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Soundlab 4 channel dimmer problems


damientheevil

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:P Hi Tom,various problems really, from not working at all to one channel being on constantly.As I said previously I bought them brand new and feel very disapointed

with them,in contrast I bought two transcention perfrormer series, absolutely fantastic dimmers for just a little more money.Keep it illuminated Roy

 

Sorry to hear that you had bad luck with these. Maybe a bad batch or stressed too much (for their design). They're certainly quirky, from the incorrect DMX pinout to a profile that needs some heavy correction, but the ones I installed when I switched my house lighting to DMX have been solid performers and 100% reliable for 3 years non-stop now. Only a few of the 25 or so channels load more than 200 watts though, so my use should be well within their comfort zone.

 

I did find flicker for the first time though when comparing a soundlab to an NJD DPX 12/4 at the weekend, which has the opposite profile problem to the soundlab, with DMX level 1 lighting lamps quite noticeably whereas you don't get much from a soundlab till you get to 50 or so. For stage lamps both dimmers were ok, but for a string of 16 (probably 40 watt) incandescents that make up the house lights in the hall I was working in, there was noticable flicker with the soundlab unit whereas the NJD was stable, just unable to fade right down to nothing before off unfortunately. Assuming that the zero cross detect is stable in the soundlabs, I wonder if there are timing issues in the firmware that show up in some cases. In the past I've built totally flicker free RGB LED units that fade beautifully, but trying some nice if not particularly bright IP65 OptiLED units (ex London Eye I believe) that I bought off ebay a year or so ago, I find those flicker when levels change at low levels, which could again be from unstable timing across different code paths and/or faulty processing of channel updates leading to glitches.

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I concur with Tom on this one; I've done exactly what he said.

 

The DMX connector to the board is indeed a three pin jumper, with earth at the centre. What's more (on the one that I fettled, anyway), the header for the jumper isn't glued to the board, so that can be removed and turned 180degrees as well.

 

The polarity is a 20 second fix, done one for a client today. The connector has slots on the one side, put a small flat head screw driver in the slot and pull the cable. The connector is designed in this way and is meant to be rewired if needed............best bit of the design by Soundlab I think. No soldering or cutting of the board components needed, which means it can easily by put back to its original state if needed to be sent back ;-)

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