BenEdwards Posted October 20, 2014 Posted October 20, 2014 Was discussing the above with an experienced lighting engineer and said she found them fairly unreliable and had had the software crash during live shows. It was possibly a while ago. Was wondering if anyone has had any recent experience of using the basic/trial dongle for live shows with the 5 hour Basic dongle?
Chris Beesley Posted October 20, 2014 Posted October 20, 2014 The only issues I have seen with the dongles (or any PC based system) is when a laptop heads for sleep mode which can be cured by adjusting the power management in Windoze/Mac OS.
timsabre Posted October 21, 2014 Posted October 21, 2014 Never had a problem myself, but you do need to have a solid pc.
paulears Posted October 21, 2014 Posted October 21, 2014 Same here, just make sure your computer doesn't put the USB socket to sleep.
djlorenz Posted October 21, 2014 Posted October 21, 2014 never had problems with my 9yo Sony Vaio and win7
Alec97 Posted October 21, 2014 Posted October 21, 2014 Same here I've never had any problems although I always run a backup with another chamsys dongle and then I use a merger and merge the two together then I can quickly switch to the backup if I have a problem with the main
ddproduction Posted October 21, 2014 Posted October 21, 2014 Always worked perfectly with HP Pavilion G6 on Win7. Closing the lid puts the pc to sleep, open it up and the dongle is outputting again within a second.
paulears Posted October 21, 2014 Posted October 21, 2014 Reading again - the software crashed during the show? Unplugging the dongle doesn't crash the software, so if it crashes, it's just a dodgy instal, remove it and stick on the latest version.
Wol Posted October 21, 2014 Posted October 21, 2014 Was discussing the above with an experienced lighting engineer and said she found them fairly unreliable and had had the software crash during live shows. It was possibly a while ago. Was wondering if anyone has had any recent experience of using the basic/trial dongle for live shows with the 5 hour Basic dongle? Of the many thousands of MagicDMX's we've sold, I don't think we've really seen any major issues with them apart from the aggressive power management some OS's use which turns them off, or where the cable's taken a bit of a bashing and one of the connections has gone. If the software crashes, then it's unlikely to be related to the MagicDMX and is possible it's just a bug in the software itself. If you send a copy of your showfile over to us at support@chamsys.co.uk with a description of the problem and whether you can reproduce it, then we can look into it for you.
BenEdwards Posted October 23, 2014 Author Posted October 23, 2014 It was the software I was talking about, the dongle only version. Do you mean the OS software? We are a volunteer run unfunded venue so the desks are beyond our means. Bit cheeky but was wondering if we could get a discount on the Basic dongle. Ben Reading again - the software crashed during the show? Unplugging the dongle doesn't crash the software, so if it crashes, it's just a dodgy instal, remove it and stick on the latest version. Yes. If the software crashes and you restart do you get blackout of does the dongle maintain the current set-up?
Shez Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 Bit cheeky but was wondering if we could get a discount on the Basic dongle.You are aware that the basic dongle costs a tenner? Surely not beyond the means of even the smallest venue?!
sam.spoons Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 My thoughts exactly http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif I'm thinking of buying one for a show I have coming up, I'm struggling to find a lampie to run a very simple rig (8-12 PAR 64 LEDs and 4 Moving heads). It's a couple of bands in a function room and we just want something with a bit of movement (slightly better than a basic colour wash). My assistant is a motion graphics guy so has a good eye but no LX experience and we have a couple of weeks to learn and program the software. Will MagicQ on a MacBook with the Basic interface do what I want?
Shez Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 I'd always prefer a user interface with physical controls, given the choice, but the software with that dongle is more than capable of of controlling those fixtures. Spend a bit of time programming ahead of the event and you'll be able to easily run a decent looking show.
BenEdwards Posted October 24, 2014 Author Posted October 24, 2014 Bit cheeky but was wondering if we could get a discount on the Basic dongle.You are aware that the basic dongle costs a tenner? Surely not beyond the means of even the smallest venue?! Sorry, meant the full one. Jst thought I would ask. The politics here is a bit 'interesting' and lighting is not considered importent but I am managing to move things forwards. Probably going to get the Basic one.
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