VM116 and older dimmers

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1

Are there any timing, voltage or other adjustments available on the VM116?

I have several VM116 and they work great with
the house dimmers at all but two of my venues.

I’ve tested this with both a Blue and a Black VM116 and with PCs running
Windows 98se, XP, Vista and Windows 7. The results are always the same.

The two venues that the VM116s do not work with have older dimmers.
One has a Leprecon dimmer the other has Strand Lighting dimmers.

When I connect a VM116 to the Leprecon dimmer, I can turn on only 6 DMX channels
at a time. When I turn on a 7th DMX channel, the 1st channel turns off. Turning on an 8th
channel turns off the 2nd channel, etc.

When I connect a VM116 to Strand Lighting dimmers, I only have control of few low numbered
DMX channels. None of the DMX channels above 10 operate at all.

I also have a ETC Smartfade control console and a DMX-192 mini light board.
These two units run perfect at ALL my venues, including those with the Leprecon
and Strand Lighting dimmers.

I have also verified that the VM116s (as well as the ETC Smartfade and the DMX-192 ) operate perfect
on all channels by connecting a 4 channel MATRIX DMX dimmer and testing every address.

I’ve also verified that all three can control a bank of 24 Chauvet COLORado fixtures
(no dimmer pack, each fixture gets the DMX cable daisy chained and has a diffrent
selectable starting address).

I suspect that either these older dimmers need more voltage, need different timing or don’t
respond to some newer DMX codes used by the VM116. Perhaps with an oscilloscope
the DMX output of the VM116 could be compared to a hardwired lighting board’s (like the
Smartfade) DMX output, to see what is different and make (hopefully) a software
adjustment in the VM116 drivers or firmware.

Thanks for your help

2

Please check the last post of this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2046
The VM116 with the new firmware V3 may help.
In this new version there is added some extra delay between every data byte sent.
This makes it more compatible with old DMX fixtures.

3

Where do I download the new firmware and how do I install it? If it can’t be updated, is this a chip I can replace myself? If so, I’d like to buy 1 to test with and if it solves the problem, I’ll buy and replace the chip in all 5 of my VM116s.

4

Please return your µ-controller to:

Velleman Tech. Dept.
Legen Heirweg 33
9890 Gavere
Belgium

Make sure to include a copy of this conversation.

5

Thank you. I posted it today. Likely take 2 weeks to arrive.

6

Did you get my µ-controller yet? (mailed 12/24/10)
Were you able to upgrade it OK?
I need the upgraded µ-controller as my VM116 is unusable without it.
Thanks.

7

The repair dept. informed us that your IC has been mailed on Jan 15.

8

Upgrade to Rev 3 seems to have solved the problem. I’ve tested it on all my venues with old dimmers and several venues with new dimmers. Everything seems perfect. Thank you very much.