DMX Help - BeamZ snow machine

[nicholas.buckler]

Hi all,

I’m hoping someone can help me troubleshoot a DMX issue.

I’m trying to control a BeamZ Rage 1800 snow machine from a Genius 16 controller running with FPP and xLights.

My pixel outputs are working perfectly, but I can’t get the DMX output to trigger the snow machine.

The setup is:

• xLights → FPP → Genius 16
• DMX1 on the Genius
• Commercial RJ45-to-DMX adapter
• BeamZ Rage 1800 set to DMX mode

A homemade RJ45-to-DMX adapter worked intermittently, so I replaced it with a commercial adapter. Since then I haven’t been able to get any DMX output, although I’m not sure if I’ve changed something else in the configuration at the same time.

From what I can see:

• DMX1 is configured on the Genius starting at channel 1 with 8 channels.
• My xLights DMX model is assigned to Port 1, starting at DMX channel 1.
• FPP is running as the player and the pixel outputs are working correctly.

Could someone please have a look at my screenshots and let me know if I’ve missed anything in:

• the Genius configuration,
• the FPP configuration,
• the xLights controller/output setup,
• or if this sounds more like an RJ45-to-DMX adapter pinout issue?

Also, has anyone successfully used a commercial RJ45-to-DMX adapter with a Genius 16, and if so, which one?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[merryoncherry]

Tell me about the "commercial DMX adapter". Was it sold in a pair (on Amazon)? Some of those are nonstandard and only work as a pair.

These work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0968QP7WM
But the rest I tried (often with a bit of cord on them) didn't.

But am suspicious that you can have more than one problem, a homemade one should have been just fine. Is your DMX terminated? Not terminating also causes intermittent issues with some devices.

 

[MikeKrebs]

FPP generally does not need any DMX input or output for DMX to run from a controller. The way you have it configured, it would be trying to send and receive dmx out of the serial port on FPP. In this case, that would be wrong.

FPP should be sending it using DDP you have apparently configured correctly. The controller will convert it to DMX and send it out the serial port on the controller.