Chauvet Intimidator Spot LED 150 - Horizontal Pan

[almohaph]

1. I am running two Intimidator spot LED 150s out of a Chauvet Obey 70 controller.

2. Both are addressed as Fixture 1 (D001). I am running the fixtures in the 11 channel mode.

3. Channels 2-11 work perfectly. However,

4. Channel 1 that controls horizontal pan does not work UNTIL I hit the Page B button on the Obey 70 which makes Channel 1 become Channel 17. Then it works perfectly! But none of the other channels do b/c they are all assigned and work on Page A (Channels 1-12).

5. The fixture at the end of the chain is terminated (though with or without the terminator, I get the same results). All the cables are DMX grade and I have tried swapping them out with no change in results.

6. I have tried every DMX address for the fixtures from 17, 33, through 352, and up to 500, though nothing seems to change the fact that the horizontal pan only works on Channel 17 and not on Channel one as the manual says it should.

7. Out of ideas and grateful for any that anyone in the forum may have.

8. Many thanks

[shoot summ]

That's very odd.

I would start with a reset of all of the fixtures, and the controller.

Break it down to just 1 fixture, and test the pan function.

If that doesn't work I would try another controller if you have one.

I have a pair of 155's running on a DMX-50 with no issues.

Found this as a trouble shooting tip on Chauvet's site...

1. If you are using wireless DMX you should connect a DMX cable, not an XLR cable, directly from your DMX board or Software dongle to the fixture.

2. If the fixture doesn’t respond, make sure the fixture is in DMX mode.

3. Some fixtures will have a DMX signal indicator to show that it is getting signal.

4. If the fixture doesn’t react then make sure the DMX address for that fixture is correct.

5. If the fixture is correct but still doesn’t react, then make sure the fixture has the correct channel mode or number of channels specified on your controller. Since some fixtures run multiple channel modes you will want to make sure that the number coincides with the board and the fixture.

[conanski]

Hard to believe both heads would have the exact same problem so odd are it's the controller. That controller doesn't give you much control anyway so I'd suggest the Blizzard ProKontrol MH as a replacement, I have one of these and have it all figured out so if you get one and need any help just give me a shout.

[almohaph]

Dear Conanski and Shoot Summ,

Thank you very much for your fast and informative responses. The combined ideas you provided allowed me to think a bit more critically about the situation: the fact that it was odd that both heads were responding the way they were, and the point about resetting.

Those ideas led me to the conclusion that it has to be the controller and indeed, it was. I found a user manual online that was completely different than the one shipped with my controller. There it has detailed instructions on how to reassign channels for pan/tilt to the joystick and for resetting. Happy to say all is well now and am including the link of the user guide I found for the Obey 70 in case it might help someone else.

All the best,
almohaph

[shoot summ]

Dear Conanski and Shoot Summ,

Thank you very much for your fast and informative responses. The combined ideas you provided allowed me to think a bit more critically about the situation: the fact that it was odd that both heads were responding the way they were, and the point about resetting.

Those ideas led me to the conclusion that it has to be the controller and indeed, it was. I found a user manual online that was completely different than the one shipped with my controller. There it has detailed instructions on how to reassign channels for pan/tilt to the joystick and for resetting. Happy to say all is well now and am including the link of the user guide I found for the Obey 70 in case it might help someone else.

All the best,
almohaph

Good to know, I saw the section on using the joystick, and assigning channels, but didn't really go through it.

So did you just reset the controller, or assign the channels?

[almohaph]

I unplugged everything and reset the controller first (as guided by page 8 of the manual shown in the link above), celebrated the fact that the heads were panning left and right, then proceeded to page 10 of the manual where it talks about "Joystick Assignment." It's really just a matter of reassigning Channels 1 and 2 (pan and tilt) to Channels 15 and 16 (the joystick x/y axes). The steps for doing so will get you there. However, it took me a few attempts to figure out what it wanted me to do in Step 3 where it says, "Move the SPEED fader until you arrive at controller pan/tilt number." What it should say is, "Move the SPEED fader until you arrive at the controller pan/tilt number where you'd like Channels 1 and 2 reassigned." (meaning for the pan, slide the speed fader up until you get to 15, and for the tilt, repeat the procedure and slide the speed fader up again until you get to 16).

Once that's all locked in and saved, you're good to go. Something quite satisfying about having control over them now with the joystick. Not sure how much I'd actually use it during a gig but, you never know, the queen might unexpectedly show up and require the spots to be moved in her direction. Speaking of spots, the two I have are not 150s. They are 155s. Quite an oversight on my part with the nomenclature and my apologies for the misinformation in the title of this thread.