DMX to LOR on F16V4

[bobschm]

This should be very simple, but I can't seem to get it addressed. (F16V4 pun intended)

I have cat5 plugged into DMX3, with the jumpers all on the LOR side. The other end is plugged into an LOR ServoDog, which in the LOR world is just an 8 channel light controller. You program it as if you are talking to a single color light string on each channel. The ServoDog converts those 0-100% ramps into PWM data and sends it to the servos. So in theory, I should be able to pick the right channels and send typical 0-100% bulb dimmer data and get my servos working.

The LOR board is unit 1, which gives it a DMX start channel of 1.

The Falcon is at 192.168.0.60 with a Universe at 203 with 510 channels that will be dedicated to the LOR board. The absolute channel numbers in my setup is 8035-8544.

On the Falcon setup screen, I set the serial output 3 to DMX. I tried absolute Address 8035. I tried Universe and start channel, 203 and 1.

There's no indication the LOR board is receiving any data from the Falcon output.

What am I missing?

[MrChristmas2000]

How are you testing the output?

[Ebuechner]

Watch out for connecting the servo dog to a F-16 controller.
There seems to be a compatibility issue that will burn up the pins on the connector.
You're best off making a crossover cable using only the two data wires.
Lor likes to send voltage out on a couple of the pins.
If the servo dog has digital signal the red light Stops blinking.

[bobschm]

WHAT?! It burns up the pins?

Actually, I'm using a V3, not V4 as I put mistakenly in the title. It has the LOR jumpers so no crossover cable needed. Maybe the old V2 burned up pins? Are you talking about the pins on the F16 or the ServoDog?

Is there some kind of DMX tester I can buy to see if the socket on the F16 is sending data?

[Ebuechner]

I kind of figured you were talking about the V3.
Technically it shouldn't happen but when you made your post I decided to test it and I hooked my Servo dog to my F-16 V3 and the servo Dog Saw the data for a short time then it quit and before I knew it one of the rj45 pins was melting on the servo dog.
I double-checked the schematic on the servo dog and on the F-16 and it shouldn't have happened, but it did.
The pin that melted shows that there should be no connection on the F-16 side when the jumpers are set to Lor.

[bobschm]

Wow. That's scary. So far my boards show no melted pins or signs of damage. I've been running them on and off for about 20 seconds at a time just to see if they move the servos.

So how do you run your ServoDog from xLights?

[Ebuechner]

The servo dog was for an animated skull that I built a while ago but never did use it in the show.
Since then I gave up dealing with Lor nonsense and started using xlights so when you posted I got it out and tested it so I could give you exact answers.
I tested the cable and it's fine it could be that the pins crossed on the servo dog when I plugged it in but my response was to err on the side of caution.
The Lor stuff is a little dangerous with its 10 volt output pin that they use to drive their Showtime director and a few other things.

[Ebuechner]

Also remember this about Lor equipment it looks at the data input and selects what protocol it's going to be listening to upon startup so plug in the data line first then turn it on.
At least that's how I remember it working.

[bobschm]

I'm not married to LOR either. I'm not against swapping the ServoDogs for something that works. What board would you recommend to run my penguins? Each penguin has 7 servos.

[Ebuechner]

If I was to do it over again I would probably look into the skulltronix board I think it's called son of Chucky and board of Chucky?
Maybe Gil will chime in and mention what he tested on.

[Gilrock]

I worked out a deal to get a full up Skulltronix skull at a discount because Jerry knew I would be doing a lot of work to get it working in xLights.  It has one of those boards inside but I never had to open it up.  Also someone mailed me a ServoDog and an InputPup.  I got the InputPup working but I never got far with the ServoDog after looking at the manual.

[bobschm]

I've been reluctant to go with BOC (chucky) because there is no warranty whatsoever.

I'd be happy if I could find someone who got ANY LOR board working with the F16V3. Theoretically, the Servodog should appear to the controller as an 8 channel AC light controller. All the PWM and limits are handled internally by the board. Send it 0-100% voltage stream and it should go.

So I guess I'll look at chucky boards again. But has anyone run one of those from a V3? Or just the V2?

[Ebuechner]

Did you read Gil's post?
He tested on a skulltronix skull and it had one of those two boards in it.
If you're worried about warranties you might be in the wrong Hobby.
I don't know how many items I've bought at the store brought home opened the box and immediately voided the warranty to do a DIY modification to put it in the show.
Anything worthwhile doing for fun involves some risk.

[Gilrock]

I haven't run the skull in a show yet I've only used an Entec Pro DMX dongle to run the skull but I'm sure it would run from a falcon.  I also do run three 16 channel LOR PRO AC controllers in my show from F16v2 serial outputs.

[Ebuechner]

I replaced the RJ45 connector on my Servo dog and did a little further testing.
When I plug the servo dog into an Lor adapter and set it up in xlights I can get a solid status light on the servo dog indicating that it's receiving a signal.
But so far when I try to plug it into a DMX source I can't get a solid light showing that it's receiving a signal using a DMX to Lor crossover cable.
I'm not sure if this might be related to a firmware update that would make it compatible with DMX.
At this time I don't have any Lor software on any of my computer's so I don't have a hardware utility setup anywhere to check it.