Stray Channel Coming on

[scottmc70]

I setup my display and ran the first test but I have a stray channel coming on dim sometimes. It acts like interference. I am using unshielded cat 5 “the blue stuff” . The channel 35 works fine when triggered by vixen just comes on dim sometimes when channel 12 is triggered but not every time. Will changing to the gray cat 5 solve this or do I have a different problem?

Other than that the show ran great we had neighbors coming outside to watch and had request to run it again.  <pop..LOL

Thanks
Scott.

[rm357]

Need more info.
What is your basic setup?
Is this pixelnet or dmx; strings or expresses or something else.
What is the question to 42? (sorry I couldn't resist, this is in reference to The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

RM

[scottmc70]

My set up is 3 expresses v5 running cat5 to all 3 the stray channel is on LE 3 and the channel that seems to trigger it is on LE 1. It only happens sometimes when channel 12 fires but channel 35 works fine when fired by vixen. The cat 5 cable I am using is the blue cable and is running into the case next to the power wires for channel  12-16 so that led me to think that there was some interference coming from channel 12 that the express was reading as channel 35 data. I was going to try to replace the cat 5 with the gray type anyway but wanted a 2nd opinion

What is the question to 42? (sorry I couldn't resist, this is in reference to The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

RM

 

[rrowan]

I doubt its the cat5

Did you properly set the termination jumper on the last LE and make sure the other LE's don't have the termination jumper set?

Rick R.

[deplanche]

If you swap your controllers, do the same channels still give you a problem?  You can either physically change them, or just change the starting address on them.

I've had this be a problem with channels that I have accidentally turned on to 5% or something liek that, and can't see in Vixen, but is apparent in the real show.

[rm357]

I don't think there is any way that the two expresses could be interfering with each other. I think the other guys have pretty much covered the possible causes except for the final one - If it seems to be a specific LE that is having the problem, re-flash the pic.

I f you are swapping the channels around, there is no requirement for the LEs to be in order - all of them get the entire DMX universe. Just change the start channel on each one. Assuming you have the third LE starting at channel 33, it might be interesting to change the start channel on the third LE to something like 28 just to see if the problem follows the DMX channel or the channel on the LE.

Good Luck!
RM

[scottmc70]

I doubt its the cat5

Did you properly set the termination jumper on the last LE and make sure the other LE's don't have the termination jumper set?

Rick R.

I did not have the jummper set but have set it now and it seemed to help but still getting a few dim flashes but not as many as before and thay are now at the same place in the song, so I am going to check Vixen for what deplanche said.
Thanks for all the help will keep you posted
Scott

[JonB256]

On the first two LEs, you have an RJ45 jack marked IN and one marked OUT and another marked OUT 2.

Which ones are you using? (For your 3 board setup, you probably just need to use the IN and OUT. The OUT 2 is used to split the signal to reduce the amount of CAT5 in a yard.)

Can I assume that board #1 is set at Channel 1, board #2 is Channel 17 and board #3 is Channel 33 ??

And Terminations. Be sure it is ONLY "Jumpered" on the last board of the CAT5 (the only board with a single CAT5 cable)

[tbone321]

Actually, any express that does not have a cat 5 connected to the output needs to have the terminator jumper set to on, even if it has a cable connected to the out 2 connector.