USB to DMX dongle - Enttec Pro compatible

**RobertB** · 07-20-2012, 06:51 AM

Originally Posted by budude

OK - you had only mentioned using LOR so my assumption (incorrect) was that you had LOR controllers as well. And yes - DMX (really RS-485) is just D+ and D- so it's only a 50/50 shot to get it right as long as you have the right pins to begin with (1/2 from the dongle). The dongle will show up a COM port when connected to USB so it sounds like you have that part right. Are you sure the DMX controllers are addressed correctly to match the data you are sending from LOR?

Thought about that too. In the XLights tester, I selected all 512 channels....still no joy :-(

**RobertB** · 07-20-2012, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by Matt_Edwards

One of the fundamental dmx tool you need is an LED tester. It will tell you if you are transmitting dmx.
Take a yellow and a red led and solder in parallel but make sure you have them connected in opposite directions
ie the long lead of the red led is connected to the short lead of the yellow led. And visa versa for the other leads.
Now solder a 120 oh resistor in series with the leds.
You can solder this to a lead and connect to the DMX dongle.
The two less fill flash at a rapid rate when you are outputting DMX
The red to yellow ratio will change when output live data.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Ok, will give this a try. Will be Sunday before I can go to the local Radio Shack and grab some LED's.

**RobertB** · 07-21-2012, 08:18 PM

Well I have tried the above way and also this way .
I have reversed the dmx positive and negative on both sides of the LED's. Still no joy.
Now, I was not able to get 2 different LED colors. Unfortunately Radio Shack didn't have in stock 2 different color 12v LED's...but the colors would not have mattered anyway.

I really think the microcontroller on this is trashed. Little frustrated since I really don't have $40.00 to burn.

Would love to get some test voltages or something to try and see if any test points or something is showing correct voltages.

I also noticed though...on the 28 pin Atmega88 processor socket...pin 14 (I think that is the correct #. Pin 14 on the same side as Pin 1 is.) does not have a socket. It is just a blank. Is that the way other people's show?

**budude** · 07-21-2012, 08:26 PM

Originally Posted by RobertB

I also noticed though...on the 28 pin Atmega88 processor socket...pin 14 (I think that is the correct #. Pin 14 on the same side as Pin 1 is.) does not have a socket. It is just a blank. Is that the way other people's show?

Can you explain this more - are you saying the pin is not in the socket? Picture maybe? All pins should be in a socket...

**RobertB** · 07-21-2012, 09:18 PM

Originally Posted by budude

Can you explain this more - are you saying the pin is not in the socket? Picture maybe? All pins should be in a socket...

Pins are in the socket. There is no METAL in pin 14 for the chip socket. Therefore, pin 14 (or whatever pin it is....pin 14 on the same side as pin 1...can't remember the pinout scheme)...cannot be in the circuit.

Again....anyone else that bought this board...or Robert Martin himself...should pin 14 be in this circuit. A schematic would be nice.

**RavingLunatic** · 07-21-2012, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by RobertB

Pins are in the socket. There is no METAL in pin 14 for the chip socket. Therefore, pin 14 (or whatever pin it is....pin 14 on the same side as pin 1...can't remember the pinout scheme)...cannot be in the circuit.

Again....anyone else that bought this board...or Robert Martin himself...should pin 14 be in this circuit. A schematic would be nice.

Have you checked the first post in this thread for a schematic??????

or even post #252 for the latest version (possibly)
http://doityourselfchristmas.com/for...096#post151096

**budude** · 07-21-2012, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by RobertB

Pins are in the socket. There is no METAL in pin 14 for the chip socket. Therefore, pin 14 (or whatever pin it is....pin 14 on the same side as pin 1...can't remember the pinout scheme)...cannot be in the circuit.

Again....anyone else that bought this board...or Robert Martin himself...should pin 14 be in this circuit. A schematic would be nice.

Every socket should have the metal in them - according to the schematic this pin is not used though...

**RobertB** · 07-21-2012, 10:15 PM

Thanks RavingLunatic (cute) for the schematic info. Yeah budude I now see that 14 is not used.

Interestingly enough I grabbed my LOR dongle and tried the XLights module with the 27 ch controller. Works just fine with OpenDMX network. So since the LOR worked with OpenDMX...I thought I would try some others with the RPM board. Still no joy. Not cool.

**Jack Stevens** · 07-22-2012, 11:27 AM

No contact on pin 14 is definitely going to negatively impact functionality.

Unfortunately, that's one socket that probably won't be available at your local overpriced Radio Shack store.

**budude** · 07-22-2012, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by Jack Stevens

No contact on pin 14 is definitely going to negatively impact functionality.

Unfortunately, that's one socket that probably won't be available at your local overpriced Radio Shack store.

In this particular case it won't make a difference. There is no connection to pin 14 on the board - in fact of all the socket pins to lose, this was one you could get away with...