BeamZ LED Par Cans

[KeithGinty1]

Hello

 

I recently bought 25 of the following units (http://www.electromarket.co.uk/beamz-par64-can-led-light-with-infrared-remote-control), They are all daisy chained together with mains and DMX but when they turned on they are stuck with RGB at full and no control.

 

I have de-rigged one lamp and plugged it directly to the desk and it works perfectly.

 

These are the steps I have tried already to solve the problem -

1) I have changed the out the entire DMX patch from control to the lamps.

2) Added a terminator to the end of the chain,

3) Disconnected the second lamp in the chain to test the patch to one lamp only.

4) Taken the desk to the fly floor to plug the lamps in directly avoiding the patch again tested with full 25 and single lamp.

 

By this point I'm completely lost.

Anybody got any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance.

[DrV]

Get it working with just one unit, as you have already done, then add another, with nothing else, to see if that's ok. If it is then progressively add more units, singly or in groups, until it stops working. If it doesn't work with just two units then you should look at possible master/slave settings before going any further.

 

That's a start at least...

[vinntec]

3) Disconnected the second lamp in the chain to test the patch to one lamp only.

If this worked, what happened when you extended the chain by one more unit (so 2 x units via patch panel)? Then 3, 4, 5, until it suddenly goes haywire - then you bypass that unit by joining the cables to make a full set - 1 and if that works, you know the unit probably has a fault. If that still doesn't work then change the cable to that unit and test again (with a reduced set again). Something somewhere is playing up, most likely a cable between two units. This is probably teaching grandma to suck eggs, but you never know.

[KeithGinty1]

3) Disconnected the second lamp in the chain to test the patch to one lamp only.

If this worked, what happened when you extended the chain by one more unit (so 2 x units via patch panel)? Then 3, 4, 5, until it suddenly goes haywire - then you bypass that unit by joining the cables to make a full set - 1 and if that works, you know the unit probably has a fault. If that still doesn't work then change the cable to that unit and test again (with a reduced set again). Something somewhere is playing up, most likely a cable between two units. This is probably teaching grandma to suck eggs, but you never know.

 

When I disconnected the second unit the first unit still did not respond.

[alistermorton]

Are they all in DMX mode with suitable addresses? Might seem like a silly question but worth checking.

[vinntec]

When I disconnected the second unit the first unit still did not respond.

If I have read this right, when you connect a unit direct to the desk it works fine, but when sent through the patching not even a single unit works? Are you sure that a DMX splitter/buffer isn't switched off or has an output you are expecting disconnected (as maybe there are more cables than ports) or any such combination? The full on RGB might just be the power-on state which means "No DMX"? Is this your normal theatre or someone else's venue - if the latter there may be something they neglected to tell you. I was at a venue a few years ago where the DMX sockets were wired in a funny way and needed to be daisy-chained together for the DMX to work. I think we need more details to be able to help track this down.

[Stuart91]

Make sure that one of the pars isn't set to some sort of standalone mode. They will often produce DMX signals of their own accord, which can cause chaos with the other fixtures in the chain.

[Don Allen]

You need to go back to what was working, which was one lamp fed direct from the desk. Then add one at a time, all of the DMX cables that you are using. Do not add more than one at a time, as there could be a crossover on two cables, which gives a working combination, then when you use one of those cables, the DMX stops working. You could put a small label on your cables with the test date to help avoid a faulty cable being added later to your stock. Sometimes you have to flex or wiggle the cables to look for faults.

 

You should then test all of your cans on the ground, fed from the desk, with all of the DMX cables you will use in the rig, so it is easier to get to them. Use grey pvc or electrical tape if you can get it and write the DMX address and fixture number on your cans as you test them.

 

Then if you are using a wired in patch system, connect the desk to the patch system using known good cables and go to the first available patch socket, as there may be intermediate patches before you get to your lighting bar. It is not uncommon for a venue to have incorrectly wired DMX distribution, that people have made up crossover cables over the years, rather that getting the faults rectified in the fixed cabling.