DMX Flicker/Pulse

I have just recently done a large production on an EOS console with ETC Net3 Gateway utilizing 4 universes of DMX.

I had DMX flicker/pulse across all universes within the low range of addressing from 1 - 50. . Whilst trying to ascertain the problem, I contacted my local support, Andrew Maher, Jands Pty Ltd, in Sydney, Australia. Andrew brought another gateway down and this did not rectify the issue, so he proceeded to locate another console from a local production house, Chameleon Touring Systems. We swapped over consoles and gateways and loaded the show file and still experienced the exact same problem. It was then decided to reassign new addresses to dimmers and moving lights higher in the unisverse and this resulted in the flicker disappearing and the full system becoming stable.

I along with two of my other colleagues, strongly feel that there is some sort of software glitch whereby a signal is being sent out within this low range of addressing.

Has anybody else had this issue?

Regards

Adrian Wright

Lighting Supervisor

National Institute of Dramatic Art

Sydney, Australia

hkmorgan87 over 11 years ago

I had a very similar issue with my ION and using Net2 nodes with moving lights. I had flicker across 2 universes, all addresses. After dealing with ETC tech support, I slowed down the DMX port speed on the node. And voila, that fixed my issue.

If you have a similar issue again, try connecting the local outs of the board to your dmx chains and see if the issue resolves.

[edited by: hkmorgan87 at 11:16 PM (GMT -6) on Wed, Jul 24 2013]
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Adrian Wright over 11 years ago in reply to hkmorgan87

Yes, my local tech support, told me to slow down the DMX port speed on the node, and unfortunately this was unsuccessful.
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hkmorgan87 over 11 years ago in reply to Adrian Wright

ACN? I've also experienced issues with moving lights when I had RDM enabled. Disabling RDM fixed some of the issues that I had. But I am still running NET2
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hleiter over 11 years ago

I had the same effect with DMX equipment that was not compliant with the DMX512A standard (low-cost 3-pin DMX mergers, dimmer bars and moving lights). Obviously this type of equipment misinterprets RDM data packets as lighting data. When I turned off RDM in the NET3 gateways, the problem was gone.

Hans
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Louis over 11 years ago in reply to hleiter

I also had this trouble. The solution was how Hans wrote. Turn off RDM in the gateway and the flicker was gone.
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Jeff Toussieng over 11 years ago

Let's take this into another dimension. I use an ION. I have some Chauvet QWash LED movers along with some other brands of led's and non-led movers (Robe). When I first used my Chauvets I got flicker and strange other things happening with my Chauvets when they were dmx'd in the same string as my Robe fixtures. Their tech support said they don't like being connected in the same DMX string as other types/brands of fixtures. When I used an ETC DMX Opto-Isolater the problem went away.

Last week I ran the same Chauvets along with some ADJ battery operated LED fixtures on the same string and everything started flickering at random. Did the iso again and the problem went away.

My guess is Chauvet has their fixtures set to a different speed that causes these problems.

Any input? Kind a dumb to have to isolate fixtures to different runs.
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hkmorgan87 over 11 years ago in reply to Jeff Toussieng

Hey Jeff, you should start a new topic.
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