New lights don't work coz of electronics store incompetence

[Designer]

:complain:

How annoying is this, i'm really annoyed now, we've just bought 3 Spyro's (sort of like a high powered DMX moonflower effect), and we can't use them yet because of MAPLIN ELECTRONICS PLC. :wack:

I had to wire these in to another chain from the DMX splitter and they don't have internal terminators, not a problem I thought, i'll just pop into maplins and buy a couple of male XLR connectors and 5 120ohm 1/4 watt resistors (so i've got a few spares) and I can make a terminator up for that chain. OK, bought the XLR connectors and went to the counter, got told we don't stock any components anymore, we'll order them for you and have them posted. So now i've bought the components which cost a total of £0.05 and had to pay £2.50 postage and packing. They just arrived (delivered to my house) and guess what, they sent the wrong value 130 ohm. :complain:

They'd probably work but I wont chance it coz it might do some damage, so yet again, weve got 3 new lights that we cant use yet, another 2 days till I can try them but I can't wait.

I'll try and post some pics when I've got em working

[jamesnet]

Nice, gotta love that, like me driving to the martin service center to get hazer fluid at 10AM and no one is there.. and it is like 50 miles away...

[Designer]

What really got to me was having to pay £2.50 P&P for 5p of stuff and even then they get it wrong.

I bet you were p**ed off having to drive 50 miles for nothing

[jamesnet]

yup, got almost home and they called me and said they were there...

[Designer]

I sent Maplin's an E-mail this morning complaining about the poor service and sending the wrong parts.

A car turned up this afternoon, it turns out as their warehouse is fairly close they sent someone out to me with the correct resistors. :)

Now where's my soldering iron.........

[Stripe]

:tup:

[jamesnet]

I have the weirdest DMX problem... The new laser, and even the old green one all the sudden do not like my LJ, I had it at address 115 and the laser would turn on and off like there was noise, I tried different cables, my DMX opto splitter, and nothing.. I put it on channel 002 and everything is fine. Also my other fixtures are fine on any channel...
Very Strange.

[Designer]

If your prepared to I'll try and help you solve this one James.


I'll appologise first for how silly the questions sound, just so I can get an idea

A few questions first, are the lasers the last fixtures on the cable or very close to the end?
Are you using an internal terminator in the last fixture or do you have an XLR type terminator?

Are there any power cables close to the DMX cable?

Use a test meter and check for continuity between pin 1 of the DMX in/out connectors and the chassis of the lasers. Some manufactuerers were doing this a while brack and it's a complete breach of the DMX standards and tends to induce interference in DMX cabling around the problematic fixture(s).

[jamesnet]

Well, I haven't had a chance to do the continuity test, however, here are some partial answers:
1. I have put only the laser on the output with a terminator and I have the same problem, I also tried putting the laser on my old 2510 controller, and it will only work on a low channel.
2. Moved the controller to the other room, made sure everything was good and still same thing..

I really am puzzled on this one, cause everything else works fine

[Designer]

I was going to suggest that a couple of channels arn't being transmitted properly but as you've tried it on a different controller you've already eliminated that. Check the polarity of the DMX cable against the fixtures manual, if I remember right some Martin fixtures have Ho/Clod reversed (pins 2&3 swapped), that would cause the fixture to recieve some garbage data but would pass on ok to other fixtures of the correct polarity.

What happens if you move the fixture positions around in the DMX universe (i.e. laser is the 1st fixture on the cable, scanners 2nd etc)?

If none of the above work, you could try and use a handheld DMX tester and just connect it directly to the fixture,try a few address settings and transmit to it with the tester, as this will give a better idea whats happening. If all the above doesn't work then your probably looking at a partly knackered DMX reciever board.

hope this helps