will enttec pro fix flickering LED's?

[fcprod1]

I currently just purchased open enttec usb and my 4 colorsplash jr's and chauvet derby-X flicker. However my 2 ADJ dynasty scans do not flicker at all when i run them through FS. Since the enttec pro has an onboard processor, will this/should this correct the flickering. I have tried different address' and cables and nothing seems to fix the flickering.. However, when i run just the colorsplash's and derby-x alone (not connecting the dynasty scans) they do not flicker at all. its just seems to happen when i connect the dynasty scans. Please help.


I am running the most recent version of FS.

[remco_k]

Sounds more like a level problem (your USB port may not be delivering enough power or voltage). If you keep on sending the same DMX data for all fixtures and disconnect the scans and then your colorsplashes work good, then it has got nothing to do with an processor (or not) enabled DMX interface. It will most likely not solve your issue because the problems source is somewhere else.

Try connecting you Enttec USB adapter via an external powered USB hub. If that don't solve it, try connecting the USB adapter on another computer to see if it works there. If so, get a complete new USB interface card for your computer/laptop that has this issue. Proved to be the solution in this topic:
Smart Scan 2 Not working to standard! Please Read

Also keep in mind that you should terminate your DMX line at the end. Not doing that, could cause this kind of problems.

[fcprod1]

Well isnt chauvet lights made her in U.S.? i dont know myself. I am using all named brand lights ADJ & Chauvet's. I know Chauvet isnt the greatest but its not a cheap brand either. I will try what u guys are saying and hope it works!!!!! I really like the ease of use of freesyler and it would suck if i cant use it because of this stupid issue. Any one else could share some thought on this topic i would appreciate it.

[kikabyte]

This will be the interface refresh problem I’m sure…

So when the LED’s are plugged in on their own, they work fine yeah?

Do a test for me… plug in the LED’s ONLY.. now alter the colours etc.. do they work correctly with no flickering??

NOW.. play with the colour’s etc, as well as playing with all the other fixtures you have in freestyler.. (you don’t need to have them plugged in or anything, just operate them in freestyler)

Do the LED’s (that you do have plugged in) start to flicker??

[fcprod1]

Thanks for your help. Ok did what u said, LED's do not flicker when i change colors. Played with all the other lights only in freestlyer and still no problems with just LED's hooked up. As soon as i plug in the ADJ dynasty scans is when the flickering occurs. Any other suggestions? I have tried different cables different addresses and same result.



It has been suggested that i buy a express USB card and that should help and i hope it actually fixes it. I found one pretty cheap so I have bought one so i'll let you know the results. I also talked to my local DJ pro audio/lighting store and i asked him for a terminator and he said unless i am running very long cables (which i am not)then i MAY need one otherwise it should have no effect on anything . Its soooo confusing.

[remco_k]

I also talked to my local DJ pro audio/lighting store and i asked him for a terminator and he said unless i am running very long cables (which i am not)then i MAY need one otherwise it should have no effect on anything.

Then they never had any problems theirselves or got very very lucky all the time. And they are actually right. It SHOULD have no effect on anything.

Its soooo confusing.

Its not:
You can compare using an terminator to wearing a seatbelt in a car.
Most of the time, the thing is useless, "it should have no effect on anything". But then, one day or one very little moment in time, you get an accident. Could be your own fault, could be someone else bumping into you. THEN you need that seatbelt and it has effect on anything, or else, you are dead.

Same goes with the DMX512 terminator. Most of the time small DMX512 universes will work flawless when not using a terminator. But also with short cable runs you could have weird problems. Exactly like yours in fact. Source of the problems is always interferences or bad/cheap fixtures.
They can occur a little, or big time to no responding fixtures at all.
The DMX terminator is easy to make yourself if you can solder. Solder an 120 Ohm resistor in an XLR male plug between pins 2 and 3. There, you have created your own terminator. Plug it into the last fixture and you are done. Peace of cake.

Not using a terminator takes risks along, also with small DMX universes, although the risk is small. If you have a live show, it could all be working great while testing and programming the complete system.
Then the show starts, people coming in, they all have cell phones. Airco's and many other equipment is started that were not running at that power it does now. Now your DMX line suffers way way more interference as it did few hours earlier when no one was there. Here is the risk: worst case scenario: the DMX universe stops working at all. (although I never ever heard about that). But it could have more strange flickering or times that fixures don't respond.
At this point, you can't reach your last DMX fixture to plug in the terminator, as it hangs about 4 meters above the fully crowded floor.
So thats why I always use a terminator, even when I work with the smallest DMX setups: 4 Movingheads, 4 PAR64's, 1 Martin Atomic 3000 strobe.
I like taking some risks, but not this way. I just need a DMX universe to work flawless, reliable and fast. So do everyone else I think.

[fcprod1]

ok guys to give u an update,

I bought an express card and still the flickering occurs, and i put the terminator on and still have flickering! I am just about out of ideas. Any further help would be great.

[remco_k]

ok guys to give u an update,

I bought an express card and still the flickering occurs, and i put the terminator on and still have flickering! I am just about out of ideas. Any further help would be great.

It seems to be that some of the fixtures are 'bad'.

[fcprod1]

When i have the leds hooked up to the scanners with out powering the scanners on they do not flicker. I want to make sure that you guys know that the leds do not flicker at all when they are hooked up. They only start to flicker when i connect them to the scanners and they are powered on. Are u saying that the leds may be bad or the scanners and why do they not flicker at all when i have them conncted to my Chauvet dmx controller. Any more help would be appreciated.

[remco_k]

Maybe you have some kind of a ground loop situation?
Meaning that a current starts flowing between your scanners and LED's, at the moment you power on the scanners.
You can measure voltage between those fixtures between each pin 1. (Volt, AC) When no XLR DMX cabling is connected.
Should be near 0.

[remco_k]

Don't think that is the case, I understand that if he runs a DMX program, and while running connecting and disconnecting the (or power on/off) units makes the problem go away, or come around.
That has nothing todo with timing issues on the computer because nothing changes there.
Or does it? Maybe because of that timing issue the LED's barely manage to keep up while the scanners are off, but when the scanners are on, some type of interference occurs, wich normally would not have that much effect. But since the LED's barely went well, they now don't.
So it could be a sum of 2 small meaningless problems, add those two together and you have 'disaster'.
Still I'm curious about the ground loop test...

The problem Onge is describing is also applicable for the Velleman VM116/K8062.
Maybe a workaround for it is to give the process a higher priority in the windows taskmanager.
I'm glad I bought the Enttec USB DMX PRO version and picked it up yesterday, drove about 1 hour for it.
Now I need to find a victim to buy my Velleman interface.

[fcprod1]

Well now the interface has stopped working all together now!!!!! I am sending it back and getting the PRO. I hope this fixes it!!!! i'll keep you guys posted. I really appreciate everyones feedback.

[fcprod1]

so let me get this straight you are saying that the ADJ dynasty light may not be able to handle the information being sent to it??? or are u saying that the chauvet colorsplash jr are the culprit. I get no flickering from the dynasty whatso ever even when they are hooked up to the color splash jr's . I get the flickering only from the color splash jr's only when they are connected to the scanners. When the color splash jr's are standalone no problem what so ever. So i cannot see how the scanners are the problems when they do not flicker at all. I also even connected a friends american dj leds and still the sae problems. Here is another question. When the interface is not online with the computer (still pluged in just not running freestyler) the flicker goes away!

regarding your other post about the other scanners not responding instantly. I had the identical problems with my older lappy but when i hooked it up to my newer PC and my newer lappy then those problems went away. I attributed the delay in the computer not up to minimum specs.

I hope i just got a bad interface and hope that the pro will fix the issue. Then i wont have to bug you guys anymore!!!!! hahaha

[Tom]

It sounds either like a DMX refresh rate problem, or power problems.

I know with some cheaper fixtures the DMX signal can be 'too fast' for the lights to cope with. I recently tried to use 2 scans which had this problem - they wouldn't respond at all though. To fix this I put a zero 88 linebacker in. This takes the DMX and analyzes it and in doing so slows it down just enough.

However, I did a show a month or two ago where I had LED problems - they would flash much like they do when you turn them on. Turned out that some of the plugs weren't in properly - well they were but you know how sometimes they can be a little funny if not all the way in - but wiggling them all the way in fixed it. It could be that there is a problem with the power in the back of the light - might be worth having a look if nothing else sorts it.

RE the DMX terminator debate. I've never used one yet and I've used a variety of rigs - from 4 dimmers to 4 dimmers, 6 LED's, 2 Trackspots and 2 sunstrips with the latter having about 100m of DMX cable - and this wasn't proper 3 pin DMX cable - it was mic cable. Most modern DMX devices are self terminating now anyway!

Also a thought - are you using proper DMX cable or mic cable?

[fcprod1]

Ok guys to give you an update.

I emailed american dj about this problem i was having with the scanners causing the flickering to other lights and they immediately wrote back indicating that they were going to send out a "chip" for the lights. I am not sure what this is exactly for but with the quick response they gave me i am under the impression that they had seen/heard this problem before.

so last night i received the enttec pro and crossed my fingers and connected everthing and...................................

NO MORE FLICKERING!!!!!!!

I still wonder if i just got a bad enttec open interface causing this flickering. Oh well problem solved.


Thanks guys for all your help. I cant say that i wont be asking more questions becasue im sure i will! hahaha

[remco_k]

Okay, thats good news.

Still I'm curious about that chip...

[blaide13]

I just got the Enttec pro as well as 12 Color splash jr.'s and 10 Color Splash 200B's. The 200b's don't have the flicker issue but the Jr.'s do. I called Enttec and found that you have to go into the Pro Utility that came with the driver disc. There you can change the Packet send/refrech rate. It is set to 40 by default which complies with the 512 DMX standard. I changed the rate to 24, 20 and 10, but the flicker persisted. It just got slower as the refresh value went down. The Enttec sale's man I spoke to said Chauvet is aware of the issue and Enttec sent them a USB pro box to hopefully fix the issue for future manufacturing of that light. But for everyone who doesn't have the new lights (and that's everyone at this time), the flickering issue persists. Some people say they have no problem with flickering, so there must be a work around or setting that can help, but I'm anawre of it at this point in time. I'm totally new to DMX, but learning really fast.

I tried hooking up only one color splash jr. to the output of the Enttec pro and put a termin ator in the output. STill flikers. Tried several different units the same way with the same results. Anyone else have a suggestion?

[aquas]

hi ppl,

Yesterday happens something to me when i was testing my new splitter... a minispot 250 MH like triton blue, but is a chinese factory, a Eurolite 648/5 bar and a Eurolite LED par 64.
Using a splitter and put one in a channel separated nothing happens, when i put a serial minispot->Bar->Par 64, nothing happens, but when i put the minispot->Par64->Bar, or without the bar the Par64 did not respond to the software and look like is in automatic.

It seems the minispot have problms when i put a par64 after him, but not a led problem because the 648/5 works great.

i put the post here because is not the same but is a problem like that... any ideas???

cumpr