SOLVED EtD ISSUE

[thestig]

I put together an etherdongle a few months back and it wasn't working. I set it aside and came back to it tonight. I still have no clue what the problem is. I am running the ED in DMX mode with the correct file. I can see the led light on the mag jack blink as I send data. I am using xlights with the settings I found in another thread. I am not getting any dmx output to my dmx device. I know the dmx device is working as I have swapped it to my regular dmx dongle and it works flawlessly.

I have checked and rechecked all the solders for cold joints and bridges. One thing I did notice was that I soldered the two holes in the mag jack that the legs stick through. (total of 9 solder joints on the mag jack instead of 7). Could this be causing an issue?

Also all chips are in the correct orientation without any bent legs. I am totally stumped. This is from the ED coop where RJ did the surface mount chip so I am doubting  that is the issue.


Thank you.

Grant

[thestig]

I forgot a few things. I am hooking this up through my router and I have also tried connecting it  directly to my network card on my computer. I am attaching a picture of the backside of the board so you can look at my horrible solder skills.

[thestig]

Well I found a bad solder and now i have data flowing to my rgb device. My issue now is that  everything works fine until I set the intensity above 249. That is where things start to get interesting. it starts to flicker and at 252 it goes out. This happens with all of the channels.


EDIT : I have also found that the lights won't come on until the intensity is near 170. I am seeing no dimming as I go through the values.

[bisquit476]

You might want to retouch all the solder joints, if you find one...........

[rm357]

170 is the value used to sync the pixelnet data. All data values of 170 are converted to 171 in the etherdongle when generating the pixelnet data stream. I'm not sure if this is true in DMX mode, but it probably is...

If the dimming is not smooth and always acts up at a certain value, look to the device... You were purposely vague as to what the device is... The data stream is pretty much an all or nothing thing if the line is properly terminated (there needs to be a 120 ohm resistor across the data pair at the last device. DMX should be daisy chained from one device to another. Etc.)

Are you using a hub or going strait to the device.

LEDs plugged into AC dimmers will not come on until the threshold value is reached. This is one of the advantages to using a lynx express with the proper light curve installed, it will remap the DMX values to the led string's active range. Led strings on AC dimmers also tend to top out in brightness before you get to 255.

RM

[thestig]

Sorry about being vague with the dmx controller. I just didn't want others to think that was the problem as it is working fine with my lynx usb dongle.

It is one of the cheap 7 dollar controllers from holidaycoro that I have attached to a dumb RGB strip. The controller dims with the usb dongle, so I can't figure out why it wont kick on until the 170 threshold and kicks off at 249. There is a slight flicker at 250 and then it goes back out. throughout the range of 170-240 the lights show no sign of increase in intensity.


I hope this helps, I am stumped.


Grant

[rrowan]

What software are you using to send the data to the controllers?

Are you using a test function or a sequence?

If its a sequence are you using 50ms?

Did you setup anything to customize the output?

Did you reflash the EtherDongle pic?

Rick R.

[thestig]

I am using the Xlights tester. I Can plug into my usb dongle and it works and then plug into the ED and it is not working properly. I have also reflashed the ED with the dmx hex file and it looks to be working. although it did give me a checksum of 0000.

I havn't done anything to customize the output other than setting up the network settings in xlights per the ip address listed in one of the other threads. I think that is correct as I am seeing data.

[rrowan]

Make sure you only have one copy of xLights running and / or any other program that outputs E1.31

Example xLights is running and you load up Vixen and turn on Etherdongle plugin. Now the computer(s) are sending e1.31 packets to the etherdongle and its trying to process both of them.

You will get weird light outputs. I discovered that last year when I had my show computer running and my work computer both running xlights.

Rick R.

[urthegman]

Don't know if you have retouched the solder joints I have circled in this picture, but you can try it.

[thestig]

Thanks for the quick replies. I am at work at the moment but will make sure I do the things you both have suggested. I did retouch quite a few solder joints but will do one more check to make sure I have fixed them all.

[caretaker]

It wouldn't hurt to clean of the flux with some alcohol and a tooth brush, just try to keep it off the front side of the board.

[thestig]

First off I want to say thank you to everyone that helped me. I have found that for some reason my holiday coro dmx controller is failing me. I find this strange as it works fine with my dmx usb dongle but not with the etherdongle. I figured this out by testing my aether II out instead of the holiday coro controller. I hooked it up and everything is working as it is supposed to.

It is funny how sometimes we freak out  (last night i used a few explicit words and said I was done building my own units). Now that  I have it working I have the exact opposite feeling. The one thing that I know for sure is that I need to take my time soldering and stop soldering in my dark room. I never had this issue when i was using an extra light overhead during my LE and Dongle builds.

[rm357]

You may need to add a 120 ohm resistor across the DMX terminals on the holiday coro device.
I bought a couple of these myself, but have not gotten around to testing them yet.

RM

[thestig]

What would be the difference between the holiday coro controller working with my usb dmx dongle but not my etherdongle? isnt it the same data being sent?