Odd behavior

[cody33rd]

Just built an express from the last coop.  When ever it loses its dmx signal all sorts of lights come on.  Some flash or blink, some are at different intensities and a couple are off.  It never really does the same thing twice, it is completely random.  I have only one power cord attached and all 16 channels somehow have power.  I did not think that they would come on if there was not a jumper attached, and I did not do the power mod.  As soon as I plug the dongle back in they all go off and it appears to work normal.  I have been running xlights tests and sequences.  It works perfectly until I unplug the dongle or data cable.  This is so strange to me.  I think it will work though.

[nvizzini]

Hi
I'm not sure about the lights coming on  with no DMX
but with only on side of the power or a floating ground
you could get some strange interaction in your out puts
Make sure all neutrals are connected to the right place.

re check all connections and try again
be careful there may be 110|V AC on the outputs
that part marked HIGH VOLTAGE

Good Luck

Nicholas

[chrisatpsu]

this is a common occurance for dmx devices...  sometimes people will talk about their show ending fine, then wake up in the middle of the night to find a few channels on.  in you leave the dongle on (but not running a sequence) it will send 0's to keep everything off.

[chrisatpsu]

here's a video of my demo last year...
I haven't connect the dmx wire to the last Express (running the last two arches)   so you can see they are steady of, for some of the channels

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

[cody33rd]

So I got home and started to play with this express some more.  I noticed that the Data link light always stayed on whether or not it had DMX.  I did a forum search and you all had those people switch the rs485 chips.  I did that and the data link light problem was solved.  It also stopped all the random behavior with the channel leds.  So this board seems to be normal (whatever that means).  Its funny that a little switch like that could totally change the personality of an express.  Maybe this will help some folks in the future to.