DL.2 Digital Light Troubleshooting Guide

No LCD display

If you have no LCD display, first check for the presence of backlight and the green display LED, the display LED is opposite the Tab Select Buttons. If you have no backlight and no display LED, you can turn the display on by pressing the recessed on/off button directly below the LED.  

Immediately following power up, you should see the High End Systems logo as the BIOS splash screen. If it does not appear, you may need to check that your computer is booting and receiving power.

If you have power and backlighting to the LCD display, you may need to inspect the V.I.V.O. (Video In/Video Out) adaptor and the accompanying connections. The VIVO connects to the video card below the DVI output. This connector handles the information being fed to the display. First ensure that it is properly connected to the video card. Follow the adaptor to the composite connector with the arrow facing away from the card, then on to the display itself. If you locate a missing connection, you will need to reboot the computer after reconnection. Detailed pictures of the VIVO adaptor and how it connects can be found here and here.

CPU not turning on

If you have no server LED, your computer may be turned off.  If you are certain that the power switch on the CPU inside of the fixture is turned on, you can press and hold the top and bottom tab select button to turn the computer on. Please note that it is not suggested to use this as an on/off switch, it may find its way in a rig with the CPU in it’s off state.

If your computer is still not turning on, you can achieve the same result of the tab select buttons by shorting pins 1 and 4 on the white Molex connector on the CPU. Pin one is the top right, and pin four directly below it. Finally you can verify that your reset harness is connected properly to the motherboard. A detailed picture of the CPU and the Molex connector can be seen here. You can find a close up of the PC reset and LED motherboard connections here.   

No Projector or bad output

If you have no projector output and you are seeing video black. First check that you have selected the proper input. From the console make sure you have the input selected to Graphics engine, or from CMA select projector input internal. You may find it helpful to toggle back and forth.

If your input settings are properly set, you should verify your DMX patch and console defaults. This is especially important if you are using a controller from someone other that Flying Pig.  You can find a copy of the protocol along with the fixture default values here.

Be certain that you have projector defaults turned on.

You can test the video cable assemblies in a few different places. Start at the DVI connection on the CPU found above the VIVO connector, and verify the output of the video card. If your video is good, follow the DVI cable to the I/O board, there it gets plugged in VGA. This provides another good test point. On the I/O board, the video signal gets sent out as RGBHV.

From there it goes up to the projector. You will find a picture of the I/O board here.

If you do not see projector output, and the LCD display appears to be “fighting” (abnormal flashing between the menu and the graphics engine output) with the main output, you likely have a bad Red somewhere in the video harness. In addition a bad H or V will result in no output.

No or strange DMX control

Be certain that you have the DL.2 patched correctly. Each DL2 patches as 5 fixtures, 1 motion, 1 global, and 3 graphics layers. If you have a starting address of 1 the patch should be;

The next free address after the fixture is completely patched is 171.

It is also very important to make certain that your profile defaults are set correctly. This is very important if you are using a controller that is not from Flying Pig. The full profile including the default values can be seen here.

USB Comm. Error

USB comm. errors can usually be fixed by resetting the DL.2. If you have one that repeatedly shows that error, check the LED’s on the head card and base card. See the table below for the LED states. This will help you determine whether or not a board has failed.

If the Ethernet LED’s on the I/O section of the fixture are on steady, you should inspect the connections on the head card, paying particular attention to the camera connections. A detailed head card picture can be found here.

No S-Video input

If you are having trouble seeing your S-Video input, be sure that you have your capture set to S-Video instead of camera.

If you have nothing showing up on the video input (folder 255, file 1), check all of your VIVO connections paying particular attention to the S-Video. From the VIVO adaptor, the S-Video then runs to the video I/O board.

If all of your S-Video connections appear to be good, verify that the dip switches on the video card inside the computer are both set to the off position.  

Video Playback

You may see improved playback performance if you have the LCD set to on, or off. In addition to the display, having a network connected to the DL2’s can help with CPU performance. This can be as simple as having CMA running.

The CMA sees the fixture but cannot transfer content or see configuration setting

If you boot a DL.2 fixture before establishing a network connection, the fixture will appear in the CMA with a default IP address of 127.0.0.1.  If you connect to a network after booting up the DL.2 fixture, you will see the IP address for the fixture bouncing back and forth between 127.0.0.1 and 169.254.x.x in the CMA.  The CMA will not function, even though it appears to recognize the fixture(s).

To avoid this situation, make sure your network is connected before DL.2 power up or issue a reboot from the console after connecting the network.

Pan or Tilt not recalling preset position accurately

DL.2's use high precision encoders for pan and tilt positioning. It is important to keep them clean. If you find that your DL2's are having issues recalling positions, you can clean the encoders with either canned air or a little alcohol.