Dongle issue

[mitch09]

I am posting here since I believe this to be a dongle issue. I am in my second year of animation and am having some problems. I have a ver.1 dongle(worked fine last year) connected to a LE that tests fine and has the latest firmware. I have tried RJ's DMX deck and selected the correct COM port that the dongle is on. When I adjust the sliders=nothing. I even tried reprogramming the dongle pic to no avail. I have swapped  pic chips in the dongle as well as usb and cat5 cables. Nothing seems to work. My computer is running Windows 7 with .net 3.5 and it sees the dongle when plugged in and assigns it COM3.

Any Ideas? What am I forgetting to do?

[KeithTarpley]

Greetings,,,

Is the LE the only thing you have tested it with?

Keith

[rrowan]

Make sure you are using dmx firmware

On the LE try a different RS-485 chip (the on to the right of the RJ-45 jacks is the input RS-485)
try another cat5 cable (make sure its a normal one and Not a crossover)

If that doesn't help then swap out the RS-485 in the dongle is the chip closest to the RJ-45 jack

Rick R.

[mitch09]

Ok, so I tried switch 485 chips on both the LE and the dongle to no avail. I have tried both of my two LEs from last year that were working when I put them away. I have also tried switch cat5 cables and still nothing. The data light does come on on both LEs when the cat5 is plugged into both the DMX in and DMX out2 ports. I am really at a loss as to what the problem is. I am even running the same laptop.

Ryan

[caretaker]

If the LE is the showing a DMX signal make sure your LE is check and make sure what starting address your LE is set to. Also make sure your jumper for wireless is ON. 

[mitch09]

Jumper for wireless is on. Terminate jumper on/off no difference. Channel 001. I am at a total loss as to why it isn't working this year. I even tried my show running laptop with WinXP from last year. Dongle shows up with the chime. I check Device Manager and find  FTD driver is on COM3. I then select com3 in DMX deck and nothing.

If the dongle is showing up as Data in on the LE does that mean the dongle is working?
I have a Ver2 pixelent dongle. Can I flash the pic with DMX firmware and try it?

Ryan

[KeithTarpley]

Greetings,,,

You can flash the dongle to dmx to try it.  You might first also try Rick's StartPattern program, from the software section of the wiki.  Just for an additional check.

Keith

[jnealand]

What software are you using and do you have output enabled.  Everyone is looking at hardware, but it could very well be the softwae.

[caretaker]

What software are you using and do you have output enabled.  Everyone is looking at hardware, but it could very well be the softwae.

Good observation Jim, that would have been my next avenue to check out.

[mitch09]

Just tried Rick's startPattern. It says at the bottom Connected to FTDI DLP-USB245M Com6, but when I click start it just flashes red and black saying "Sending Start Address (1)" and nothing else happens. I am trying this on my Ver2 dongle that has been flashed with the DMX firmware. Both lights are lit, The jumper is on the test headers. All three lights lit on the LE as well as jumpers on terminate and wireless. Start channel 001. Everything on the LE tests fine. Lights come on when I change it to test mode. I have also flashed the LE pic of one of the LEs tried to see if that was the problem. Still no luck 

So to sum it up:
Software tried-LSP Advanced, DMX deck, StartPattern
Hardware changes - one DMX ver1 dongle, one ver2 pixelnet dongle(reflashed to dmx), I also tried swapping 485 chips on the dongles with some others, 3 different USB cables, 3 different Cat5 cables.

Computer changes - Laptop running WinXP(show computer), Desktop running Win7

Both computers have .net installed and the FTDI drivers. Dongles chime and show up in device manager

For some reason data is not leaving the dongle to the LE

[caretaker]

IN LSP right click on one of your LE controllers and bring up the Hardware Tester and see if you get any results.  A Few other things to check make sure your com port for the DMX dongle is set to the correct settings IE: 115,200 and 8,N,1. I am sure this is upsetting but hang in there I'm sure we will get it figured out.

[mitch09]

So, I used LSP to test hardware with my Ver2 pixelnet dongle flashed to DMX only and what do you know everything is working. I was even able to use my wireless transmitter!!!  I still have no idea what is wrong with my Ver1 dongle. 485 chip?  I will try and troubleshoot it after I get my whole show running minus the SStrings  . I may have to rush order parts from Mouser and build another Ver2! 

Thanks for all the help everyone, you all are amazing.

Ryan

[coachers]

I had something very similar tonight.

  I set the scheduler to start @ 5:30, as I have for the past week, nothing!  My computer also locked-up and I had to reboot.

 I went though this processes about 5 times. I finally just loaded the sequence into the LSP sequencer and played directly from this, ran great just a pain to babysit.

 After about hour and half of this fun, I re-installed LSP. Set up the scheduler and all ran well for the rest of the night.

I suggest re-installing LSP, worked for me.

[caretaker]

Glad to hear you got one problem solved.  Depending on how many DMX channels you are using and how many Pixelnet channels you could use the DMX out from your Pixelnet hub and just use your V2 dongle flashed for Pixelnet. The kicker here is your DMX channels have to be below or above your Pixelnet channels IE: DMX channels 1-512 Pixelnet channels 513 through 3583 OR Pixelnet channels 1-3600 DMX channels 3601 through 4112

[jeffcoast]

I had something very similar tonight.

  I set the scheduler to start @ 5:30, as I have for the past week, nothing!  My computer also locked-up and I had to reboot.

 I went though this processes about 5 times. I finally just loaded the sequence into the LSP sequencer and played directly from this, ran great just a pain to babysit.

 After about hour and half of this fun, I re-installed LSP. Set up the scheduler and all ran well for the rest of the night.

I suggest re-installing LSP, worked for me.

Did you uninstall first, or just reinstall over the old one?