Artnet Lighting Problems: Flickering LEDs

Soulthought's icon

Hello all. I am working on a project in which I control 32 LEDs with ArtNet. I am using the Enttec ODE and 2 16xRGB dimmers (http://www.dmx4all.de//DMX4ALL-LED-Driver/DMX-LED-Dimmer-16xRGB::512.html). Though this post really isn't about the hardware side (though if someone has experience with any of these pieces of equipment, do share!).

I am using the imp.dmx abstractions (which are a godsend by the way, thank you David), though whenever we connect our LEDs to our program, strange this tend to happen. The first couple of channels work kind of. They do produce the color we want, though it's not a solid color. It just sporadically will flicker in the color we chose. Channel 8 doesn't work at all, and then channel 9-32 are always pure, constant white.

Anyways, I've attached the patch we've been using to test the LEDs. If someone could take a look at it and tell me if I did something wrong in the programming, that would be amazing.

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

thanks in advance,
stefan

Wetterberg's icon
Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

well in order to find out, try this only. Do you still have the light problems with this patch?

Wetterberg's icon

from your description it actually sounds like a power delivery problem of some sort, or a defective board.
What's the rest of the setup? LEDs? Power supply?

Soulthought's icon

Yes, I still have trouble, even with the simplified patch.
Indeed, at first I thought that as well, that it was a power delivery problem. Though the configuration program from Enntec (NMU) has a DMX tester. When testing using NMU, there is no problem at all, the LED's burn bright are true in R, G and B. It's only while trying to use the imp.dmx abstractions that we have troubles.

Wetterberg's icon

hmm. Does the test program allow you to run all the lights at once? In other words, can you set every light to, say, purple, at once?
The reason I ask is that -perhaps unrelated? - your PSU might be a bit too small. Your maximum amperage is at 11.2A, from the looks of it.

Have you tried this with the dmxusbpro? Will that even work for your unit?
If you tried to run each output at full, what do you read on a multimeter? In other words, I'd try to look for *where* the problem starts, so to speak.

Soulthought's icon

Okay, I realize now what our problem was, and it was incredibly stupid. Whenever we tested the lights, we always had two patches open, with two dmx senders. This led to conflict, hence the flickering. The abstractions work flawlessly as long as there's only one imp.dmx.artnetout in your patch.
Thank you for the help in any case

Wetterberg's icon

ha, cool, hadn't thought of that, this makes total sense :)

Care to share some info on your project? Is it for performance lighting, theatre, installation?

Soulthought's icon

Of course, the project is a DJ stage, which is controlled with an APC. Here's a rendering of what it should look like.

The project is just about finished, so I'll be making a post on Sunday or sometime next week.

Wetterberg's icon

wow - cool looking thing, so that's the matrix layout in the above patch, yeah? Pretty clever.

I'd love to discuss the underlying patch generating your patterns once you're done - looks brilliant.
a.

David Butler's icon

You might be interested to know I'm currently putting the finishing touches on a properly native C-coded art-net object. This will be slightly more intelligent in it's operation and avoid data clashing problems like the one here.

rubendesnoo's icon

Hi All,

I'm trying to send artnet with the imp.dmxout object and a oxo-artnet node (http://www.licht-geluid.nl/shop/p-5687-oxo-node-8-artnet-dmx-converter.aspx).

I see max sending artnet on the computer (monitored), but it doesn't get out the pc via the OXO-node.
Anyway, I think it's a max issue, because with this set-up I can send artnet out via the OXO device with Chamsys MAgic Q on PC.

Do I need to teel the max patch to send to a specific ip adress? I think the help patch only sends to the internal adress (127.0.0.1), how can I change this?

thanks a lot!

regards