Help with programming a 4 channel LED Parcan

[modulartable]

I feel like a large idiot, but I've ran into a few issues creating this fixture. This is my first time creating a fixture or using any DMX programs personally. The light is a generic LED Parcan as the title suggests that runs in RGB and I have got the light working 90%, but I cannot get the light to come on without the strobe or shutter effect (the light flashing) for some reason in Freestyler. I'm sure it's some mistake I've made inputting the data into the fixture creator. Please help a newbie out! I'm excited to learn!

Below is the data chart from the manual of the light:


Here is the data from the fixture creator that I've entered:


What am I doing wrong friends?
Any help is appreciated.

[MAAC]

So 0 = All Off
1-127 = Brightness (Master / intensity ??)
128-250 = Strobe
251-255 = Only 5 values for brightness ?? Color temperature perhaps ?

First verify what values the flash and dimmer needs in order not to strobe with the sliders.
On the Channel description tab put defaults all 0, since I presume channel 1 controls both strobe & intensity.
Intensity channel min should be 1, because if you set 128, you are already strobbing. Or perhaps 251 ??

Verify what the values from 1 to 127 (brightness) do ... auto brightness ramping ??
What do the brightness values 251-255 ??

[Rod_Horning]

I think you have your intensity settings incorrect.
The min intensity should be 0 and max should be 127
Delete the lamp channel.

[modulartable]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll try both and see what happens! Fingers crossed lol.

[modulartable]

I'm still having no luck. I tried the suggestion of changing the intensity values, which yielded the same results. I've also tried to verify which values are needed for the light not to strobe, which I have still not. Any other suggestions or advice?

[Rod_Horning]

Please use the Fixture Creator export function to export your fixture.
Reply in this thread using Full Editor & Preview.
Attach the exported fixture file. It has a file extension of .pff
Thanks

[modulartable]

Attached is the file for the fixture.
Thanks again for your help, hopefully we can figure out what the issue is.

[Rod_Horning]

Your fixture file seems fine based on the chart in your first post.

Could you take a picture of both the front and back of the instrument and post it here?

Unless your instrument is failing it seems like a configuration setting on the instrument itself.

[Gaucho]

Not 100% sure but try setting strobe off at 127 which is basically bright.

[modulartable]

Here is the front of the light


Here is the back of the light


These are stock images of course, but on my light I have my switches set to only number 10 and number 1 as on and the rest off. In the manual it states DMX mode is "10+" I have tried turning 1 off and other switches on with 10, but this seems to be the only way it will work so I'm assuming it is the correct configuration. It responds to color changes and all of my controls in Freestyler, but it will not light up without strobing. I'm 99% positive it's not the light because I have 8 of them and have tried various ones with the same result. The light can definitely burn solid without strobing, because if you use any of the other settings, such as sound activated or auto run mode it does not strobe.

This has been a frustrating process lol. I don't know what could possibly be the issue.

[Rod_Horning]

Ah, good ole DIP switches. The DIP switches are used to set the starting DMX address of the instrument. If the starting address of the instrument and the starting address of the Freestyler fixture do not match you will get some interesting/confusing/irritating results.

DIP switches have a mathematical power of 2 (1,2,4,8, etc) value and these values are added together to determine the DMX address. Example: switches 2,5,6 are on the rest off. DIP switch 2 has a value of 2 when on, 5 a value of 16 when on, 6 a value of 32 when on. Add these values (2+16+32) and you have a starting address of 50. When you add the fixture to Freestyler you must specify, in the little pop up window, a DMX startaddress of 50 or you will encounter the undesired results.

If you have multiple lights you may want each light (or perhaps groups of them) to be controlled separately from others. This requires that each light (or group) have a different staring address and that the address range does not overlap. (I.e. your lights use 4 channels. If light 1 has a starting address of 21 then lights that are to be controlled separately must not have a staring DMX address of 21, 22, 23 or 24.

Be aware that sometimes the last DIP switch is not used for addressing but for some other purpose. This should be documented in the user manual if so.

Hopefully this is your problem. Let us know.

[modulartable]

The startaddress is not the issue. I verified the starting address via the dip switches and the menu in freestyler and they match. I even changed the starting address on both to something different to double check and it matches up. At this point it's not looking like a solvable issue lol.

[Rod_Horning]

Forgive me for being a bit confused. Do you have DIP switch 10 on or off? I think it should be off.

Without seeing the manual I do not know what the manual means by DMX mode 10+
Can you upload a PDF of the manual or provide an Internet link to the manual or even upload photos of the pages of the manual?

What version of Freestyler are you running?

Controlling a 4 channel RGB is something that Freestyler is used for quite often. If your lights are OK then there there is no reason Freestyler cannot control them properly.

When do the lights strobe - when you initially start Freestyler, when you select the fixture, or when you move the slider? How far are you moving the slider?

Try this:

Start Freestyler

Click on the top menu item Output -> Show Output. This will open a window that shows the values being sent to each DMX channel. The values being sent to your lights should be 0.

Now select one light. The values should remain 0.
Now move the top slider to a value of 100. You should now see a value of 100 in the corresponding channel in the Output window and the RGB channels should have a value of 0 (which should mean your light is not not shining).

Now move the RGB sliders. The values in the Output window should change to correspond to the slider values and your light should shine.

Now move the top slider to a value of 200. Again the corresponding channel in the Output window should show 200 and your light should strobe.

[modulartable]

I'm running 3.6.45 of Freestyler. I tried what you mentioned and it does remain zero until I move any of the sliders. When I move either the strobe or intensity slider it only affects the strobe output in the output tab for some reason, which is unusual. However, besides the red green and blue outputs the strobe output is the only other output shown. The number 10 dip switch is what sets the light in DMX mode when it's paired with other switches to set the starting address as you mentioned so it must be turned on. If 10 is turned on alone it is put in slave mode to be controlled by another light. If it is off the other switches are used to change the light between various modes as the manual describes, such as sound activated and host-slave synchronization.

Here are photos of the 3 pages of the manual below showing what I mentioned:







After playing with the sliders I did verify that 251-255, which are the values of "light brightness" just change the color temperature slightly. So I'm assuming 1-127 for the intensity must control the actual brightness of the light or the change from dim to fully bright as the manual says. Should I tweak the fixture file you think or?

[Rod_Horning]

I've seen nothing wrong

Attached is a new fixture definition to try. I doubt it will make any difference but at this point I don't know what else to try.

Import the fixture.
Start Freestyler
Click on Set Up
Click on Add/Remove Fixtures
Select the existing fixture
Click on the left pointing arrow to remove the existing fixture
Find the new fixture and add it to Freestyler
Close the Add/Remove window
Click on Output -> Show output
Select the new fixture in the Freestyler workspace
Click on the top menu item Window -> All
2 new windows should open - Lamp and Colors
In the standard sliders the top slider should have a label of Dimmer and Strobe

See what happens.

FYI

The dimmer and strobe channels are the same. The channel description in your existing fixture was labeled just Strobe by Freestyler. Since the dimmer and strobe channel are the same the Show Output window only shows one channel.

Also note that in the Lamp window the top slider will control strobe speed. Moving it all the way to the left sets the channel value to 128 NOT 0. To set it to 0 click on the Off button immediately below the slider or use either of the dimmer control sliders.

The standard Freestyler slider in the upper right hand corner spans all of the values from 0 to 255.
The dimmer slider in the Lamp window only spans the values from 0 to 127.

If this does not resolve your problem I'm out of ideas.
Thank you for your patience. This has been frustrating for both of us.

[modulartable]

For some reason when I download the file and import it, it pops up saying "this file appears to be corrupt" for some reason.

[Rod_Horning]

This has happened a couple of times recently.

Try the following. Please note the word updated has been appended to the fixture name.

COZ LED Can updated.pff

[Rod_Horning]

Here is the fixture for your light.

After you Import it, add it to the Freestyler workspace. (You will find it in a folder named COZ. You will need to click or double click on the folder name to expand it).
The fixture name is COZ CAN LED UPDATED
Once you have added the fixture to the Freesylter workspace, select it by clicking on the picture.
Next, click the top menu item Windows -> All
This will open the following helpful Freestyler programming windows:
Lamp
Colors.

The Lamp window has 3 sections; the middle part (a slider for the full range of the strobe speed and 4 push buttons for selected strobe speed) and the bottom for the Dimmer. Note that to turn the strobe off click on the Off button. The strobe slider has a range of 128 to 255. The strobe value when the slider is all the way to the left is 128 (slow strobe) not 0.

The Color window is very helpful in mixing the RGB leds to obtain the desired color.

I've been working with another user with the same (I think) light. They report that when the turn the light on it will strobe immediately. Please post your experience for comparison.

COZ LED Can updated.pff

[modulartable]

Sorry for the late reply,

I tried the new updated file and the same thing happens to me. It's so weird. i tried a separate called "Light Jams," and had a bit more success. On the other program I got it to shine without strobing, because the program does not allow you to have multiple features on one channel so I just excluded the strobe values and entered the dimmer values only. i'm not sure if it's where the dimmer and strobe share channel 1 that it's confusing freestyler or what the issue is honestly, I feel like it's way above my head at this point lol.

[Rod_Horning]

Interesting about Light Jams. Having multiple functions on one channel does not confuse Freestyler. The final output of Freestyler is simply an address and a value. For your light Freestyler sends 4 addresses, each address having a value - something like this a1v1a2v2a3v3a4v4. The instrument is where the intelligence is supplied that determines what the light does with the values. Actually you don't even need to tell Freestyler more than it has 4 channels. Here is a very basic fixture definition. Please give is a try and see what happens.

COZ LED can basic.pff

I don't know if this has been asked before but do you have other fixtures in your Freestyler workspace, one of which perhaps has an overlapping address? This could cause a problem.

Also, how long is your DMX cable run? Do you have it properly terminated? Probably not an issue but needed to ask.

[Rod_Horning]

To clarify my note about Freestyler not being confused. You could actually define a fixture with 1 channel and add 4 of these fixtures to the Freestyler workspace. The first fixture would control channel 1, the second channel 2, etc.

The reason to tell Freestyler that a channel is an Intensity (dimmer) channel, a Strobe channel, a gobo channel, a color channel, an iris channel, etc. is so that Freestyler will create helpful programming windows (ie. let you click on a color or gobo picure to set a channel to the value for that color or gobo - much easier and quicker than moving the slider). Also, Freestyler has a Black out and Master intensity function, plus similar functions in sub-masters. The controls affect the intensity channel if Freestyler knows about an intensity channel for the fixture.

[modulartable]

I currently just have one light hooked up running from my dmxking usb dongle straight into the light and i have a terminator in the output on the light as well. There are no other fixtures in my workspace, just this one. It's the only light I own currently lol.

[Rod_Horning]

Lets talk about your DMX interface, dmking usb dongle.
In the Freestyler setup what interface did you specify?
Did you load the official dmxking drivers and any related software?
What refresh rate did you set?

I would like to get more detail on what shows in the Output -> Show Output window and what your light is doing.

Start Freestyler
Click on Output then click on Show Output
What is your light doing and what color is the light?
What are the values for the 4 channels of your light?

Click on the fixture
What is your light doing and what color is the light?
What are the values for the 4 channels of your light?

Move the top standard slider a bit to the right until it reads 50
What is your light doing and what color is the light?
What are the values for the 4 channels of your light?

Move the top standard slider right until it reads 150
What is your light doing and what color is the light?
What are the values for the 4 channels of your light?