Submaster partially activating

Hello all! I ran into an issue with a submaster this morning. I brought up the fader and all my LED strips and LEKOS fired up properly however the  four LITEMATS on that sub were completely unresponsive. I double checked their patching and the dip switches on their encoders as well as my wired connections and still no response at all despite those appearing correct.

These fixtures have been functioning properly for weeks without issue until this monday morning. These four LITEMATS seem to be the only fixtures misbehaving and  they function properly when conventionally used in a non dmx environment .

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Parents
  • Can you provide a bit more info on your setup?  Is this an Eos console and are you outputting via DMX or Network to these fixtures?  Also, are they on the same DMX daisy chain as other fixtures that are functioning properly?  A quick troubleshooting step if you are on an Eos console is to open [About] and then select the fixture you are having trouble with.  This will tell you the current channel an address is patched to, what parameter is assigned to it (if any), its current DMX output, current source and home position.  Run the sub a couple times and see if the fixture values change in this window.  This will narrow down the issue to console programming or DMX output.

  • I'm on an ION console and the fixtures are connected via DMX. The litemats are on their own daisy chain . I see in the about window that the values are changing as I adjust the sub, just no output from the fixtures.

    About reads as such :  Intens Source: ManU:1  Value:FL Abs:100  DMX:255    

                                       Blue : Value: 100  Abs: 100     DMX :255 (greyed out)

                                      Orange : Value 30 Abs: 30 DMX :70 ( all in yellow)

    Thanks again!

Reply
  • I'm on an ION console and the fixtures are connected via DMX. The litemats are on their own daisy chain . I see in the about window that the values are changing as I adjust the sub, just no output from the fixtures.

    About reads as such :  Intens Source: ManU:1  Value:FL Abs:100  DMX:255    

                                       Blue : Value: 100  Abs: 100     DMX :255 (greyed out)

                                      Orange : Value 30 Abs: 30 DMX :70 ( all in yellow)

    Thanks again!

Children
  • Great start, the console appears to be doing what you want.  Have you used these fixtures in this show before (on the current DMX output port)?  You may want to try moving this daisy chain to Port 1 on your console and see if they respond.  If they do, then you may have to change your DMX output settings to the correct DMX start address.  This can be done in in {Setup} -> {System Settings} -> {Output} and your DMX Ports will be listed with unique start address for each.  Most often ports 2 thru 4 start at address 513 (universe 2) and increase by 512 (to give you universe 2-4 control) but if your fixtures DMX address is within the first 512 channels they won't function.

  • Excellent ! I'll give that a shot right away, thank you!

  • And yes I've been using these fixtures for in their current output for a few months now without issue. Came back from the weekend and it was unresponsive.

  • okay so after some digging I think I found that menu in settings. My board is pretty old so some of the navigation was different  this is what I'm looking at 

  • What are your LITEMATS dmx address?  If they are plugged into port 2 on their own daisy chain and not patched to Universe 2, then they won't work unless you change Port 2 address to 1 instead of 513.  Also, were you able to test your LITEMAT dmx daisy chain on port 1?

  • The litemats are addressed as 2/100-101, 2/102-103, 2/ 104-105 ,  2/106-107. 

    It's just highly odd to me that these fixtures worked unaltered for months then all of a sudden just these four cease to function. Maybe  I  misunderstood seperate daisy chain. I have 5 pin dmx running out of my studio grids port into a 3 pin converter into  3pin pass thru  then out from port 1 of the pass thru to a 3 to 5 pin converter that then has a 5pin to cat 6 adaptor. From there cat 6 runs out to the 6x6 litegear dimmer packs. 

    My lekos and other LED strips just start from a different port in the lighting grid.

    I'm hesitant to get into changing the port numbers in the board  because they've been unaltered since I inherited this rig.

  • This is a lot of adaptation...

    And even a Cat is involved.

    I once run over a Cat-Cable that had lost its contact but looked like it was conected properly

    You could Open and Close every Adapter once with a little prayer : P

    and hopefully the wire god will heare you.

    Reminds me of:

  • You are correct.  Don't change any of your port settings.  Your fixtures will work on Port 2 of the console for the addresses you provided.  My next suggestion is either find a DMX tester to ensure the console is outputting to these addresses or use a DMX cable directly from your console to the fixtures without any other hardware and as little wire conversion as possible to see if you can get them to respond.  It is very odd that they worked for so long and then stopped and leads me to believe its more likely a component failure along the wiring path.  It seems you have quite a few junctions along the way too so a straight run between the two will help you troubleshoot backwards.

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