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FAT FROG DOESNT WORK MY MOVING HEADS,


CHAD VALLI

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Another issue has arisen regarding my LIGHTSKY BL150[/b] moving heads They work great on my 24 channel desk, but when connected to a frog 88 theatre desk we have no control at all. The red led flashes to indicate they are recieving a signal but nothing else. We thought it could be a polarity problem, but on closer inspection they appear the same. Any thoughts?

 

Many thanks

Andy

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Is the DMX input on your moving heads via a three pin or 5 pin pin connector? If it's a three pin, are you really sure it's not a polarity issue? I can assure you from bitter past experience that a DMX Present LED may well mean absolutely nothing wrt the DMX polarity being correct.
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Is the DMX input on your moving heads via a three pin or 5 pin pin connector? If it's a three pin, are you really sure it's not a polarity issue? I can assure you from bitter past experience that a DMX Present LED may well mean absolutely nothing wrt the DMX polarity being correct.

 

Hi,

All my Lights are 3 pin including the movers. Here's what ive just done. I've connected my LED par 64's and the moving heads to my 24 channel JB systems desk. This has a polarity switch to the rear. I have full control of everything with the switch set at 1:Ground 2:Data- 3:Data+ which should be standard arrangement. If I flick the switch to reverse the polarity the lights dont respond. This polarity is the same as the desk so I'll research a little on the frog desk side of things

 

Many Thanks

Andy

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Can you confirm that you correctly have uploaded the fixtures into your showfile and also that you have addressed said moving heads to the correct channel?

 

 

We currently don't have the fixture profile so I am not using the moving light section of the board, however in the meantime I should be able to operate this from the faders that are assigned to the correct midi channels but so far, nothing is happening. All the connections appear to be good, any clues?

 

Ta,

 

Ian.

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do a factory reset on the desk and a 1-1 DMX patch. then address one of the heads to channel 1 and connect it direclty to the desk. if it works then try adding a led in on the first channel after the heads.
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To give aidso the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he means try putting another fixture (such as the LED pars mentioned) onto the same DMX chain to see if anything is leaving the desk (if this hasn't been done already), though personally I would address one to the same address as the pan and tilt of the movers...

 

I'll assume that you've made sure the GM and preset faders are at full, and that the DBO switch is off (since you've patched them as a big load of intensities, rather than proper fixtures, they won't move or do anything at all if the masters are down).

 

Do the fixtures respond at all when the DMX line from the desk is plugged in?

 

Gareth.

 

 

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

:** laughs out loud **: Lightsky sales motto: "The quality comes from nicety" :)

 

And let that be a lesson to you Martin and Varilite - stop investing in research and high quality materials, it's nicety that'll make it all work! ...or not.

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To give aidso the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he means try putting another fixture (such as the LED pars mentioned) onto the same DMX chain to see if anything is leaving the desk (if this hasn't been done already), though personally I would address one to the same address as the pan and tilt of the movers...

 

I'll assume that you've made sure the GM and preset faders are at full, and that the DBO switch is off (since you've patched them as a big load of intensities, rather than proper fixtures, they won't move or do anything at all if the masters are down).

 

Do the fixtures respond at all when the DMX line from the desk is plugged in?

 

Gareth.

 

 

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

:** laughs out loud **: Lightsky sales motto: "The quality comes from nicety" :)

 

And let that be a lesson to you Martin and Varilite - stop investing in research and high quality materials, it's nicety that'll make it all work! ...or not.

 

 

Just to clarify a couple of points, firstly, yes I meant DMX not MIDI (what a twit), I was working in my studio at the time of the post !!! I know there is something coming from the desk as I was operating other lighting at the same time. I tried the unit on a few different channels and even had the moving light and a generic light on the same channel at one point and the generic worked fine so all the 'easy to miss' bits like DBO etc were all ok. It really is an odd one.

 

Thanks for all the help so far :)

Ian

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To summarise the fault finding on a DMX setup (others may dispute the order, but that's academic):

 

Cables: Are all cables OK with no breaks?

Cables: Have you PROVED there isn't a reversal by inserting a known good reveral cable/adapter?

Desk: Is the correct fixture profile set on the desk and any mode options for them correct? (eg old Mac 250s have Modes 1 thru 4, Entours and others have 32 bit and 32 bit extended modes). I don't know your fixtures, so can't comment directly on that.

Desk: If no fixture, try the 1-1 patch option as above to prove if it can talk to even 1 fixture.

 

Oh - and can we assume that Chadvalli and Vaquero are from the same venue, as you're both replying as if you are...

;-)

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