Daslight Forum

After a long time of use without any problems it happend to me just before a major exhibition show that my DVC2 Gold all of the sudden stopped sending DMX out. It neither worked on my backup PC, nor after reistallation of the software with all drivers on the main PC. All 3 control LEDs were flashing as usual. I tried a couple of times to revitalise the box by unplugging, but no success.

The interface had been running for about 8 hours since I had to test and partly reprogram about 100 lights. The next day it restarted with no problems at all. Any ideas about a possible reason or any solution for restarting the interface more quickly?

Regards, Nobby99

Is it possible that it had over heated ?
Could any of the DMX connectors be a bit dodgy on the interface, dry joint or something.
Otehr than that I cannot think of anything else that could cause a temporary breakdown of the interface

Have you checked to see if you have a dodgy intermitant dmx cable. I have had that before, a test with a meter showed it was all connected correctly and then plugged in a dmx tester and no DMX, found out it was the wiring inside the dmx plug, was shorting sometimes but not at others, wiggled it around and it would or would not work. Replaced it and all OK since.

The only time I have had problems with not seeing the interface was when it failed to update the firmware and DVC2 hung in memory (I actually had 3 copies of DVC2 running) so had to use task manager to terminate the program. The the interface eventually was updated OK and detected OK.

I am not sure if it could be related to the DMX cable. Then I should have seen the effect before - or am I wrong?

Nobby99

nobby99 wrote:I am not sure if it could be related to the DMX cable. Then I should have seen the effect before - or am I wrong?

Nobby99

As said mine was intermitant, depending on how the cable was, soemtimes it worked other times it did not. As said I ran a ohmmeter on it and it seemed fine. Plugged in a dmx tester and nada. was not until I took the plug off I could see it was possible to create a short with just a little bit of movement in the cable.

Usually I operate the interface in parallel to my 12 CH PAR chaser (used for the bar area) through a DMX merger. I am almost sure that I tried to plug the interface directly into the dimmer rack for the other 60 PARs (for the main show) that was planned to be controlled by DasLight. I am on a trip right now an will check with my DMX tester next week if there is anything wrong.

Regards, Nobby99

I have just bought a professional DMX tester (not only for connectivity but also for each dmx value). Will see if this helps in case this would (hopefully not) happen again.

Nobby99

Also if the DMX output chip goes down - remember to get you out of trouble you can swap the onboard DMX (out) chip for the one on the DMX (in) side of the controller. They are on removable sockets but make sure you get them inserted the correct way around.
Check for the notch or dot on the end.

Thank you for the Info. Do you mean the 2 8-pin Sipex chips U3 and U5?

Nobby99

Yes, there are only the 2 removable processors on the PCB, they are both the same. Simply swap them over if the output one goes down.

Ade