DiyLightAnimation

Hardware => Lynx Express => Topic started by: cody33rd on November 18, 2016,

Title: Just in case this happens to you. Check the rj45's
Post by: cody33rd on November 18, 2016,

I had an express quit working on me.  I had already test ran the show through this express this year with everything working great.  I had been running dmx through a lynx dongle to it.  I then switched the incoming data line from the dmx port from an active hub.  I had already tested running the Express from the active hub  this year too without a problem.  To my surprise the express quit working.  I did A LOT of trouble shooting checking everything I could think of.  I went back to the original dmx dongle and it also quit working.  I checked and re-checked cables, wireless jumpers, terminate jumpers, new cat 5 cables, reflashed the pic, changed the pic from a known good one, changed the 485 chips, and all the common problems.  I then bypassed the express and sent the data to my other expresses.  They all worked fine, so i knew the problem was with only with this express.  After doing everything mentions above again I decided to unhooked all the leads from the board and pull it from the cg-1500 so I could look at the back of the board.  everything looked fine but i warmed up the solder iron anyway thinking I would touch up the board anyways.  While I was waiting for it heat up I don't know why I thought to look but I did and I found the problem inside the rj45 jack.  One of the pins in the jack had slid over into it's neighbors slot, and of course it was one of the 2 pins that matter.  I could have saved a lot of time and head ache had I noticed this sooner.  Just thought I would share just in case this happens to anyone else.

Title: Re: Just in case this happens to you. Check the rj45's
Post by: kidcole on September 25, 2017,

I just discovered a similar problem with a brand new LE 5.1 kit.  Only mine was the 5th pin from the left, shorting against the 4th.  The problem causes the DMX link LED to light up and some of the channel LEDs latch on as I wiggled the cat-5 cable.  There was nothing connected to the other end of the cable.

I've been messing with that pin and I cannot get them straight enough to avoid this problem.  I may have to change the whole jack. :-(