upgrade to 128M from 100 Basic problem

andrewsmith86 · Post by **andrewsmith86** » Tue Nov 29, 2011 2:00 pm

Hi all. OK, so we're having a problem with our new DVC2 128-M that we bought to replace a DVC 100 Basic that died about 4 months ago. Our problem is that since we've started using the DVC2 128-M, after a short time running daslight, gobos and tilt/scan positions don't match what daslight is sending out to our scanners. The problem affects all scenes and not just certain ones.

(All Martin fixtures, 8 scanners, a Wizard and an Acrobat)

For example, running the scene "slow blue scans" all of the fixtures should be blue but one might be pink, one might be green. The problem isn't just with certain fixtures. One moment it can affect one or two, then it can affect all of them so the rest will be the wrong colours. Then the first two that we're the wrong colour might go back to blue.

The problem affects different fixtures throughout different times of the night. Then the problem seems to move randomly, i.e affect one fixure for a while and then later it will behave as it should. I should point out that the problem doesn't occur while the likes of slow blue scans is running. You have to run slow blue scans, then a few other scenes and then go back to slow blue scans.

This is also true of tilt/pan positioning too. Using the "white on mirror ball" scene as an example, at the start of the night, the scene will behave as it should (all fixtures white and hitting the mirror ball). Given a bit of time and running the scene later, one will be orange and pointing the wrong way, then another with a different colour in a different position. Completely at random.

Also, the motors on the scanner can be made making a horrible sort of churning noise at times. We suspect that this might be the motors hitting the stoppers (i.e pointing furtherest up and right).

Now we've had the guys who we bought the DVC2-128M off come in and take a look last night. They suggested that the newer box that replaced the 100 Basic may be sending out data too fast compared to the 100 Basic. Also, they showed us that by moving the gobo slider for the fixture up slowly up to maximum (127) then slowly back to 0, it corrects the wrong gobo issue. The same for the tilt/pan issue.

They're lending us another box for us to try over the weekend to see what happens. I wanted to post the problem on here as well though to see if anyone can help. If anyone can, that would be great.

Thanks!

Andrew.

Post by **simonB** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:19 am

It sounds like the Martin fixtures are missing DMX input messages. Which scanners are you using? I have had lots of problems with Martin MX1's in the past. If you are using the latest generation of the DVC2-128m with the SIUDI9 board (as opposed to the SIUDI8 board), you can change the DMX timings by opening tools.exe and selecting the timings tab. There are a few presets for you to try.

andrewsmith86 · Post by **andrewsmith86** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:49 pm

Hey Simon. Yeah we're using 4x MX-1 and 4x MX-4s. With the 100 Basic we had before, we never had any of these problems. What's the best way to check if it's SIUDI9 or 8? I'll have a look tomorrow when I'm at work next. If you could post your ideas as to what changes I could make and how, that would be great.

Thanks!

Andrew.

Post by **simonB** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 9:47 am

You can see the interface model by opening tools.exe found in the Daslight directory and windows start menu. Click on the timings tab try the 3 different presets.

andrewsmith86 · Post by **andrewsmith86** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 4:36 pm

Thanks Simon. I'll be in work later tonight to try it so I'll post back tomorrow!

andrewsmith86 · Post by **andrewsmith86** » Fri Dec 02, 2011 5:17 am

OK Simon. The tools application is showing the box as being SIUDI-6A with firmware 1.15. There is no timings tab. There are 4 tabs... Interface, firmware, test and stand alone. The tools application is the May 6th 2011 version.

I've just realised though I downloaded the tools app from the website and used that one. There doesn't appear to be tools app in the install folder. This is Daslight 1 were using by the way. Once everything is up and running, we'll move over to version 2.

I'll also mention as well that the problem I spoke about in my opening post also occurs in Daslight 1 and 2 in case you were going to suggest using v2.

Any suggestions as to what to do next?

Thanks!

Post by **simonB** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 2:22 pm

This is an older generation 128-m and doesn't allow for the DMX timings to be changed. One other idea would be to try a DMX booster/splitter like this one:
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalo ... CG4Q8gIwBA

Also make sure your DMX line is terminated

andrewsmith86 · Post by **andrewsmith86** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:15 pm

Thank you Simon. Bit confused as to why we've got this older generation box then really. We bought the box about 2 months ago. Has the newer generation box been released since then? If it wasn't released before that, I think we'll have a talk with our supplier as to why we got the older one.

Andrew.

Post by **simonB** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:39 am

Hi Andrew, the later generation has been available since February, I guess they still had stock to clear.

If you are having trouble with your supplier, let me know and I will see if I can arrange an upgrade.

andrewsmith86 · Post by **andrewsmith86** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:49 pm

Thanks Simon. Very kind of you! We'll talk to the supplier and get back to you and let you know what happens.

Andrew.

sam_cvs · Post by **sam_cvs** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 5:09 pm

Hi Simon, I will post 2 replys about Daslight.

Firstly..

I am the supplier, i brought this unit off Prolight invoice date 19.09.2011.
DVC2 128M. As far as i was aware this was the latest version. They borrowed my DVC2 512 Siudi 9 for a weekend and had the same problem.

I am very confused and hope it is something i can resolve easily. I am hoping my box is old too even though it was only purchased 4 weeks ago.

If anyone can shine some light (even if the light is the wrong colour) on this that would be great. The system is terminated and has good runs of dmx cable. Neutrik connectors etc.

I havn't tried a dmx booster as yet, I know martin mx scans are terrible units and i had problems perviously with scanners going out of sync when using fast sequences. This has occoured on Daslight, Win commander, Mydmx and generic 192 channel controllers.

Help please.

sam_cvs · Post by **sam_cvs** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 5:34 pm

Secondly,

If this is the case with the unit being old i am very dissapointed. I have always supported daslight products since 2005 when Vianney visited my store. (think i still have a grey box somewhere)

This year alone i have purchased over £2500 of daslight product's which have been installed/supplied to local clubs/pubs/djs.

I make very little margin on the products so when problems arise i am out of pocket (for instance, i had a call out on this job meaning im already down).

Prolight although very helpful don't know an awful lot about versions of daslight and say to contact you direct. The club in question may now think i am trying to "shift old stock" which is certainly not the case!

So for me as a retailer im left with a products i make no money on and have bad backup.

Im sure 10 - 15 units a year is a small amount of your business but its quite alot to me. But i feel i should look for another product which is a real shame.

Dissapointed Sam @ CVS

andrewsmith86 · Post by **andrewsmith86** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 4:51 pm

Argh OK, the saga continues. Now our box doesn't work at all. When connected to our computer via USB, only the power indicator on the box lights up. the DMX and hash symbol icon don't light up at all.

Upon opening Daslight, the software recognises the box on the splash screen but the box doesn't respond to anything at all in Daslight. This happened about 2 weeks ago after being used and working fine on a Thursday night and then the next night, this happened.

Things to note are that upon powering up our lights then turning on the computer, usually the lights will stay blacked out until running a scene on Daslight but on the Friday night, they were all on white.

Now usually at the very end of the night (we're a nightclub) we have a scene called 'end of night' which literally just puts all of the lights on white to provide a bit of house lighting. This was pretty much what the lights were doing by default when powered on along with our computer but without Daslight open.

This obviously isn't normal behaviour so after running on sound to light for a while and not being able to figure anything out at work, I've bought the box home with me. I have both Daslight 1 and 2 installed and I've looked through numerous boxes and settings in the softwares.

Now, i've noticed in Daslight 2 that in stand alone, when I read the boxes memory, there is a scene in there. This scene is identical to the 'end of night' scene that we run at the end of the night. Why this is, I have no idea. We have no reason to run our box in stand alone mode because it serves no purpose really.

I've tried the 'erase memory' button but I just get a message saying 'impossible to write the memory'. So at this point we're stuck with a box that we can't take out of stand alone mode with just this one scene which puts all of our lights on open white.

The stand alone side of Daslight has never been touched so I'm pretty confused as to what's going on here. Any suggestions on what can be done to help would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Andrew.

andrewsmith86 · Post by **andrewsmith86** » Fri Jan 06, 2012 5:10 pm

I'd just like to add that after unplugging and plugging the USB cable a few times, the red DMX light now lights up.

andrewsmith86 · Post by **andrewsmith86** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 4:49 pm

Bump. It's been a week and we've still got a dead box on our hands. Any help would be great, thanks a lot.

Andrew.

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upgrade to 128M from 100 Basic problem

upgrade to 128M from 100 Basic problem

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