Louis_Opus Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Hey everyone, New to forum so first of all, hi to you all! I'm a resident DJ at a nightclub in manchester and also the only person who has any technical knowledge in the entire venue....unfortunately that means that when there is a problem its usual falls upon me to fix it. We only have a basic rig and it is controlled by a Pulsar Masterpiece 216. The rig consists of 4 Robe moving heads, 8 Future light scanners, 3 dimmer packs controlling 8 par cans and 4 UV LED washes, plus 2 Pulsar strobes. Basically, last weekend, part way through the night some of the Pars, the LED UV washes and one of the scanners started to do strange things, basically flashing at low levels and very randomly, almost as if on a sound to light setting. The only time this stops is when the masterpiece is turned off or the DMX feed from the desk is unplugged. This is now happening everytime we turn on the rig and I need to work out how to stop it..... Does anyone have any ideas as to why this could be and maybe a solution?? One thing I have noticed is that the last fixture on the DMX line is the one scanner that was involved in the erratic behaviour however it is not the last address. thinking on, the fixtures that are behaving erratically are using addresses 1-19 (19 being the address of the scanner. All fixtures addressed after this are behaving as normal. Any ideas? Thanks Louis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metheone Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 have you got a terminator, maybe the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanHerbert Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Sounds a bit like there's a low level chase activated within the console - have you ruled this out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louis_Opus Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 Sounds a bit like there's a low level chase activated within the console - have you ruled this out? Thanks for the replies. Yes Thanks Dan have ruled out the chase on the controller, was one of my first thoughts too. Having checked the scanner on the and of the DMX line, there is no terminator in there and from what I know of the Futurelight scanner it does not self terminate, so am gonna put a terminator in and see if that helps. fingers crossed thats it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanHerbert Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Louis, If it is a terminator I'm surprised that after so long it's only just decided to play up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louis_Opus Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 Louis, If it is a terminator I'm surprised that after so long it's only just decided to play up... Me too, I've questioned today and apparently someone has been up into the rig last week, seems whoever it was, was just up there to clean stuff....seems maybe they been touching things they shouldnt...I.e DMX cable. When I looked and saw that the scan was at the end of the chain I was surprised that anyone would install it like that but as I havent been there that long I didnt really question it. Will try terminating it and let you know if it works. Its been a while since I was a lighting jock and my brain is stil l very rusty with this stuff haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 If you think it's all the fixtures on particular addresses then it sounds very much like the controller. You could perform tests in this regard - ie. change addresses to or from this area and see what happens. On a different tack you can try bypassing each fixture in turn by linking DMX cables to discover if one unit is causing all the trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1981 Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 If you think it's all the fixtures on particular addresses then it sounds very much like the controller. You could perform tests in this regard - ie. change addresses to or from this area and see what happens. On a different tack you can try bypassing each fixture in turn by linking DMX cables to discover if one unit is causing all the trouble. Did you get the problem fixed Louis? masterpieces can do some very strange things. Are you familiar with Masterpiece programming? One touch of a button can knock the hole thing out. Have you tried doing an 'all off' ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamtastic3 Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 Ok a few things to look out for: Make sure you haven't hit the patch button - it's the button next to Set User Access Level. When hit, the desk with go into soft patch mode and certain channels may just be on full with no control. Make sure there's no drink on the front of the desk <_< Check you haven't hit the A-B crossfade button - it's the button next to the Freeze Output button. If you are in normal desk mode with certain buttons on and you hit the crossfade button along with the existing buttons lit, the control is completely changed and you will not be able to control the buttons normally as the crossfading has been activated. So if the buttons flicker with green or red LED's then you'll need to deactivate them. Dodgy DMX cables. With a dodgy cable, the slightest vibration will cause the signal to go crazy. Take out the links until you spot the problem. Check your LED's have good power going to them. Sometimes, LED's can get erratic if the power supply isn't 100% secure. It can affect the DMX sometimes. Check that your LED's have a function to activate DMX. It's usually the last dipswitch that needs to be turned on Oh and termination might be a good idea....!!! Hope any of that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.