RPM DMX Dongle to Ren48 help

[DIY Guy]

Hi Guys,

Just getting around to testing out the new stuff and I cannot get the ren48 to respond.

Since I never used DMX before, please let me know if I am missing anything:

o Dongle is recognized in Win7 as com3 (default baud setting in windows is 9600, but apparently this doesn't matter)
o In vixen I have Enttec DMX USB Pro as the plugin, set to com3, channels 1-48
o Created a cable between the dongle and ren48 as follows:

Pin 1 dongle -> pin 5 ren48
Pin 2 dongle -> pin 4 ren48
Pin 7 dongle -> pin 1 ren48
Pin 8 dongle -> pin 2 ren48

(there seems to be different cable pinouts when reading the posts)

o RS232 jumper open on ren48
o TERM jumper tried both open and shunted
o Dongle LED flashes 2x sec at standby and when data being transmitted (no discernible difference in flashing)

I should also add these ren48 have not been tested as "known good", but I do have 2 of them, same results with both. Installed the DMX firmware with no start address.

[rokkett]

Try unplugging your cable, flipping it around and plugging it back in. You may have the DMX and Renard sides swapped and these cables will only work one way. Scratched my head for way too long on that one in the past...

[mschell]

In addition to what rokkett suggested, you can try swapping pins 4 and 5 on the Ren48 side of the cable to see if it works. The important wires are from dongle pins 1/2 to 4/5 or 5/4 on the Ren48LSD. You also need a ground connection for best results. I went looking for the schematic, but couldn't find it. My cable that goes from my RPM DMX8DC card to my Ren48LSD is out in the display right now, so I can't check it.

[DIY Guy]

Thanks guys.

Since the dongle is also new this year, I flashed the PICs on one of the ren48's with renard protocol to confirm the boards worked (these are the ones that didn't get tinned, so I figured there could be a problem) and I'm getting a steady 3.84v out of the regulator at at pins 1-14 on the PICs and 5-8 of the rs485. Checked the other ren48 and I am getting 3.9v at these locations.

Wiki says 5v should be present; I am furnishing 5.4v via ATX power supply (confirmed at terminal blocks on ren48)

So this may be a thread for the ren forum rather than dmx forum.

But I will try flipping the cable around anyway!

[rokkett]

If you are running 5 volts, you don't want the regulator. It requires 7.5 volts input to provide 5 volts power to the logic circuits and then 7.5 volts would be provided to the outputs. If you driving Frank's strips at 5 volts, you want 5 volts everywhere, so you will need the jumper instead of the regulator, as shown in the wiki...

[DIY Guy]

You are correct. I just looked in the wiki.. not sure how I missed that. Thanks.

[DIY Guy]

As expected, the dongle works great. Wasted a lot of time trying to test it on the ren48lsd when I didn't build the ren properly..

..then thought I would just try it on the new ss24 only to find it has a bad oscillator.

Finally did what I should have done in the first place.. Took a known good unit and reflashed with DMX firmware.

Everything is working well now.

Thanks again for the help.

[budude]

That's good to hear - all of mine in my show are running DMX - I'm runnning three of them w/o the regulator and a fourth with (for my Rainbow Floods @12v) - I'm using RPM's dongle as well. Another dongle drives my two LOR boxes and a FreeStyle - so far so good!