Emmien Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 The simple way to check if Rack 4 is terminated is plug your RGB cans on to the DMX run feeding it and see if the problem persists. Wouldn't make any difference, the terminator doesn't "stop" the signal. DMX will usually continue to work with 2 or 3 terminators on the line or no termination at all.The only way to tell is to meter resistance across pins 2 and 3 (with power off and the DMX source disconnected). But the whole termination thing is irrelevant, the actual problem is elsewhere. I know that the 4th Betapack probably has a terminator enabled. I don't think that it is cabling. I can control the pars fine through all the cables. I shall do a test with a cable tester and also a multimeter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 I don't think that it is cabling. I can control the pars fine through all the cables. Means nothing, DMX sometimes works in the weirdest fault situations. I have had it working with just pin 3 connected and 2+1 both disconnected. Then someone switches the kettle on or something and it stops working.Do test all the cables through, including metering through the in/out wiring on the betapacks. I am sure you will find something wrong somewhere - there will probably be 2 pin swaps or something like that which cancel each other out in some configurations but not in others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Have to say I agree with Tim- while an extra terminator half way down the line won't be ideal and could highlight a problem elsewhere, the answer is to be methodical, test everything for incorrect wiring, shorts etc and build up from a single unit to the whole system in steps until you find what is failing. Check every unit for termination switches/links too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 Today I ran the lights using a second small lighting desk and a long XLR cable. It wasn't ideal but worked. I do really want to get the lights into the Zero 88 Jester 24/48 though. Tomorrow I will make up a 3 pin male to 5 pin female adapter.I had a very complicated setup today with XLR and Cat5 and RJ45, but that didn't work. I tried connecting one of the pars after Dimmer 3, and I made a terminator (120 ohm resistor soldered on between pin 2 and pin 3) on it.The dimmer packs still had the error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 whats the rj45 cat 5 role in the setup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 whats the rj45 cat 5 role in the setup?I didn't have an XLR 3 pin male to XLR 5 pin female. I did have a 3 pin socket to terminals, and a bare wire to RJ45 socket, and an RJ45 to 5 pin cable. The RJ45 to 5 pin was wired wrong, so I corrected that, but even then it wouldn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulDF Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 As it goes pear shaped as soon as you plug the 5 to 3 pin adaptor in I'd be looking at that first. As someone else has already said, the pinout of a 3 pin XLR isn't 1,2,3. You need to look very carefully at the plug to get the correct numbers. Once you have confirmed the wiring of the 3-5 is pin1-1 (screen), 2-2, 3-3 it is worthwhile checking for shorts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 I tried connecting one of the pars after Dimmer 3, and I made a terminator (120 ohm resistor soldered on between pin 2 and pin 3) on it.The dimmer packs still had the error. Where are you located? Maybe someone is nearby and could have a quick shufti if they knew where you were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 This weekend, the "Young Americans", A drama group who go to schools around the country are there, and they wanted to use the lighting rig, and connect their intelligent fixtures and dimmer packs in as well.I will find out how they do on Sunday.I explained that if they do they will have to put it between dimmer 3 and 4, but I never said I was having problems before. I hope they do get it working, but I doubt it.If they really want to use it, then they will need a DMX splitter. I did notice that they were using Cat5 as DMX cable, which I do all the time, but had joined about 15 together with RJ45 couplers.Also, there was a 2 core wire connected to a 16 amp socket, and the huge cable was coiled up tightly on a drum when there was a 16 amp socket about 10 meters away. As it goes pear shaped as soon as you plug the 5 to 3 pin adaptor in I'd be looking at that first. As someone else has already said, the pinout of a 3 pin XLR isn't 1,2,3. You need to look very carefully at the plug to get the correct numbers. Once you have confirmed the wiring of the 3-5 is pin1-1 (screen), 2-2, 3-3 it is worthwhile checking for shorts. It actually doesn't go wrong until I plug in the 3 pin XLR cable to the adapter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 Also, there was a 2 core wire connected to a 16 amp socket, and the huge cable was coiled up tightly on a drum when there was a 16 amp socket about 10 meters away. Huh? Why did they have a wire to bare ends on a drum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Pearce Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 I'd put a good bet on it being a pin 1 - shell short in the 3 pin cabling causing some issue via the 5-3 adapter. A DMX splitter isn't a silly idea if you're going on from dimmers up into the rig, as it limits damage should anything go awry. At the price you can get a half decent splitter (for install use) it's a no brainer really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 It actually doesn't go wrong until I plug in the 3 pin XLR cable to the adapter.As several others have said, if plugging that cable in causes the issue, you've almost certainly found the culprit. The DMX termination won't help but I'd be surprised if that was screwing things up to that extent. I've encountered a whole batch of cables with shell bonded to pin 1 (think they were from Thomann) so check out the continuity - it's an easy fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 It actually doesn't go wrong until I plug in the 3 pin XLR cable to the adapter.As several others have said, if plugging that cable in causes the issue, you've almost certainly found the culprit. The DMX termination won't help but I'd be surprised if that was screwing things up to that extent. I've encountered a whole batch of cables with shell bonded to pin 1 (think they were from Thomann) so check out the continuity - it's an easy fix. I checked the continuity and no connection to the shell. I tried all kinds of DMX cables, including no cable (Adapter plugged directly into light) I would put the splitter before the dimmers, if I went that route. The theatre group that came in had some nice lighting, and the school drama department saw it and we may now be getting some cheap LED par cans.I have also downloaded and started learning Chamsys MagicQ.If we use this, it may be cheaper to use E1.31. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 so did the visting company manage to get it to work?if so what did they do diffrent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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