PLEASE HELP!! THIS PROBLEM IS A MYSTERY TO ME!!

AoS Lighting · Post by **AoS Lighting** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:15 pm

This might be a bit difficult to explain, but I just received 3 Chauvet Q spot 260 (LED)s. They are 14 channel LED moving heads. I patched them in universe 1 and began to program. I started off with a simple scene, just turned on the beam (lamp, shutter, focus) and positioned the lights in a scene (PAN,TILT). No gobo, color, prism, etc.. every channel other than "position" (PAN,TILT) and "beam" (lamp, shutter, focus)) was left at "0"... We'll call that "POSITION 1" So now I have one "button" in my LIVE screen "POSITION 1" and when I click it my lights go to that position..

With me so far?

Then I programmed a simple "OFF" preset. I left every channel at "0" other than the "beam" channels. But I even leave the focus at "0" and the dimmer all the way open. All I do is adjust the shutter channel to have the shutter closed. and that is my "OFF" preset. So now I have 2 "buttons" in my LIVE screen, "POSITION 1" and "OFF". So, when I press "POSITION 1" my lights go to that preset position, and when I press "OFF" the beam turns off (the shutter closes) but the lights remain in the same position. Or they should at least...

Still with me?

The problem I am having is when I have "POSITION 1" pressed and then press "OFF" two of my lights stay in the same position like they should, but the third one's "PAN" channel drops to zero and the light swings around to its starting position.. I have tried everything I can possibly think of and have no idea why this is happening.
There are other examples with other presets I have done, like when I do just a simple "PRISM" preset. I touch no other channels but the PRISM channel. I set it so the PRISM will come on and it works fine in the EDITOR screen, but when I go into the LIVE screen and press it while I have a "POSITION" activated, the second and third lights stay in the same position like they should and the prisim is activated, but the first light the "beam" turns off for no reason. And when I check in the "GENERAL OUTPUTS" to find the specific channel that is acting up, it shows no change?? The channels value is where it is supposed to be, but the light is doing something different?? I am very confused by this...

This is very simple programming and I'm certain the programming is not the problem. I have switched addresses with the other lights and it only happens on certain "channels", so I know it's not the lights. I also tried patching the lights to the same channels, but in universe 3, and they worked fine, no problem.. Even when I tried patching them to different channels in universe 1, the same channels had the same problems..

I did have other lights with different channel layouts programmed on the same channels before I patched these, but I went through and cleared out all the old programming so the was no overlapping.. Is there a specific way to "clear" out or "erase" sections of channels in a universe that have been used but you now want to reprogram different fixtures in the same channel sections?

ANY suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!! This makes no sense to me and really has me baffled and annoyed.. I really hope someone will be like, "o yea, just do this...." and that will fix it, haha Because I am at a loss.. Please ask any questions you may have or if you're confused by anything..

(sorry so long)..

THANKS!!

AoS Lighting · Post by **AoS Lighting** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 3:13 am

Basically, if you have a preset activated where say for example the PAN channel is set to a value of 75, and you activate another preset with a "0" PAN value, it should not effect the PAN channel at all, it should stay at 75 because the other preset is still activated..

In my case the "0" value IS overriding!?!? But only on one light, which makes it more confusing!

Anyone else experienced this?

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Richard CSL · Post by **Richard CSL** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:04 am

have you at any stage swopped pan and tilt in the patch??

this is known to cause some corruptions of dmx output.
solution is to start a new patch or move the entire patch to a new universe.

so you have all these scenes in the same group??

if so do you have the group release function activated.?

ie does the position one scene change from orange to grey.??

AoS Lighting · Post by **AoS Lighting** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:42 pm

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I have not switched pan/tilt in the patch. I have tried repatching in the same universe. That stopped some channels from acting up, but other different channels began to.. It seems like there is old programming on the channels that isn't being "erased" or cleared. I don't really know how else to explain it.

For another example, wen I program a movement, just say a basic "4 point circle" movement created with the "FX" builder. I have all my fixtures activated and doing the same thing. So I make the movement, generate the scene, and when I go to the LIVE screen to activate it all the lights move correctly, but one light them the prisim pops open when I activate the movement. I have no idea why..

And yes, all my scenes are in one group. Im not sure if I have the group release function activated. I have everything on the truck for a shows tonight and tomorrow, but I will work on this more when I get back home and let you know. I do know that I have programmed at least 10 different types of fixtures using this software and have never had this problem. And i'm doing everything the same.

Just for more reference, I opened a NEW project and patched these fixtures to the same channels in the same universe (universe 1) and I got no problem. I also patched them to the same channels, but in universe 3 on the "old" project (which was giving me problems with universe 1) and I got no problem.. So it seems to me that the universe is junked up or something?

Is there anyway to erase or clear sections of a universe? I have lots of programming with lots of fixtures on this project and would hate to have to redo it ALL just because I need a clean section of universe..

Again, I am quite baffled by this. Please let me know if you have any other ideas, questions or suggestions..

Thanks!!

Richard CSL · Post by **Richard CSL** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 8:46 am

no you definately have a corrupted patch, and the correct solution is what you have done. and imn my experience, once the patch is corrupted there is little you can do. It is a bug that Daslight know about, but there advice will be the same.

you have solved your problem and that was to open a new project and then redo the patch. then just import your scenes from the old show and you are away, the only problem with importing scenes is that go to and jump commands can get lost.

AoS Lighting · Post by **AoS Lighting** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 3:45 pm

Ok, I suppose that will have to do.. I appreciate the info, and it's a load off my mind to know it's not something that I did or was missing that was causing the problem..

Does Daslight plan on fixing this?

Thanks again!!

Richard CSL · Post by **Richard CSL** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:09 pm

Daslight do not plan to do any more development on DVC2. as they are now working on DVC3.

so any bugs in DVC2 will stay.