short flashes during show

Hello,
I sometimes experience the same behavior: very short flashes (and movement of the automatic devices). The behavior is really random. It happens once every ten shows.
I thought the problem was a cheap splitter in the DMX chain.
It usually happens within the first 10 minutes.
But maybe it's the console... I don't know.

Hello,
I sometimes experience the same behavior: very short flashes (and movement of the automatic devices). The behavior is really random. It happens once every ten shows.
I thought the problem was a cheap splitter in the DMX chain.
It usually happens within the first 10 minutes.
But maybe it's the console... I don't know.

The most common reason for this kind of thing is a bad DMX cable - usually a broken wire in an XLR connector.

One limitation of the DMX protocol is that it has no checksum or data validation, so receiving devices have no way to detect  and reject interference that was significant enough to change the data.

Historically, DMX interference tended to be invisible, because tungsten and most moving heads simply couldn't physically respond fast enough for a single 'wrong' packet to be visible. However, modern LED (and faster moving heads) can!

RDM does have a checksum, so if RDM isn't working well with kit that "should" work, that's a very strong indication of a bad cable somewhere in the daisychain.

Make sure you always properly terminate the DMX line.
This significantly reduces interference (removes reflections, absorbs the energy from interference), but more importantly it makes a bad cable visible!

An unterminated DMX cable with a completely disconnected wire will often "mostly" work - causing annoying flicker, especially once the audience are in with all their phones. Add the terminator, and it stops working past the break - making the fault much easier to find.