Hazer not working with EDMX

I have 3 spaces where we run Obsession 2 consoles.  One of the spaces is networked so everythign is running on EDMX through Net2 portable DMX nodes.  Everything works fine (revolutions, Wybron scroller power supplies, Sea Changers, etc..) except our hazer.  We have a LeMaitre Radiance Hazer which stops and starts intermittently when connected in the networked space.  In our other 2 spaces we run DMX directly out of the local ports and the hazer works perfectly.  We have trouble shot and eliminated the possibility of a bad cable, opto splitter, etc.  Does anyone know of any reason why EDMX would affect the hazer differently than DMX form a local port?

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  • Have you tried slowing the speed out of the EDMX port?  This is done via NCE on a node by node/port by port basis.

    It may be that the speed coming out of the node is too fast for the LeMaitre hazer to respond to.  Also, do you have the signal terminated if the Hazer is the last device on the line?   These are the first two things that come to mind after you have checked the other items.

    Also, have you tried the opto splitters between the node and the hazer see if they make any difference to the Hazer?  Sometimes, regenerating the signal via a splitter will cure some of these voodoo DMX problems.

    Good luck.

     

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  • Have you tried slowing the speed out of the EDMX port?  This is done via NCE on a node by node/port by port basis.

    It may be that the speed coming out of the node is too fast for the LeMaitre hazer to respond to.  Also, do you have the signal terminated if the Hazer is the last device on the line?   These are the first two things that come to mind after you have checked the other items.

    Also, have you tried the opto splitters between the node and the hazer see if they make any difference to the Hazer?  Sometimes, regenerating the signal via a splitter will cure some of these voodoo DMX problems.

    Good luck.

     

Children
  • I do have an opto splitter  between the node and the hazer, and I have a terminator in the hazer.  I tried it with and without an opto splitter and got the same results.  The only thing I hadn't tried yet was slowing down the DMX speed because I was concerned about how that might effect the other devices coming out of that port.  Next time I'll set it up so the hazer has its own port on the node.

  • Any fully standards-compliant DMX receiver will work at any of the DMX speeds available on the Node.

    The main effect of slowing down the port speed is to increase latency.
    For devices like hazers and tungsten loads which respond relatively slowly anyway, you're unlikely to see any difference between Maximum and Slow.
    For fixtures like strobes and other extremely-fast response devices it is more likely to be noticeable.

    Note:
    On ETCNet2 Nodes, you need the latest v4 firmware for your node for this option to be fully available.
    On ETC Net3/ACN Gateways running in Net2 mode, this option is not yet available.



    [edited by: Richard at 11:56 AM (GMT -6) on Mon, Dec 14 2009]
  • You are correct in mentioning that any standards compliant DMX device should work fine

    Unfortunately there are a lot of "maybe" standards compliant devices (depending on the manufacturers interpretation,) which can respond oddly.  I don't know if the LeMaitre hazer device is one of these. 

    If he only has the first 3 channels of DMX on that node's port/universe does it output a full 512 channel stream, or does it only output the 3 channels patched and then send another break and start code?   If so, this hazer may be having problems with the refresh rate, which slowing the speed down might help.  He could also patch the last channel in that universe and do nothing with it to force the node into outputting a full segment of DMX data, without restarting somewhere in the middle.  For example if he is only using scrollers and the hazer on that port, he might only be using 24 channels of DMX and then restarting the sequence again.  If he were to patch DMX 512 from that universe to a dummy channel and leave it at 0%, it will force the node into a full length of DMX data.

    This might be the difference between patching directly into the back of the console vs. the output from a node.

    Again, good luck.

    Dennis.

     

     

  • The node will always output the number of channels set in the 'EDMX Channels' attribute. This defaults to 512, so it will usually be sending a whole Universe of DMX regardless.

    If some or all of those EDMX channels have no sources (ie are not patched anywhere), they'll be transmitted as Zero - basically, padding.

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