DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx EtherDongle => Topic started by: c4v3man on October 24, 2012,
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Programmed (twice) with PicKit3 while disconnected from DC power (same as LEv5's). Verifies fine.
Plug in power, no board LED (fine, not supposed to indicate power).
Plug in ethernet to laptop. MagicJack lights up.
Fire up vixen with ED DMX plugin. Assign all channels. Run Vixen Channel test, and while dragging the slider, or playing the show, get steady activity light.
The board's LED does not light up, and my LE's do not receive any signal. Output direct from ED to LEv5.
What should I check first? PIC is working (programmed/verified) and ethernet is working (receives data). Some sort of connection problem between the two?
UPDATE: Bad Cable on EtherDongle output to Lynx Express...
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Just one little correction - MagJack is short for a jack with the magnetics (transformers) inside it. Magic Jack is a voice-over-IP solution for telephones.
Are you using the DMX firmware for the eD?
/mike
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Just one little correction - MagJack is short for a jack with the magnetics (transformers) inside it. Magic Jack is a voice-over-IP solution for telephones.
Are you using the DMX firmware for the eD?
/mike
Yes, using dmx firmware.
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Quick pics of board. Can reshoot if needed later.
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Sounds like you may be having a set up issue with Vixen
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Sorry I was thinking conductor and removed my post before your reply.
Question is the LEv5 boards terminated and the wireless jumper in place?
Steve
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Sorry I was thinking conductor and removed my post before your reply.
Question is the LEv5 boards terminated and the wireless jumper in place?
Steve
Both jumpers are in place (although I tried with the terminate jumper out).
Lynx set to dmx001. Vixen has etherdongle dmx plugin configured for channels 1-48 (only 3 LE's this year).
If Vixen was misconfigured, wouldn't the etherdongle get NO data, or am I incorrect in this assumption?
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This is my first year, but I believe if you have the proper output plugin set in Vixen and try and run the sequence it would give you an error if it did not see it.
not to offend you, but you said starting with 3 LE's this year, have set the start channels on all 3 LE's?
If you have all three LE's set with the first one set to channel 1 (Terminate jumper must be off) then this one connected to the next ones with the proper start channel of 17 on one and 33 on the last one. If they do not go to another controller then the terminate jumper must be on.
Steve
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You mentioned that the LED on the ED is not working is that correct? The LED is an indicator that the PIC is working properly and not a power indicator.
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This is my first year, but I believe if you have the proper output plugin set in Vixen and try and run the sequence it would give you an error if it did not see it.
not to offend you, but you said starting with 3 LE's this year, have set the start channels on all 3 LE's?
If you have all three LE's set with the first one set to channel 1 (Terminate jumper must be off) then this one connected to the next ones with the proper start channel of 17 on one and 33 on the last one. If they do not go to another controller then the terminate jumper must be on.
Steve
I have no problem with questions about the basics.
Technically I am testing output to just one LE with the starting channel being displayed of 001. I figured the other channels (17-48) would be ignored, but perhaps my assumption is incorrect. I do have the LE's programmed with the correct starting channels however... As stated, I tried with the terminate jumper connected, but for the heck of it powered down the board and unplugged it to test as well.
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You mentioned that the LED on the ED is not working is that correct? The LED is an indicator that the PIC is working properly and not a power indicator.
I realize that the LED is not a power indicator (as stated in the assembly manual), but other than connecting my multimeter to verify correct polarity, and to verify it wasn't burnt out, I have never seen the LED lit up, even when programming. At what point should the LED come on?
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Also, just to make sure it's clear, I have a standard cat5 cable going from the ED to the LEv5. It is not a crossover cable, nor is it customized in any way. From what I read, without using a "combiner" in a reverse fashion, hooking up straight to an LE limits you to 512 channels (1 universe) which is fine. But it sounded like a straight cable going from the ED to the LE would work fine for those 512 channels, correct? Or do I need to make a custom cable... I didn't really see a spec on the pinout for the output from the ED, nor the input into the LEv5 beyond pins 1 and 2 being used for the DMX signal. Am I correct in assuming the ED sends out 4 pairs of DMX signals, including channels 1-512 on pins 1 and 2?
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Went in to test again tonight, and hooked up the cables differently and noticed that I wasn't getting a link on the MagJack any longer... verified the cable and saw that it is in fact a straight cable... switched the cables out and the MagJack started working again...
Apparently the factory made cat5 cable I was using for testing wasn't working... replaced with another cable and now getting DMX. Sorry for wasting your time, didn't expect a new cat5 cable to be broken outta the box...
The board LED still has never lit up on me, so I'm curious as to what should cause it to light up... but irregardless it is working properly now. Thank you for your time, and I apologize for wasting it.
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The board LED still has never lit up on me, so I'm curious as to what should cause it to light up... but irregardless it is working properly now. Thank you for your time, and I apologize for wasting it.
No need to apologize. I'm glad you figured it out and got it working.
On mine the LED comes on as soon as I plug it in. So, it sounds like the LED may be backwards or simply bad. If everything is working for you, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
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Glad to hear you got it fixed.
From my short experience on this forum I can say it was not a waste of time as now I have learned something new to test if I run into issues.
Steve
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Glad you got it going.
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The board LED still has never lit up on me, so I'm curious as to what should cause it to light up... but irregardless it is working properly now. Thank you for your time, and I apologize for wasting it.
I think you checked the polarity, but double check its in the correct way. I think the round side is positive (double check this).
The other thing is I would check your solder joints. From the picture on top it doesn't look like the solder is flowing through like I would think it should.
The cat5 jack shows you have power so in the end if the LED does not work it probably doesn't matter.
Enjoy the lights.
We just received an inch of snow so I'm not real excited. :)
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The board LED still has never lit up on me, so I'm curious as to what should cause it to light up... but irregardless it is working properly now. Thank you for your time, and I apologize for wasting it.
When installing LED's on a board you must take care as they do not like to be mishandled.
1. Do not bend or spread the LED leads without holding the leads with needle nose pliers between the bend and the LED base..
2. Do not push the LED down flush with the board, you will see a couple of tabs about 1/4" from the base of the LED. This is where you should stop. Sometimes the hole spacing in PCB's are not spaced correctly for the LED leads to insert and put a stress on the LED junction, then you might have a failure.
3. HEAT: LED's cannot take a lot of heat while soldering, especially if the leads are stressed in the holes, the heat will then break the internal junctions of the LED. You need to have enough lead (1/4") between the solder joint and the LED base to keep the heat from traveling to the LED junction.
This is from my 40+ years of soldering.
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There's no multi-quote button, so I'll do my best to answer the questions/comments. Thanks again for all the help.
1. Yes, I checked the polarity with a multi-meter. Since it lit up using the multi-meter, I would assume...
2. That the LED was not burnt out/bent improlerly/overheated/?
3. I did notice the tab/flat spots in the LED's. I haven't had any problem with any of my LE's LED's being installed all the way down, but I'll take any advice I can to avoid problems in the future, so thanks!
4. I seem to use too little solder it appears... I just try to solder to the point where I get a good joint on the surface I'm looking at, where's it ramps up nicely to the component from the pad on the board and covers the pad completely, and results in a shiny joint. I'll try to use a bit more solder in the future.
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Glad you got it working and we have one more item to add to the "test this before you panic" list. While I have a rather expensive cat5/6 cable tester there are several available for reasonable prices and would not be a bad tool to add to the tool box for anyone running lots of cables. Sears has one for $30
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_03416289000P?sid=IDx01192011x000001&srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=30-79973591-2
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Glad you got it working and we have one more item to add to the "test this before you panic" list. While I have a rather expensive cat5/6 cable tester there are several available for reasonable prices and would not be a bad tool to add to the tool box for anyone running lots of cables. Sears has one for $30
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_03416289000P?sid=IDx01192011x000001&srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=30-79973591-2
I have access to one at work, I just rarely ever run into a bad new cable... It's hardly even worth fixing. I think this one came with a router that was unused...
The cable's just for testing... going to have to make my own cables for the actual installation.
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Glad you got it working and we have one more item to add to the "test this before you panic" list. While I have a rather expensive cat5/6 cable tester there are several available for reasonable prices and would not be a bad tool to add to the tool box for anyone running lots of cables. Sears has one for $30
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_03416289000P?sid=IDx01192011x000001&srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=30-79973591-2
I have access to one at work, I just rarely ever run into a bad new cable... It's hardly even worth fixing. I think this one came with a router that was unused...
The cable's just for testing... going to have to make my own cables for the actual installation.
My reply wasn't to you specifically it's good you have access to a tester. I have had quite a few brand new patch cables come up bad in the last few months so now I don't trust any of them. :o