

I am using the ENTTEC Pro DMX interface it's not the interface slowing it down or messing it up.

[remco_k]

That version has a 50 msec refresh rate between sending each new DMX range. So fading with LED's will be flickering all the time, no matter what interface you are using.

You really should try the 3.0.1 version, where you can set the refresh to as low as 20 msec, resolving many, many problems like yours.
And then there is the interface, but we know the Enttec USB DMX pro is good enough. So there you are right.