Need help: Chinese RGB led par lights and uDMX controller

[Domas]

Hello Hackspace,

I'm trying to control cheap Chinese RGB LED Par lights using even cheaper usb DMX controller with no luck. Tried using FreeStyler, uDMX command line tool, and QLC+, but all lights are always 100% on with only green leds flickering when any channel value is being changed.

This usb DMX controller is using ilLU[TZ]mination uDMX drivers (on Windows 8.1 x64). I've tried incrementing timings for Break, Mark, and Gab but it didn't help. I've added DMX terminator but it didn't change anything. The cable is very short so terminator shouldn't be an issue.

Does anybody have experience with such Chinese RGB led lights or uDMX controller? Or DMX in general and could advice on how to solve such issues?

I'm at a loss here on how to get them working together. Tomorrow (Sunday) I'll try to test my light and controller by connecting to DMX lights currently at the Hackspace, that might at least give some indication if my light or controller is at fault here. I'm guessing that Chinese light might not be following DMX protocol correctly and needs some specific variant to be used.

Best regards,

Domas

[JJ]

Do you have either some known good lights or a known good controller with which you can try to determine on which side the fault lies (assuming it's only on one side).  Also, are there any option switches on the lights in addition to - I presume - the DMX base address?

Whereabouts are you, because if you're in reach of west London I think I can get hold of a small desk and some lights with which we could do some trial-and-error comparisons.

[Adrian Godwin]

I bought some similar lights and had no problems with them.

However, it was a simpler setup - just running off an arduino rather than using a controller and a PC.

I'd suspect the controller setup is wrong, but you could also check the lights are in DMX mode rather than master/slave.

On Sun, Nov 22, 2015 at 2:28 AM, JJ <jj.so...@gmail.com> wrote:

Do you have either some known good lights or a known good controller with which you can try to determine on which side the fault lies (assuming it's only on one side).  Also, are there any option switches on the lights in addition to - I presume - the DMX base address?

Whereabouts are you, because if you're in reach of west London I think I can get hold of a small desk and some lights with which we could do some trial-and-error comparisons.

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[Lee Jones]

I need to go to a gallery in Soho at 3 (for maybe a few hours). What time will you be there today? 

But could pop by hackspace afterwards with a dmx tester. (Can use it to read the output of your USB adapter, and send dmx channels to you Chinese lights)

Should be enough to identify what is causing the problem. 

Regards,

Lee

Sent from my iPhone

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[Domas]

Hi Lee, dmx tester would be perfect, thank you. I should be in the space at around 13:30 today and will stay until at least 19:00 (Ultimaker training session). If you are coming to the space later than 7pm, please let me know, I'll wait for you.

JJ, thank you for the offer, but hopefully Lee's tester will help me figure out the problem.

Adrian, thanks for confirming that at least some cheap Chinese lights are actually usable. Hackspace's DMX lights are using Arduino so I'll try to see if I can get my lights working with that setup.

[Domas]

Lee figured out the problem: Chinese lights have swapped PIN 2 and 3. After resoldering DMX controller's pins the light is finally working.

Thank you Lee for your help!