please help a beginner. please

[Jack Armstrong]

hello everybody. 

not sure if this is the correct place to post but please bare with me . 

Im new to light jams and im struggling to get it up and running. if anyone could please shed some light upon the issues im having i would be hugely grateful. 

what im trying to achieve  

i have made a sculpture consisting of 16 light panels i will attach an image below. each panel is a singular led strip (non addressable / unable to have individual pixel control).to begin with all i want to achieve is to be able to have each panel as a fixture and just have a play in the light jams software. unfortunately i am unable to get any sort of response from my LED strips

my setup

i am running light jams from my acer aspire f5-571 laptop to a enntec open usb interface from here a dmx cable runs to two dmx 24 channel dmx decoders and finally the led strips. the led strips have a 12v channel a  red channel a green channel and  a blue channel so i assume a generic rgb fixture is the right choice when patching fixtures.  i will attach images of my setup below (please note that since i took the pictures i have swapped out the usb interface for the enntec open usb.) 

link to the dmx decoders i am using: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32831163303.html?spm=a2g0n.shopcart.0.d0.6e0chGBKhGBKA9&gps-id=shopcartRecommend&scm=1007.15372.165446.0&scm_id=1007.15372.165446.0&scm-url=1007.15372.165446.0&pvid=16570e12-3cc9-4ecd-b239-46b058ac418f&_t=gps-id:shopcartRecommend,scm-url:1007.15372.165446.0,pvid:16570e12-3cc9-4ecd-b239-46b058ac418f  

i have successfully used this setup swapping out the laptop and usb interface for an arduino in combination withe the conceptinetics dmx shield. so im not sure what the issue is when using light jams. (please help me !!!).

what im doing in the software: i have added a RGB fixture from generic section in the fixture menu and selected the usb pro from  the universe drop down menu (is this correct?). with the start address set to one. all im trying to achieve is a red pulse on the first led strip but i get no response from the lights (project file attached). i have tried multiple addresses with all strips attached with no success. 

i am at a loss to why it isn't working and can only assume its something im doing wrong within the software or some sort of compatibility  issue between the different components. if anyone could please help me it would relieve a big old headache.  

cheers hope to hear from you all soon. jack armstrong     

   

  

[isaac]

Hi Jack,

It is encouraging that it works with your arduino setup, which means your decoder/LED wiring is correct.

Here are a few things you could try.

You mentioned you had an Enttec Open USB DMX adapter, try and select that in LJ->View->Configuration->USB DMX, and also in your Patch you can select universe USB-OPEN instead of USB-Pro. (it may help to restart Lightjams after saving these changes)

Make sure the dip switches on your decoder are correctly set for channel 1, and that the dip switch #10 (fun mode) is set to Off.

Are you using the same XLR cable for both setups (PC and arduino)? If not, make sure the wiring color code is correct (dmx+, dmx -, ground).

Yes Generic RGB Fixture is the way to go in this case. You could also try adding 512 single channel generic dimmer fixtures just to test and see if something turns on.

I have made a little change to your project file which you can find attached to this message. You were pulsing the Int, Hue and Sat value all together, I changed it so that only the Int channel is pulsing.

Hope this helps

[Matthew Galvin]

Hi Jack,

The key part of any dmx troubleshooting is to start small and work your way up to more complexity as things work and you gain confidence.

So, start with the simplest set up - 1 laptop, 1 dmx usb, 1 dmx decoder, 1 led strip.

Your dmx decoder is 24 channels "wide" but it essentially looks like a 4 channel dmx decoder with 6 different outputs. So you need to set that up with the dip switches to start at channel 1, and then connect your led strip to the first output. I am not clear whether you supply voltage through the decoder to the strip, but both the decoder and the strip will need to receive power.

Now you can get in to lightjams. Make sure it is connected to and seeing your dmx usb, and then set up the simplest possible patch to talk to your led strip and change some color and intensity values.

Once you get the hang of it, you will gain confidence to add more, move things around, etc.

Hope this helps!

Matthew

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