Ok - I've been posting today in the Trouble shooting thread as I thought I had an Express issue (and still may have), but I'm beginning to think it is the dongle. To summarize, built 3 expresses and two have given me some problems but one seemed to work properly. Installed the PIC's in the Express, set the Dongle up and plugged it in, set as Com Port 3. Connected Dongle to the one Express I felt had no issues via CAT5 and thought everything was a go. Put the Express in Test mode, ran through all the tests and gave me confirmation via LED 2, 3, and 4. Thought everything was well and good and I was getting the DMX data. In normal mode, Express is set to start channel 1. Downloaded the DMX deck just to play, set comport to Comport 3, but no lights would come on. The figured I would try the EXpress Configuration Utility. Selected Comport 3 selected the light curves, said I wanted the start channel to be #1 and hit program. Nothing happened on the Board. NO blink, re-boot etc. Configuration utility just says transmitting start address.
Not sure where to start troubleshooting but I think my dongle is the problem.