2LE problems

[jthtiger]

Hey everyone! Spent a lot of time searching through the forums and nothing I've come across yet seems to fit my problem.

I build 2 LE. Bought the parts myself, no coop. Everything worked great. PICs flashed properly and everything seemed to be fine until I hooked it up to my DMX controller.

Here's the issue. Both units boot up fine. I see Lynx Express 60hz scroll on the digits. No slow scrolling. All buttons work fine. I go to the test mode and the test mode works perfectly. All channel LED's light up, and afterwards I have LED's 2 and 4 on (ZC and DONE).

Now when I plug in my DMX cable, which in my case is an adapter for Enttec Pro to CAT5. <side note> I'm not using a Enttec Pro. I'm using a professional DMX console as I'm using these LE's in a stage environment so DMX timing should be perfect if not better than the Enttec Pro. This console costs $24k so I'm fairly certain it's not the console </side note>

Here's what happens. I plug in LE, it boots up fine. 3.3V and 5v LED's on. I plug in cat5 cable and the Data Link flickers and appears dim. I do have my wireless jumper installed (jumper on = no wireless, off = wireless I'm not using wireless, so jumper is on). This exact same thing happens on both boards. If the terminate jumper is on, data link LED doesn't come on at all. Terminate off, I get the flicker.

To make matters a little more confusing... When I plug in a cat5 cable to the DMX out1 of the board the Data link goes out. When I plug it into DMX out2 it flickers but gets brighter.

At first I figured it was the rs-485 chips. It might be but both boards are doing the same thing so I can't switch them out with known working ones.

I'm going to try making a new XLR to cat5 cable now and see if that fixes anything, but I've already tried with 2 different adapters, and on 2 different consoles.

Next is the PIC. I'll try reflashing when I get home if you guys think that's the problem.

I've checked solder joints and everything seems fine. Chips all installed in the correct orientation, seated properly, etc.

This wouldn't be so confusing if both boards weren't doing the exact same thing.

Any ideas?
-Tyler Herron

[jthtiger]

All appears to be fine now. Tried a different DMX to CAT5 adapter... The frustrating thing is...the adapters are wired the exact same! I've triple and quadruple checked... One adapter orange/white is on pin 1 and orange is on pin 2 on cat5 side. orange/white attached to pin 3 and orange attached to pin 2 on xlr side. Same on both cables. One works, one doesn't!!

I don't get it...but they're working now. Thanks for reading! Check your cables!

-Tyler Herron

[RJ]

I'm not using a Enttec Pro. I'm using a professional DMX console as I'm using these LE's in a stage environment

First thing I need to ask:

You are using these in stage enviroment? even though you agreed to our rules when you signed up which prohibit such users of all Lynx Equipment?

RJ

[jthtiger]

Oh...I didn't realize that. I signed up for these forums back in 2009 when I was young and stupid.

May I ask why it's prohibited?

*EDIT* disregard that. I went back and read through the agreement. Seems like I should have thought through that before spending the $200. I'm quite sorry RJ.

[keitha43]

I think it is a liability issue in this litigation happy world. People who manufacture commercial hardware have to insure themselves in case of accidents ect. and they add the cost into the price of their hardware. If an accident happened while using Lynx equipment commercially people could try to sue the designer (RJ) even though you build it yourself.

[n1ist]

That, and the Lynx hardware has not been certified by UL or another NRTL, so many theater insurance policies won't allow its use either.
/mike