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@jackstone do we order the IP67 RGBW lights directly from your company? 

Just now, jackstone said:

This mean an hardware error with the DMX Engine. I saw some rare boxes that does not handle heavy traffic from the Control4 driver, this should be resolved with the new driver that will operate a higher baud rate, else if you can reproduce the issue steadily, you can get a DMX Engine replacement either from Houselogix or Engineering Solutions.

Thanks @jackstone!  ok, I will sit tight and wait for the new drivers.  This only started happening once I moved the engine off of a Wifi2RS232 and hardwired directly to my IO.  It is must faster at responses but just locks up every now and again.  The RS232 cable is only about 5 inches long and the DMX data to the first decoder is about 35 feet.  If it keeps happening I will get a replacement from Houselogix if the new driver isnt out by then.  Any idea on ETA for new driver?

40 minutes ago, jackstone said:

Never heard of this issue before... Are you able to check the Debug Output (Lua tab in Print debug mode) when the unit is locked up?

Also, when you bind/unbind the Rs-232 port, this force a reboot on the DMX Engine, you could try to pull out the power from the DMX Engine when it is locked up and put it back, and see if this resolve the issue.

I will get the lua info next time it happens, I did check it once and remember seeing a message something along the lines of "oops....error sending command" or something like that.    And the driver reports "time out getting firmware".  I tried power cycling the DMX engine and it was still locked up.  I also tried to unplug the RS232 and replug, that didn't work.  The only thing that worked is to unbind and rebind. 

@jackstone, thats awesome.  I will be ordering about 12 of those.  Also, the new driver fixed the issue with the DMX switch not responding and having to change the setting in the driver to get it working again.  

But now I have an issue with the DMX engine driver in 2.9, it locks up every few days and I have to unbind the RS232 and rebind to get it back online.  It is wired to my IO.  I tried to power cycle the IO, power cycle the DMX, and the only thing that works is to unbind, and rebind the RS232.  Any thoughts?  It also locks up my IO until I rebind. 

@jackstone What is the price difference on the IP6 fixures and do you have a link to the details?

@jackstone, figures!!  So the backyard we will go with your IP6 spots!

@malelan, the DMX engine is limited to 512 channels per universe. I am using 2 engines, one for the front yard/inside the house (mounted in my rack).  I have a few decoders in my rack room for the interior lights and then daisy chain out to the front garage, with cat6/5 to more decoders.  The 5/7 wire runs for the front yard all go to the front garage and some of those are 100 feet long.  The backyard I just started and that engine is in my back garage wired to an HC800.  I plan to have all my decoders in the back garage and run wires around the yard from there.  You are limited to voltage drop across the length on the output of the decoders. The DMX daisy chain, I believe can be up to 300 feet, and on long runs make sure you terminate the last one.  Here is a picture of my front yard universe. 

@malelan If you ask me, I say hell yes, totally worth the time and $$ and there will be $$ spent!  I used this DMX engine, and these for the decoders and the Houselogix driver (kickass!!).  I used these lights (24 volt) from houselogix inside my landscape housings, I had to take the electronics box apart and solder a 7 wire sprinkler line to each one so I could control each individually (yes, the warranty is void and I broke one light with trial and error).  I used these housings in my driveway (those are the violet lights in the video) and ran a 5 wire sprinkler line to each one.  I built my own bulbs for the driveway lights (I used 1/2 inch PVC pipe and cut it about 4 inches long and wrapped RGBW 12 volt led strip lighting around it, make sure you use super glue on the start and end of the wrap).  Make sure you have a good quality soldering iron.  I then got 2 different power supplies, 12 volt and 24 volt to handle the different lights I installed.  I have a total of 12 lights in my driveway, 2 led strips under my portico, and 14 lights in my landscape and I can control each lights how I want.  Yes, it was a lot of work and a ton of soldering and planing, but well worth it.  I have lighting effect switches for Halloween, Christmas, Valentines day, Easter, Fourth of July, Memorial day, and even my Arizona Cardinals game day!  Here is a video of my Halloween lights firing at random.  I made the lights in the driveway violet, the portico in violet, and the landscape lighting the Halloween effect.  The wife likes it so much, the back yard is on the project list this winter!  We are going a bit bigger out back. Let me know if you have any questions, I am more than happy to help and share my trials and fails on this project. 

@jackstone are there any other users that are having an issue with controller reboot and effect switches activating during reboot?  I just rebooted my controller and my DMX is tied to an IO extender, the lighting went nuts. Do I need to add a relay to switch off the power to the DMX engine when the power is off to the controller?

Then I am good on waiting for the enhancements!  Can't wait to see what you guys come up with next!!

@jackstone I am running version 1.5.8, I just downloaded the new version and will test. Any progress on the Effect switch?

clearly @ericscales is MIA and the driver was never finished.

I am also having an issue with all the DMX group dimmers, they doesnt work every few days and all I have to do, is change one setting in the driver and it starts working again.  I have tried deleting and re-adding the driver with the same results.  Its strange...  its a comma separated random with the following channels: 52,56,60,64,68,72,76,80,84,88,92,96 for example.

Any thoughts?  

Ok, some more testing, I added all the lights to a macro and activated each channel as needed and changed the DMX buffer back to Cached, then activated the effect and its now changing colors, but only some of the colors are correct.  I also tried entering a value for each channel (minimum 1%), because some were blank, still had the same results.

What should I use to set it?  Also, if I change the DMX buffer to interface, I do get different colors, not the correct colors but different.

5 hours ago, jackstone said:

As a test, if you manually activate the scene, wait few sec then turn on the random loop effect, is it work correctly?

Don't trigger the effect on scene "Is Invoked", try to trigger on scene "Becomes Active". Because scene does not always become active instantly even if all load are set with no fade time or delay.

If this does not work, try to add a slight delay between the scene activation and the effect trigger, just to make sure the driver's internal buffer get updated, this is needed to use the "Use Current Level" option in the Random Loop.

When you see only red, that mean the driver wasn't able to gather the light levels fast enough, so if use a default single color just to avoid the effect to do "nothing".

 

@jackstone Its funny you say that, thats how I had it programmed.  I activate the scene and then put a 3 second pause in and then activate the DMX effect.  I added 5 seconds to it for a total of 8 and still only get RED.  I added another 5 seconds to it for a total of 13 and still only get RED.  Here is what I get in the LUA window when I activate the effect: "No color found, using default" 

Here is a screen shot of the effect driver.  I am using RGBW LEDs all in sequence.  

On 9/23/2016 at 11:32 PM, jackstone said:

The custom color setting is already available for the ranged loop and adv chase, we planned to add that to all effects in the future release in addition to the Comma Separated Random group type in the effect switch. Meanwhile you can use the "Use current colors "setting of the random loop to get the colors you want. Just manually set the ligths to the colors you want prior of turning on the effect switch, then the random loop will use the lights currently on as the reference pattern and will randomize those colors accross all the light range.

@jackstone I can't seem to get this working correctly.  I have a advanced lighting scene and I set all 12 of the RGB LEDs to 3 different colors I want (4 each violet, orange, white).  Once they are turned on I start my DMX effect switch set to Effect: Random loop, same range of channels as the advanced lighting scene, Random Style: Multiple colors, Random Preset: Use Current Levels.  When I activate the effect, all I get is RED that is looped, no other color and RED isn't even a color I set.  I must be missing something here. Any help is greatly appreciated.

12 hours ago, jackstone said:

The custom color setting is already available for the ranged loop and adv chase, we planned to add that to all effects in the future release in addition to the Comma Separated Random group type in the effect switch. Meanwhile you can use the "Use current colors "setting of the random loop to get the colors you want. Just manually set the ligths to the colors you want prior of turning on the effect switch, then the random loop will use the lights currently on as the reference pattern and will randomize those colors accross all the light range.

Awesome!  I will give it a go!  Thank you!

@jackstone is it possible to add RED/WHITE/BLUE to Random loop on the DMX effect switch?  Or add custom to random loop?  I like how I can select multiple colors and how many lights at a time.  Makes it super quick and easy!  I am really getting into programming my front landscape lighting and I am absolutely loving your drivers!! 

10 hours ago, jackstone said:

Seems correct.. I will order a LOR controller to try it, it's pretty cheap.

But either if they talk LOR or DMX, it would be nice to get control over it through Control4, my biggest concern is to know if they can support native light group control (translated to Scene in C4).

 

I will build the C4 driver anyway just for fun, I'll let you know how well and how far it can be integrated.

Awesome!!!

1 minute ago, jackstone said:

I heard of LOR one time but it was long time ago, their products look very promising for the price. Is your client in a hurry for integrating? I saw there is no c4 driver for this system right now but it should not be so hard to develop one, i could do if you want, you could get a basic control driver in a few week for your client and a fully functional version later. 

I appreciate the offer, but I think their product can do either LOR or DMX, if auto configs itself when booted.

On 6/12/2016 at 8:03 AM, jackstone said:

It's only binary stuff, it should be pretty easy to guess the right patern, if you've already find it, please post the correct dip switch patern to share with other users.

It should be 1,2,3,4,7

What are your thoughts on the lightorama stuff?  I have a client that wants to incorporate it into C4.  Seems very DIY, but don't know how reliable it is.

6 hours ago, jackstone said:

Maybe this chart is more accurate (Attached)

DMX512Chart.pdf

nope, that one is incorrect as well.  Take a look at channel 76 and 79, they are the same.

1 hour ago, jackstone said:

you're saying channel 79 on the chart does not shows the right dip switches patern? 

This chart is not from me, i simply googled it and attach the link to help people.

Correct, channel 79 is incorrect.  I do appreciate the chart.

@jackstone, the file located here http://www.look4ideas.com/techstuff/dmxchart.pdf has an issue with channel 79.  Through me through a few hour loop today.  Not sure if you are the correct person to let know, but maybe you can get it corrected.  

1 hour ago, jackstone said:

Yes you may have to change the channels on the bulbs starting at channel 13.

As for adding the Comma Separated Random feature, we never had any request to do so, but people use it a lot with the Group Dimmer... So yes, we may add this to the Effect Switch if you wish.

 

 

That would be fantastic!  I also have some other lights in my landscape that I could use this with.  Please let me know if you add that feature.