Author Topic: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid  (Read 3843 times)

Offline fjaust

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Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« on: June 05, 2011, »
Hi,

I've just made up my first dongle and plugged it in to the PC and as soon as it's plugged in the green light comes on solid and stays lit up all the time, regardless of whether the dongle is receiving data from Vixen or not. I thought the green light was to flash on/off when data is received?

I've checked all the soldering and it looks ok to me.

Any ideas on where to look for the problem?

Thanks, Scott

Offline fjaust

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2011, »
i just ran a channel test in vixen and the green light only reacts when all 512 channels are active...and it seems to be reversed, that is, with all channels selected and intensity set at 100%, the green light becomes very dim, when intensity set at 0%, the green light becomes bright. if i select only a few channels the green light doesn't react at all, regardless of intensity.

sorry if it's a dumb question but this is my first time with lynx stuff so i'm not sure what to expect.

thanks, scott

Offline tng5737

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2011, »
Try sending some random data - my Lynx dongle acts very much like yours - it is hard to see the green light flicker.   Do you have a Lynx Express that you can use?  You might want to try hooking up an LE and watching the  LE lights.   If you don't you could also temporarily flash the PIC with the PixelNet code.  The green light acts differently and is easier to detect its flickering.   Once you are done - simply flash the PIC back to the Lynx Dongle code.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2011, by tng5737 »

Offline fjaust

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2011, »
hi tng,

i gave that a go. i set up a sparkle effect in Vixen on all 512 channels but never saw the green light flash at all (unless it's so dim i can't see it).
i don't have any other DMX equipment to test against just yet, this is first attempt at using DMX after using Renard in previous years.

what about the green solid light, is that normal for the DMX dongle?

i might try re-flashing the pic as you said, as my other dongle, which is Pixelnet, is definately easier to see when data is received. only problem is getting that chip out without hurting it :)

thanks, scott

Offline tng5737

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2011, »
OK,  try this.  In Vixen, go into the Profile Manager and select your DMX Output plugin.  Make sure it is set to the correct  Comm port.   Create a new std Vixen seq.  for the Event period set it to 999ms select your Lynx DMX Output plugin profile ( the one you just created) and create your new seq.   Next select all of your cells and use the Random effect.  now play the seq.  you should be able to see your green light flicker at abt a one second interval.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2011, by tng5737 »

Offline fjaust

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2011, »
i didn't change the baud rate but i set the timing to 999ms and used the random function on all channels and i did see the green light flashing, albeit very dimly.

the more channels that were on the dimmer the light became, the lesser channels were on the brighter the light became. the green light never went out completely even after turnning all channels on or off.

Offline tng5737

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2011, »
I would say that your dongle  is working.  You could code up a seq with the 999ms and turn all 512 chans on for a couple of seconds then off for abt 3 secs and repeat that till the end of the seq - say abt one minute length.  Then you should readily see that the led is dimming and going brighter.  
« Last Edit: June 05, 2011, by tng5737 »

Offline fjaust

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2011, »
yeah i'd say it's working ok too...it just threw me that the green light was on right away when connected to PC. i was expecting it to be off and only come on when data was sent out.

thanks for the help tng, i appreciate it.

i'll just wait for my MR16 co-op now and give it a good test once i have a working MR16 board.

Offline tng5737

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2011, »
Glad I could be of some help!

Offline rm357

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #9 on: June 05, 2011, »
It sounds like your dongle is working fine. The led is actually blinking the data bits, which are way too fast to see. A sligt dimming or flickering with changing data is all you will be able to see.
Also, a logic zero turns the led on and a logic 1 turns it off, which matches what you saw by sending 255 on all channels. There are also stop, start, and break data in the dmx stream which tends to keep the led on most of the time.
RM
Robert
Warner Robins, Georgia, USA

Offline chrisatpsu

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #10 on: June 05, 2011, »
i believe the dongle is constantly sending dmx data out  (that's why you are NOT to turn on the dmx addin inside vixen)  then just updates the dmx stream, as the sequence is running.

if no data was sent out on the dmx. sometimes, the wires can pickup stuff and create random flickering, so by sending constant dmx with each channel value to "0" it avoids teh flickering.  (I could be wrong on the specifics, but i think i got the general idea down)

even though the values sent are 0's, the channel numbers are sent too, so the whole steam is sent wtih 1's and 0's at a fast rate. and because the human eye, can't see that fast (persistance of vision), and i don't think the led's can respond that fast. you get what looks like an on, or slightly dimmed led.

i hope that helps, and i tried to stay in layman's terms.
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Offline rm357

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2011, »
The previous message contains an error. DMX does NOT transmit channel numbers. There is a minimum length break followed by a data type byte followed by up to 512 bytes of data with each byte being one channel. For dimming values, the type byte is normally 0.

I'm not sure what the dongle transmits when it has not received data from the computer - my assumption is that it sends 0 on all channels

RM
Robert
Warner Robins, Georgia, USA

Offline chrisatpsu

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Re: Dongle Help - Green Light On Solid
« Reply #12 on: June 08, 2011, »
the point I was trying to make, it the data line just doesn't stay hi or low, even when there's no data to send. It's always changing between hi or low. or else, the equipment wouldn't know when to start.

that's as about as technical as i'll explain it.
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