Chauvet - Color Splash JR

[matt]

Fixture File for the Chauvet Color Splash JR.

[djharryg]

Matt,
I installed this fixture okay in Freestyler. But, how do I get to see it in the magic 3D? It's not an option in there.

[matt]

I did not make a Magic 3d Ficutre. I dont use that program so i dont make the fixtures for it. Only for FreeStyler.

[jmrpaint]

I got a 404 when trying to download this fixture, can you repost please?

[blaide13]

Hey Matt,
Just bought 14 Colorsplash Jr's and 10 Color Splash 200b's and installed Freestyler with the enttec pro. First time at all this so a little overwhelming. Question on your colorsplash jr. fixture profile. In freestyler it lists the light as having 5 channels, but the manual I got in the box with the light says it has only 4 channels. Your fixture profile also seems to have the colors in a slightly different order on the channels. My manual says ch. 1 is strobe, 2 red, 3 green and 4 blue. Did Chauvet change the DMX spec's on Colorsplash Jr.s that were produced after the ones you got? I tried adjusting in in fixture creator, but where it has the box for n'colors, I have no idea.The manual only list the thre basic ones. I don't know the total amount of cominations/colors available for this light and can't find any documentation from Chauvet. Can you "shed some light" on the matter for me. Thanks.

[remco_k]

Are you talking about the LED splash jr? (this one: http://www.chauvetlighting.com/ledsplash-jr.html )
Becuase I can't find the color splash jr.
They look exactly the same, so I guess they are. The LED Splash jr is also 5 channels.

Did Chauvet change the DMX spec's on Colorsplash Jr.s that were produced after the ones you got?

I hope not, and if they did, they should be banned from the world.
Or maybe you got it all wrong and you can set the DMX mode on the fixture?

I tried adjusting in in fixture creator, but where it has the box for n'colors, I have no idea.The manual only list the thre basic ones. I don't know the total amount of cominations/colors available for this light and can't find any documentation from Chauvet.

You need to understand that RGB lights don't have a number of colors. (well, in theory the number is 255*255*255 = 16581375 colors).
Each color is mixed with the R, G and B LEDs and can be achieved with the three R, G and B sliders or the color picker in FreeStyler (wich controls the R, G and B sliders). Thats all.

If possible, find an online manual for that Chauvet - Color Splash JR you are talking about, so we can look along in it at the DMX channel description.

Next to all of the above: If you understand just a little of DMX and the way things work, you should be able to make a new fixture file for this light in about 20 seconds. Most of the time you are busy typing its name and brand.

[djharryg]

Chauvet did change the specs. There is one empty channel on some models that they "say" they were leving open for future use.

[blaide13]

Are you talking about the LED splash jr? (this one: http://www.chauvetlighting.com/ledsplash-jr.html )
Becuase I can't find the color splash jr.
They look exactly the same, so I guess they are. The LED Splash jr is also 5 channels.

I checked the box the light came in and your right, it does say LEDsplash Jr. and the box also says it is a 5-channel DMX-512 led wash light. The manual that is inside the box calls the light a LED-PAR83 Colorsplash JR. and page 4 of the manual has a chart showing the DMX Channel Summary and it lists the channels as such:

Channel 1 - Blackout/Strobe/Dimmer
Channel 2 - Red
Channel 3 - Green
Channel 4 - Blue

I don't see mention of a fifth channel unless they are calling 0 a channel (not sure if DMX 512 starts from 0 or 1)

I also noticed in the fixture creator you named the fixture "Colorsplash JR." instead of LEDsplash Jr..

Finally, the post after yours said Chayvet did change the spec's on the light and it has an extra channel, although which channel is unknown. I will call Chauvet right now to try and find out.

Just got off the phone with Chuavet and they confirmed it as a 5 channel fixture. Channel 1 is reserved for future use and all the other channels are just shifted forward by one (1 - reserved, 2- Blackout/Strobe/Dimmer, 3- red, 4-green, 5 - blue). So your fixture profile is correct. I thought it might noe be because I had 2 lights hooked up and the second one does not show the colors it should when using the color wheel. The first fixture ,which was unselected at the time, also was changing to a different color when I changed color on fixture 2. I probably overlooked something. I'll go back and start over.

[djharryg]

exactly. Channel 1 was blank.

Perhaps your addresses for your fixtures are overlapped a bit?

Example:
Colorsplash JR 1 using channels 1-5
Colorsplash JR 2 using channels 4-8.

Check your fixture addresses.

I'm not sure what fixture file I'm using for my colorsplash Jr's. But, they seem to wok okay. If you need it, let me know....

[blaide13]

Yes if you could give me your colorsplash jr. fixture profile that would be great. I checked everything and now having the flickering problem others have mentioned, plus can't control 2nd colorsplash jr.

Here's the run down: have 2 color splash jr.'s hooked up. 1st one has dip switch #1 turned on to set it's starting channel as #1. Dip switch 10 is also on to enable DMX. Fixtiure # 2 has dip switches 2 and 3 on to set the starting channel to # 6. Dip 10 is also on to enable DMX. Added 2 colorsplash jr.'s to the desktop in Freestyler and selected auto address. Fixture one starts on channel 1 and goes to channel 5, fixture 2 starts on channel 6 and goes to 10. I goto the color wheel and select fixture # 1, open the shutter and raise intensity to 100% nd set it to yellow color. Then I goto select fixture # 2 on the desktop but I can't seem to high light it. I'm clicking on the fixture, not the test portion. After many tries, it finally highlights. Then I turn the shutter off, intensity to 100% and both lights shut off. I reset the intenisty to 100% but fixture 1 comes on, even though # 2 is still selected in the desktop. I then select one agin to set it to set it up but fixture 2 also changes.

I set them as 2 seperate lights, didn't clone, and starting channels don't overlap. I then went into the "Show Output" window located in the Edit tab on top. I beleive this window is to show what channels are being addressed by what color or fixture feature. If that is the right assumption, then this thing is severly screwed up. here's what it reads:

Row 1 = 3 unused, 255 shutter, 2 red, 255 blue, 133 green, 5 unused, 255 shutter, 8 red
Row 2 = 255 blue, 128 green

I'm not suree if each row is supposed to be a fixture or not, but if it is, row/fixture 1 has 8 channels of conflicting data and row/channel 2 has only 2.

I'm very confused and frustrated right now. To top it off, there's the flickering problem. I read on another post that in version 3.0.1 you can set the refresh rate as low as 20 msec which is supposed to solve many flikering problems, but I can't find that option in any of the menu's.

[blaide13]

one other thing I thought is worth mentioning with my colorsplash jr. problem is that when I select show all panels on the desktop, color wheel, lamp, and pan/tilt come uip on the desktop. The colorsplash jr.'s don't have pan and tilt so why is that menu comingup? I dissconnected the color splash jr.'s and just hooked up a colorsplash 200B. After removing thje jr.s and setting all the channels, the 200B also flickers, but only the blue LED's. When I click on "show all Panels" only color and lamp come on which is all that should show up for a par can. Something wrong with either the colorsplash jr's or the fixture profile that came with Freestyler for those lights.

[blaide13]

Have a Hosa terminator on the 2nd Color Splash jr., Checked the dip swithes again, channel; settings, nothing overlaps, did click on the upper portion of the picture (near handle), Swapped out cables and still same results. I then dissconected the jr'as and hooked up a single Colorsplash 200B led par can. Loaded the fixture, assigned it to start on channel 1 and everything worked perfect. Got a second 200B, set it up, set the dip switch start address to #7 and added to Freestyler desktop, but erratic control combined with partial control on unit # 1 as well. Using Mic cables as I don't have DMX ones yet. Swapped 3 cables to try, 2 of them right out of the package. I then hooked up just the first light again and cleared the desktop on Freestyler, re-added the one fixture, set to start channel 1 on Freestyler as well as dip switches and works fine. Cleared desktop agaon, reset the fixture dips tro start address # 7 and did same on Freestyler when adding it. I unchecked the option box to auto address the fixture and manually set it to 7 and then hit the little button to save and freestyler set all the channels to 7 - 12. Highlighted the light, clicked open panels and this time a new macro panel popped up. I gues who ever programmed the profile for this lighjt included a few macros. I clicked on each one and they all work perfect. Problem is, how do I turn them off? Tried closing the box, right clicking, left clicking, turning off the intensity, shutter etc. Sorry this must be a real stupid newb question, but I can't turn the macros off so I can do further testing.

[blaide13]

First - Got the two 200b's working perfect now. Had to shut everything down though to get rid of the macros that was running. still could not figure out how to turn macros off. Anyone know how this is done?

Second - Back to the colorsplash jr.'s. as soon as i hook them up to Frreestyler, they start flashing again. Don't know where the setting for the refresh rate is. Another post said in Freestyler Ver. 3.0.1 you can reduce the rate to 20msec whci should stop the flashing, but they didn'[t say where you go to change the rate. I have looked through all the top menu items (file, edit, etc.) with no luck. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[remco_k]

The refresh rate setting is in the FreeStyler setup form, at the Interface setup section where you can select your DMX interface.
There you can find the refresh rate, but only for some types of interfaces. Not all of them. If you don't see the control there, its not implemented for your type of interface.

[blaide13]

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?

[blaide13]

I'm on the phone with Chauvet right now, and they say that their lighting strictly adheres to the DMX 512 protocal and that any problem must be in the controller software. I told him I'm using Freestyler and he never heard of it.He asked the tech's and programmers as well and said that one programmer knew of Freestyler and said that the problem may be in the dimming aspect of the software. He went on to say that they are not working on improving the light as I was told by the rep at Enttec, because it doesn't have any known issues.
If anyone uses the Color Splash Jr's and doesn't have any flickering with Freestyler and the Enttec pro, can you reply with how you have everything set up? If it works for some, it should work for all. Finding and duplicating thje working versions shoulkd hopefully help me find what is causing my problems.

[blaide13]

As far as your question about the slider to test channel 1 on the LED Color Splasjh Jr. I do not have sliders. I'm using Freestyler on a laptop and going out to the Enntec Usb Pro and then to the lights. Chauvet said the 1st channel does nothing at the moment, but has been put there for future use.

As far as using other software, how is the Magic Q? Do you personally use it? Is it buggy or is it solid and reliable? Does it have sound sensitivity so the lights can react to music, is it stable (no crashes), does it have a visualizer or can you incorporate Martin Light Jockey's into it?

Freestyler seems ok but has alot of little bugs. I've made one or two work arounds for various things, but the flashing problem with the Color Splash Jr.'s still has not presented a solution. It seems to me that the problem is coming from the software itself over the USB. I will be looking into it further in the next two weeks with my Dad who is an electrical engineer and my wife who is a programmer, but if another piece of free software works without all these bugs, maybe I'll switch to it. Besides Magic Q are there any others that you know of that are any good and will work with the Enntec USB Pro?

[matt]

are you still having any issues?

Sorry for the Delay in response... but YES chauvet's ColorSplash had 4 DMX channels, then they re-released it as the LEDSplash and it has 5 dmx channels.

[DELighting]

I've seen this problem several times in my work. IT turns out the problem was the terminator. I've bought a few of those Hosa terminators from e-bay and my lights went wacko with them plugged in. Unplug that termniator and they work fine. See if that might have been the problem