Support Forum

Does anyone know a reason why Freestyler will not control a Milford Relay Card.
The Card works fine with other controllers, but with Freestyler the DMX signal light does not fully go out as it does with other controllers
and the output Leds flicker and the relays chatter.
The relays are switching when they are selected with Freestyler but are chattering open and closed. I am sure that the polarity is correct, it seems as if the DMX signal produced by Freestyler is not compatible with the Milford card yet my other controllers are fine and Freestyler works OK with my other DMX equipment.

Regards Dek

Welcome to the recent debate on Freestyler!

I also have one of those relay card, and mine also chatters.

The reason is, that the rate that some of the lower end USB interfaces refresh the dmx signal is too slow for this relay board. So what you’re hearing is the dmx signal being received by the relay board, the relays then switching, but then because there is too much of a delay between it receiving the same command, it switches off again… this whole process repeats, and you may notice that the chattering (and dmx refresh rate) slows down with the more fixtures you operate…

RemcoK has recently shared his refresh rate analysis with us, and it shows that even the Enttec Open DMX is too slow for some fixtures…

The solution appears to be the Enttec Pro. It has the processer build in to the unit, and so doesn’t rely on the speed of your PC, or the pc driver converting freestylers commands to keep a consistent high speed refresh rate.

I am still putting the pennies together to try and purchase an Enttec Pro (and right now depending where you’re from they seem to be cheaper on ebay than they do from the manufacturers. If I get one I will be sure to let you know the outcome, if you will be so kind as to do the same!?!

dekw1, what interface brand and model are you using?
How is your CPU usage?

I'm using the "JMS USB2DMX" and the problem exists whichever laptop I use (pentium dual core with 2 Gig off ram and 120 Gig harddrive).
Cheers Dek

I did'nt have quite the same problems with my old Velleman USB DMX interface, I did'nt had any 'scattering' problems, just had a big, big delay.
Wich could be causing scattering problems when I had used the same relay card, maybe. I guess that is so. But all lights I connected, worked good. They just got their information 500+msec later...

Still I beleive that those cheap interfaces could run just as good as interfaces like the Enttec PRO (build in processor), but interfaces like the Velleman VM116/K8062 are way to slow at their USB input, causing those big troubles and this one can never be working good, because of that.
I believe that when the interfaces are fast enough like the Enttec Open DMX and other models and brands might be, and the software is written properly, it could be working good. But then again, topic after topic here about scattering, weird problems, units that don't work at all keep on coming...
All caused because of cheap DMX interfaces and all fixed when the user switched to the Enttec USB DMX PRO interface.
The Enttec USB DMX Pro is available here in the Netherlands for €159,-. Thats kind of cheap keeping in mind that is was €199,- a half year ago.

A little conclusion people can draw could be this:
A cheap interface can work good with fixtures, but there are also fixtures that wont work at al or work with problems, like this relay card.
When good operation is needed, I'd say the only way is to buy a better DMX interface.