elation eled tripar 56 not working with dmx board

[jsharris83]

ok guys we have just bought 4 new elation opti par fresnal 575 watt units and 4 elation eled tripar 56 units. we currently have 2 NSI ND 4600 dimmer packs that were used with the 8 old par cans that have now been replaced by what we have now. We will be putting 2 opti par fresnal lights on each dimmer and they are using channels 1-4. First dimmer will have 1-2 in use and second dimmer will have 3-4 in use with the opti pars. now out of the last dimmer in the chain we connected the first tri par with a short 6' mic cable into the output and then 3' mic cables to go from tripar to tripar. The first was set to 5005 and the the others set to master slave. At one point i set them all the 5005 to se if that changed anything. Although we do not have the opti pars plugged into the dimmers yet (because we need to get some larger wiring first), the dimmers are powered on and plugged into the 7016. My board is The NSI/Leviton N7016 16-32 programmable channel Lighting Console and we are using it in single 32 channel mode. i cannot control the units at all with the board.I have tried multiple mic cables the see if we had a bad cable and nothing has worked so far. When i plug in the cable in the back of the tri par it stops flashiing for a moment along with all the other units like it is getting something from the board. I have never worked with the new led tri pars before and it is getting a little confusing. I did try setting it to channel 9 and 16 to see if it was a channel conflict but did not change my result. Has anyone had this problem before and what did you do to fix it? any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Esoteric]

This may sound odd, but since it is an old all NSI system, are you sure you are using the DMX protocol out of the console (a 5 pin connection) or Multiplex (a 3 pin connection)?

[petereit]

You shouldn't use mic cables for DMX. Use DMX cables. That probably doesn't have anything to do with your current problem, but my general rule for troubleshooting is to eliminate all the obvious stuff first.

[jsharris83]

hey guys I called the company that is working with me on the lights and they had a small oversite on the board. It is an older one like u said and has not been upgraded to dmx. I have the upgrade on order now and to talk about the mic cables. For the 3' mic cables going from led to led that is what the manufacturer says to use. Now with that said i do understand the importance of using DMX over audio cable. For my long runs I will only use DMX. but for shorter that 3' i will use mic as my lighting company and the manufacturer recommends doing this. thanks for all the replies and have a blessed day.

[RickR]

3 Pin mic cables are not the same thing as 3 pin DMX cables. Elation even sells them both 3 & 5 pin.

Yes, you are probably OK but if it starts acting funny, you'll know where to start.

[jsharris83]

Wow I am really impressed by these pretty inexpensive Led tripars. We will be definately be adding more little by little until we get enough to light the entire stage. I think about 8 more should do it. We are going to try out the ELED DW Par 56 for the rest of our white. This will keep us from having to buy new dimmers and will be a lot less on enrgy cost as opposed to the 575 watt fresnals we have in place already.

[Esoteric]

Those are nice little fixtures. If you video just keep in mind your cameras will react differently to the LED fixtures.

Mike

[jsharris83]

Yeah I am about to edit this our first services with the new lights. We have turned the house lights down and increased the stage lighting. This is a big step for us and hopefully the change sticks. Hopefully we stay committed to finish our lighting for the stage. You all probably know how that goes with churches but thats a whole other conversation.

[petereit]

Originally Posted by jsharris83

For the 3' mic cables going from led to led that is what the manufacturer says to use. Now with that said i do understand the importance of using DMX over audio cable. For my long runs I will only use DMX. but for shorter that 3' i will use mic as my lighting company and the manufacturer recommends doing this.

Yeah, I was pretty shocked to see Elation actually SUGGEST using mic cables in their docs.

[jsharris83]

i have 75' feet of bulk dmx cable and I am going to make short patch cables to replace the mic cables this weekend.

[jsharris83]

Yeah, I was pretty shocked to see Elation actually SUGGEST using mic cables in their docs.

Yeah I was pretty shocked too. Atleast after reading all of your post about dmx versus audio cable. Page 7 under master-slave Operation in the manual for Elation Eled Tri Par56 says exactly this DAISY CHAIN YOUR UNITS VIA THE XLR CONNECTOR ON THE REAR OF THE UNIT. USE STANDARD XLR MICROPHONE CABLES TO LINK YOUR UNITS TOGETHER.

Pretty crazy I think. They should know better.
Now I know better thanks to you guys.

[petereit]

For what it's worth, I did read in the Elation support forum a suggestion that you could either set up lights as master/slave OR use a DMX controller, but not both.