Post your stupid mistakes here...

[remco_k]

Everyone has those moments. You just can't get something to work, while you have done the same *stupid* thing 1000 times before without problems...
Why don't it work now? WTF! WTF! Die MF!!...

Thats what I thougt last saturday afternoon. I was installing my laptop with FreeStyler Beta on it for a gig. Fun as I had I connected everything needed, even took care to get an audio cable from the audio-guy's PA mixer to my laptop for use with my own S2L (which was the first time I ever used it in a live situation ).
Moments later I was trying to get the moving heads on. 6 Movitec SL-250's. Used them many times before.

But a problem arises pretty soon. Half of the lights did'nt respond. But after some searching and some MacGyver work* turns out that an active DMX splitter died.
Solved it... Now all lights respond to everything... almost... I get the lamps to ignite, but regardless of what I tried, no light comes out. As if the shutter remains closed.
Damn I was pissed... Screaming dirty words around... Trying this and that... WTF!

5 minutes later:
Turns out the master fader was @0%.


*MacGyver work: tested the fuse of the DMX splitter with the batteries and small bulb of my flashlight as for some stupid reason no one had a meter (for measuring resistance) with him. That fuse was broken, because it was'nt the proper one (200mA instead of the 500mA needed).
Off the record: I always have tools and metering with me... But not this time as I switched cars with my wife. She had it all... I did'nt.

[LJ_krede.dk]

did the same thing with the pearl 2008.. could not understand why I couldn't control my PAR cans on stage.. changed the DMX cables but still nothing... some idiot (my self) had move the master fader to zero.

next problem same day.. during the concert I couldn't get any of my playbacks to run... only the preset faders worked... again it was the playback master which was moved to zero

another day: lost the connection between the desk and the par cans...AGAIN. changed the dmx cables but nothing worked.. I checked the dmx output from the desk on the LCD screen and noticed that it pnly send out zero on the par can channels. that was really weird so i did a "wipe all" (reset of the whole desk). that did work... but when i think of it i could have changed the fixture page by mistake so the preset faders i moved was not assigned to any lights ... i think i stick to FS from now on

[djSupport]

Erm maybe put in off topic :-/

[dmxlighting]

My biggest mistake was while on an install for Sunglass Hut's flagship store on Oxford Street London.

The job was to cable out the shop floor celling speakers and varoius different interactive screen locations.
In total there were about 30 different cable runs and the whole lot was done in a day by me and my trainee.
We were given 2 days to do the job so we were very pleased with ourselves as we had earned a day off.

3 weeks later we returned to complete the second fix. In our minds this was an easy job.
It was only then that I realised that I had not labled any of the cable ends and had to speand the whole day running up and down stairs from the shop floor to the rack position in the cellar. This was bad enough but as I was now a day behind I had a major problem that a production company was coming in to 'overfit' the shop with sound and light for the launch party. We had 2 days to second fix and had lost a day. So the job ran into the 3rd day and as predicted the production company came in and got in the way big time. The result was that we got finished but had 3 very long days and all because I forgot to label th cable ends! DOH!

[remco_k]

Erm maybe put in off topic :-/

You're so right. I figured only FreeStyler users would make stipud mistakes, but fortunately (for me) many other users have similar problems.
I moved the topic.

[djSupport]

dmxlighting damn I can understand your pain!!! I bet you wont forget that ever again!

[matt]

My biggest mistake was while on an install for Sunglass Hut's flagship store on Oxford Street London.

The job was to cable out the shop floor celling speakers and varoius different interactive screen locations.
In total there were about 30 different cable runs and the whole lot was done in a day by me and my trainee.
We were given 2 days to do the job so we were very pleased with ourselves as we had earned a day off.

3 weeks later we returned to complete the second fix. In our minds this was an easy job.
It was only then that I realised that I had not labled any of the cable ends and had to speand the whole day running up and down stairs from the shop floor to the rack position in the cellar. This was bad enough but as I was now a day behind I had a major problem that a production company was coming in to 'overfit' the shop with sound and light for the launch party. We had 2 days to second fix and had lost a day. So the job ran into the 3rd day and as predicted the production company came in and got in the way big time. The result was that we got finished but had 3 very long days and all because I forgot to label th cable ends! DOH!

A Toner is your friend!!
http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Tracer-Test ... B001MB759U