Can't Get USB Dongle to Work on Windows 10

[Gary]

This forum isn't too active, but I thought I'd ask: has anybody tried using a Lynx USB DMX Dongle on a Windows 10 computer?

I have a dongle that I want to hook up to my Windows 10 laptop, but I couldn't get it to work. I was specifically trying the Lynx DMX Deck program to test basic communications to a Lynx Express and had no luck. Since my Windows 10 installation is 64-bit, I installed the 64-bit drivers from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login.

I pulled out my old Windows 7 laptop, hooked up the same dongle, and it worked like a charm.

I plugged it back into my Windows 10 laptop and compared COM port settings. Still nothing. The serial port settings were the same at 9600, 8, N, 1.

Are there any special tricks I'm missing?

[JoeFromOzarks]

Good morning!

I have both the DMX and the PIXELNET Dongles working on Windows 10, 64 and 32. 

Yes, the current (OCT2019) VCP drivers are here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

You've confirmed the USB ports are good on the laptop, tried a USB mouse or other USB device?  I know, silly question.

After installing the VCP drivers, there aren't any red X's, yellow ! or any other bad "lucky charms", correct?

You say, on the WIN10 computer "compared COM port settings. Still nothing. The serial port settings were the same at 9600, 8, N, 1."   What is the VCP COM PORT number itself?   (Different computers will, very unlikely, use the same COM PORT numbers, one of my WIN10 computers uses COM3, another uses COM11, a third COM5.)   

After we know what the VCP COM PORT number is on the WIN10 computer, what software are you using to talk to the DMX devices and is that software set to the same WIN10 VCP COM PORT number?

Let us know!!

joe

This forum isn't too active, but I thought I'd ask: has anybody tried using a Lynx USB DMX Dongle on a Windows 10 computer?

I have a dongle that I want to hook up to my Windows 10 laptop, but I couldn't get it to work. I was specifically trying the Lynx DMX Deck program to test basic communications to a Lynx Express and had no luck. Since my Windows 10 installation is 64-bit, I installed the 64-bit drivers from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login.

I pulled out my old Windows 7 laptop, hooked up the same dongle, and it worked like a charm.

I plugged it back into my Windows 10 laptop and compared COM port settings. Still nothing. The serial port settings were the same at 9600, 8, N, 1.

Are there any special tricks I'm missing?

[Gary]

Good morning!

I have both the DMX and the PIXELNET Dongles working on Windows 10, 64 and 32. 

Yes, the current (OCT2019) VCP drivers are here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

You've confirmed the USB ports are good on the laptop, tried a USB mouse or other USB device?  I know, silly question.

After installing the VCP drivers, there aren't any red X's, yellow ! or any other bad "lucky charms", correct?

You say, on the WIN10 computer "compared COM port settings. Still nothing. The serial port settings were the same at 9600, 8, N, 1."   What is the VCP COM PORT number itself?   (Different computers will, very unlikely, use the same COM PORT numbers, one of my WIN10 computers uses COM3, another uses COM11, a third COM5.)   

After we know what the VCP COM PORT number is on the WIN10 computer, what software are you using to talk to the DMX devices and is that software set to the same WIN10 VCP COM PORT number?

Let us know!!

joe

Okay, it's nice to know that somebody is successfully using the same hardware under Windows 10, under both DMX mode and Pixelnet mode (which I was going to switch it to in order to do some tests). I was wondering if there was something inherently incompatible with the dongle, even though there are still FTDI available.

Oh wait... I was about to explain what COM ports were assigned to the USB port, what program I was testing with (the ancient Lynx DMX Desk program), so I opened it up, thought I'd try turning on a channel on my Express controller again, and now it works! 

I can't really explain what the issue was. I did reboot yesterday. I even unplugged the laptop's power from the wall as well because I've had a few issues in the past where my controller didn't "see" the DMX signal until I unplugged the laptop and ran it on its battery, and was able to plug the power cable back in. I know it doesn't make sense, it's happened to me several times for some reason.

I also noticed today that, unlike yesterday, the DMX Deck program seemed to finally "remember" what COM port I was using after closing and opening it u again, whereas yesterday the program was coming up with a "Comport is not available, Please select a valid port!" error every time, and I simply went into the Comport settings screen and chose the only avialable option in the drop-down box. I've seen programs at work act funny when a Windows Update is pending a restart, and given Windows 10's penchant to do updates when you least expect it, maybe it's something related to that? I don't know. This is embarrassing and frustrating.

[Gary]

I do have another question, now...

I've re-flashed the dongle to Pixelnet and didn't receive any error messages.

I plugged thr dongle into my PC, hooked the dongle up to my Falcon F16-V1 controller, went into the xLights setup, cleared everything I already had in there, added a USB Device (Pixelnet), ID 1, Port COM3, Baud rate 250000 (greyed out, so it's stuck there), and set the last channel 4096.

I go into Test mode in xLights and I don't get the flashing "I recognize a valid Pixelnet signal" status LED on my Falcon F16-V1 controller.

JoeFromOzarks, what do you generally use to test PixelNet output?

[JoeFromOzarks]

Hello Gary,

I'm glad the other problem is resolved!! 

I didn't go the Falcon route, you'll have to ask those questions on the appropriate site.   (I've repaired a couple Falcon players though, imagine that!)

To test DLA's PIXELNET I have a test PIXELNET Dongle -->Smart String Hub with external 12VDC Meanwell Power Supply (with 12V Kit) --> a test SSC v4 with a 3-pin connector (with alligator clips) that matches all of my Ray Wu, year 2009 forward Smart Strings.   

I'm not much help with Falcon, sorry.   Ask away with DLA stuff and I'll do my best to help!

  joe

I do have another question, now...

I've re-flashed the dongle to Pixelnet and didn't receive any error messages.

I plugged thr dongle into my PC, hooked the dongle up to my Falcon F16-V1 controller, went into the xLights setup, cleared everything I already had in there, added a USB Device (Pixelnet), ID 1, Port COM3, Baud rate 250000 (greyed out, so it's stuck there), and set the last channel 4096.

I go into Test mode in xLights and I don't get the flashing "I recognize a valid Pixelnet signal" status LED on my Falcon F16-V1 controller.

JoeFromOzarks, what do you generally use to test PixelNet output?

[Gary]

Hello Gary,

I'm glad the other problem is resolved!! 

I didn't go the Falcon route, you'll have to ask those questions on the appropriate site.   (I've repaired a couple Falcon players though, imagine that!)

To test DLA's PIXELNET I have a test PIXELNET Dongle -->Smart String Hub with external 12VDC Meanwell Power Supply (with 12V Kit) --> a test SSC v4 with a 3-pin connector (with alligator clips) that matches all of my Ray Wu, year 2009 forward Smart Strings.   

I'm not much help with Falcon, sorry.   Ask away with DLA stuff and I'll do my best to help!

  joe

Oh, I was referring to the software you use to test the USB dongle with, not the hardware.

[JoeFromOzarks]

Oh.

Well, since you put it that way...      Vixen  2.1.4.0  [http://www.vixenlights.com/downloads/vixen-2-downloads/]

joe

Hello Gary,

I'm glad the other problem is resolved!! 

I didn't go the Falcon route, you'll have to ask those questions on the appropriate site.   (I've repaired a couple Falcon players though, imagine that!)

To test DLA's PIXELNET I have a test PIXELNET Dongle -->Smart String Hub with external 12VDC Meanwell Power Supply (with 12V Kit) --> a test SSC v4 with a 3-pin connector (with alligator clips) that matches all of my Ray Wu, year 2009 forward Smart Strings.   

I'm not much help with Falcon, sorry.   Ask away with DLA stuff and I'll do my best to help!

  joe

Oh, I was referring to the software you use to test the USB dongle with, not the hardware.

[Gary]

Okay then. I was hoping that there was a basic test program out there with minimal configuration settings to "screw up", and as a result, have the Dongle not send out a Pixelnet signal.

I was thinking that if I install Vixen on my Windows 10 PC, chances are that I may get some configuration wrong and the USB dongle won't work as a result anyways.

So, I took the dongle and re-flashed it back to DMX and it works fine again on an Express controller I have.

So, I took another dongle I have (version 2.0) and re-flashed the PIC to Pixelnet. Same thing, which is nothing. However, it has some extra status LEDs, and the green one turns on when I click xLights "Output to Lights" button or turn on xLights Test mode. However, the Falcon F16-V1 controller doesn't recognize a Pixelnet signal coming from it (i.e. The "I see a valid Pixelnet signal" status LED doesn't flash). I noticed a spot to put a jumper on to put the dongle into Test mode, and I still get nothing on my Falcon controller... I would have expected it to make the test light string hooked up to it do something or at least make the F16-V1's "I see a valid Pixelnet signal" LED flash.

I even hooked the dongle up to my Falcon player, configured the Pixelnet dongle as appropriate (or at least I think it is), and when I put the Falcon player into Test mode, I get the green LED turn on, but the "I see a valid Pixelnet signal" status LED on my Falcon Controller still didn't blink.

Interestingly enough, I remembered that I have my old laptop with Vixen 2.1 on it that I installed the Pixelnet add-ins onto back in 2015 when I borrowed somebody's SmartString hub and SmartString controller so I could play around with pixels. I know I used my PIC programmer to change one of my USB dongles to Pixelnet (probably the 1.0 version, but I'm not sure) and worked back then to make blinky flashy. As it turns out, Vixen was still configured with the add-in and I had a sequence on it too. After setting the correct COM port in Vixen for the dongle, I played the sequence and although the green LED on the dongle turned on when I started playing it, there was still nothing happening on my Falcon controller. 

And the Falcon F16-V1 controller in question works when receiving a Pixelnet signal from my F16-B, so it's not like it's bad or a cable that's bad.


Given the above observations, here are my questions:

Is your dongle the 2.0 version with a Test jumper? What does it do if you put use the jumper? What is the baud rate you have the COM port that the dongle is assigned to? Any other suggestions?

[JoeFromOzarks]

Hello Gary,

I have both v1 and v2 of Dongles, DMX (VER 1 and 2) and PIXELNET (VER 2 only), I tested all on the HP_1 Laptop and all worked.   I do not remember (I may have drain bamage) every having to change the settings in the Control Panel or in Vixen (except the COM PORT) to get any of them to work, I didn’t change any settings in WIN10.

I don’t know what the test jumper does, I’ve never had reason to use it and honestly, I don’t remember reading about the test jumper.  The default setting for the Test Jumper is disconnected, that is, the jumper is placed on one pin only.

I included pictures of both the Control Panel Device settings and the VIXEN PIXELNET settings, both screens show the default “out of the box” configurations, I didn’t change anything.   The Dongle is a VER 2 PIXELNET version.

(WIN10 has the dot.NET stuff installed, at least all of mine do, so to get Vixen from one computer to your WIN10 computer, just copy the folder from the old computer to the WIN10 computer, with all of the subfolders, of course, create a new Desktop shortcut to VIXEN.EXE and away you go!)   

Back to your issues.

This whole process would be sooooo much easier if you could eliminate one possibility of the PIXELNET chip not working.   You don’t have any PIXELNET devices, no hubs, no Smart String Controllers, nothing?   Anyone reasonably close who can check your PIXELNET Dongle?   Box it up and (with tracking info) ship it to me with return postage and I’ll check it out.   But I’m betting $0.02 that the Dongle is fine, it is sounding like the problem with the Falcon goodies. 

If your Dongle works on DMX but isn’t working with PIXELNET with FALCON, then I’d be researching why on the FALCON sites. 

Let me know!  I’m fascinated with this problem!

joe

Okay then. I was hoping that there was a basic test program out there with minimal configuration settings to "screw up", and as a result, have the Dongle not send out a Pixelnet signal.

I was thinking that if I install Vixen on my Windows 10 PC, chances are that I may get some configuration wrong and the USB dongle won't work as a result anyways.

So, I took the dongle and re-flashed it back to DMX and it works fine again on an Express controller I have.

So, I took another dongle I have (version 2.0) and re-flashed the PIC to Pixelnet. Same thing, which is nothing. However, it has some extra status LEDs, and the green one turns on when I click xLights "Output to Lights" button or turn on xLights Test mode. However, the Falcon F16-V1 controller doesn't recognize a Pixelnet signal coming from it (i.e. The "I see a valid Pixelnet signal" status LED doesn't flash). I noticed a spot to put a jumper on to put the dongle into Test mode, and I still get nothing on my Falcon controller... I would have expected it to make the test light string hooked up to it do something or at least make the F16-V1's "I see a valid Pixelnet signal" LED flash.

I even hooked the dongle up to my Falcon player, configured the Pixelnet dongle as appropriate (or at least I think it is), and when I put the Falcon player into Test mode, I get the green LED turn on, but the "I see a valid Pixelnet signal" status LED on my Falcon Controller still didn't blink.

Interestingly enough, I remembered that I have my old laptop with Vixen 2.1 on it that I installed the Pixelnet add-ins onto back in 2015 when I borrowed somebody's SmartString hub and SmartString controller so I could play around with pixels. I know I used my PIC programmer to change one of my USB dongles to Pixelnet (probably the 1.0 version, but I'm not sure) and worked back then to make blinky flashy. As it turns out, Vixen was still configured with the add-in and I had a sequence on it too. After setting the correct COM port in Vixen for the dongle, I played the sequence and although the green LED on the dongle turned on when I started playing it, there was still nothing happening on my Falcon controller. 

And the Falcon F16-V1 controller in question works when receiving a Pixelnet signal from my F16-B, so it's not like it's bad or a cable that's bad.


Given the above observations, here are my questions:

Is your dongle the 2.0 version with a Test jumper? What does it do if you put use the jumper? What is the baud rate you have the COM port that the dongle is assigned to? Any other suggestions?

[KeithTarpley]

Greetings,,,

FYI, the test jumper was included in the newer version, with the idea being to add the software to the dongle so that a test output could be used to help determine that the basic output was working.  It would have put out some generic output for some of the channels to work, thus aiding in resolving that certain things were working.

That was never finished.

Keith

[JoeFromOzarks]

Hello Keith!

Thank you for this information!   Can we put it in the Wiki?

joe

Greetings,,,

FYI, the test jumper was included in the newer version, with the idea being to add the software to the dongle so that a test output could be used to help determine that the basic output was working.  It would have put out some generic output for some of the channels to work, thus aiding in resolving that certain things were working.

That was never finished.

Keith

[Gary]

I have both v1 and v2 of Dongles, DMX (VER 1 and 2) and PIXELNET (VER 2 only), I tested all on the HP_1 Laptop and all worked.   I do not remember (I may have drain bamage) every having to change the settings in the Control Panel or in Vixen (except the COM PORT) to get any of them to work, I didn’t change any settings in WIN10.

I don’t know what the test jumper does, I’ve never had reason to use it and honestly, I don’t remember reading about the test jumper.  The default setting for the Test Jumper is disconnected, that is, the jumper is placed on one pin only.

I included pictures of both the Control Panel Device settings and the VIXEN PIXELNET settings, both screens show the default “out of the box” configurations, I didn’t change anything.   The Dongle is a VER 2 PIXELNET version.

(WIN10 has the dot.NET stuff installed, at least all of mine do, so to get Vixen from one computer to your WIN10 computer, just copy the folder from the old computer to the WIN10 computer, with all of the subfolders, of course, create a new Desktop shortcut to VIXEN.EXE and away you go!)   

Back to your issues.

This whole process would be sooooo much easier if you could eliminate one possibility of the PIXELNET chip not working.   You don’t have any PIXELNET devices, no hubs, no Smart String Controllers, nothing?   Anyone reasonably close who can check your PIXELNET Dongle?   Box it up and (with tracking info) ship it to me with return postage and I’ll check it out.   But I’m betting $0.02 that the Dongle is fine, it is sounding like the problem with the Falcon goodies. 

If your Dongle works on DMX but isn’t working with PIXELNET with FALCON, then I’d be researching why on the FALCON sites. 

Let me know!  I’m fascinated with this problem!

Just to confirm, is there more than one HEX version available for DMX and PixelNet for the dongle? I have a file called DONGLE2.HEX file for the DMX version, and I have one file for Pixelnet file. The supposed link at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to download the Pixelnet version of the HEX file doesn't really lead anywhere. Either way, I used the same DMX version of the Hex file on both my dongles and they work, and I used the same version of the Pixelnet HEX files on both my dongles and neither works.

As for not having any Pixelnet stuff, I don't have any Lynx/DIYLightAnimation/RJ's Pixelnet stuff, but my F16-V1 and F16-B Falcon Controllers both speak Pixelnet. I've used them in the past with no issue. However, this year, when trying to program the channels on two of my F16-V1 controllers (Falcon's equivalent to the Zeus controller, but with much farther range to the first pixel), with my F16-B running Falcon Player in Bridge Mode they seem to have become bricked as a result (See You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login for details).

So, I have an F16-V1 that still works fine; that is, I can send a PixelNet signal from my F16-B to my good F16-V1 and I get the flashing "I can see a valid Pixelnet signal" LED light on it, but when I move the data signal cable to my "bricked" F16-V1 controllers, I get nothing. I reached out to Dave Pitts (who used to be active on this site, and created the Pixelnet-compatible Falcon Controllers with some "improvements") and he didn't give me any sure answers. He suggested swapping the RS485 chips between a good and bad controller, but it didn't fix anything. I cleared and re-flashed the PIC chip on a bad F16-V1 (with no errors) and it still doesn't work. Dave thinks that it's the F16-B that sending a bad signal (which I respectfully disagree with since I have another working F16-V1 which "likes" the signal that it gets) so he suggested another Pixelnet source. That's what I'm trying to create now with my USB dongles swapped over to Pixelnet, to "prove" that the issue isn't with the F16-B's PixelNet output.

I've reached out to some people in my area who have Pixelnet stuff, but they haven't gotten back to me yet or aren't able to help out at this point since they're out of town. I would really like to resolve this myself without hassling them, though. Note that I'm in Canada, and shipping stuff cross-border is a nuisance and there's a chance that it would get caught up in customs/inspections/whatever.

[JoeFromOzarks]

Hi Gary,

The PIXELNET hex is here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login (dmx dongle pixelnet.hex)

The DMX hex is here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  (DONGLE2.HEX)

From all of the clues you are giving, I'd first ensure the Dongle has the correct .hex and then ensure it works with RJ's PIXELNET goodies before horsing around with the Falcon gear.   Hopefully the locals with DLA parts won't consider you hassling them!  (I'll see what I have to help you slap something together.  Do you have RJ's approved nodes?) 

Let us know!

joe

Just to confirm, is there more than one HEX version available for DMX and PixelNet for the dongle? I have a file called DONGLE2.HEX file for the DMX version, and I have one file for Pixelnet file. The supposed link at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to download the Pixelnet version of the HEX file doesn't really lead anywhere. Either way, I used the same DMX version of the Hex file on both my dongles and they work, and I used the same version of the Pixelnet HEX files on both my dongles and neither works.

As for not having any Pixelnet stuff, I don't have any Lynx/DIYLightAnimation/RJ's Pixelnet stuff, but my F16-V1 and F16-B Falcon Controllers both speak Pixelnet. I've used them in the past with no issue. However, this year, when trying to program the channels on two of my F16-V1 controllers (Falcon's equivalent to the Zeus controller, but with much farther range to the first pixel), with my F16-B running Falcon Player in Bridge Mode they seem to have become bricked as a result (See You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login for details).

So, I have an F16-V1 that still works fine; that is, I can send a PixelNet signal from my F16-B to my good F16-V1 and I get the flashing "I can see a valid Pixelnet signal" LED light on it, but when I move the data signal cable to my "bricked" F16-V1 controllers, I get nothing. I reached out to Dave Pitts (who used to be active on this site, and created the Pixelnet-compatible Falcon Controllers with some "improvements") and he didn't give me any sure answers. He suggested swapping the RS485 chips between a good and bad controller, but it didn't fix anything. I cleared and re-flashed the PIC chip on a bad F16-V1 (with no errors) and it still doesn't work. Dave thinks that it's the F16-B that sending a bad signal (which I respectfully disagree with since I have another working F16-V1 which "likes" the signal that it gets) so he suggested another Pixelnet source. That's what I'm trying to create now with my USB dongles swapped over to Pixelnet, to "prove" that the issue isn't with the F16-B's PixelNet output.

I've reached out to some people in my area who have Pixelnet stuff, but they haven't gotten back to me yet or aren't able to help out at this point since they're out of town. I would really like to resolve this myself without hassling them, though. Note that I'm in Canada, and shipping stuff cross-border is a nuisance and there's a chance that it would get caught up in customs/inspections/whatever.

[Gary]

Hi Gary,

The PIXELNET hex is here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login (dmx dongle pixelnet.hex)

The DMX hex is here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  (DONGLE2.HEX)

From all of the clues you are giving, I'd first ensure the Dongle has the correct .hex and then ensure it works with RJ's PIXELNET goodies before horsing around with the Falcon gear.   Hopefully the locals with DLA parts won't consider you hassling them!  (I'll see what I have to help you slap something together.  Do you have RJ's approved nodes?) 

Let us know!

joe

I re-downloaded the Pixelnet Hex files (in case mine got corrupted) and reprogrammed the PIC chip. Still no blinky flashy, either on my old Windows 7 laptop with Vixen 2.1 or with it copied to my Windows 10 laptop.

I use WS2811 nodes. Don't know how "approved" they are, but they used to work fine.

As for the people in my area, the 2 closer ones have sold their Etherdongles and one that's farther away is currently out of town. As for the two closer ones without an Etherdongle, they use a generic USB-to-RS485 adapter to program their equipment. I'll need to look into it more...

[JoeFromOzarks]

I apologize for my use of the words “RJ approved” nodes.   By that I meant Ray Wu’s TM1804 nodes originally specified for use with the DLA Smart String Controller.   (I asked in case we can get you a Smart String Controller in order to test the PIXELNET Dongle as RJ originally designed, using only DLA gear so we can minimize the equipment.)

Can you sketch up how you're connecting your PIXELNET Dongle, from the computer to the LED (lighting load) and everything in between?   I'm asking because it seems likely the PIXELNET Dongle is working, but whatever it is talking to isn't working.

joe

I re-downloaded the Pixelnet Hex files (in case mine got corrupted) and reprogrammed the PIC chip. Still no blinky flashy, either on my old Windows 7 laptop with Vixen 2.1 or with it copied to my Windows 10 laptop.

I use WS2811 nodes. Don't know how "approved" they are, but they used to work fine.

As for the people in my area, the 2 closer ones have sold their Etherdongles and one that's farther away is currently out of town. As for the two closer ones without an Etherdongle, they use a generic USB-to-RS485 adapter to program their equipment. I'll need to look into it more...