I NEED HELP! DONGLE NOT WORKING

Evan, Really sorry i didnt see this post earlier. i was out. How'd it go? did you get it working?
Hope everything is well. Sincerely,

No luck last night. I jst went to a radio shack to try an external power supply, and it is still not getting any power. the dongle is less than 9 months old, is it covered any kind of warranty?

hello, please call our support center at 866-245-6726
ask for elation suport and we will give you an ra and
return shipping instuctions

So i called customer support, and they were not very helpful

Jingles and everyone else here who helps within these forums, are awesome, and i love the fast responses whenever i do have a programming problem. However, now that i have a hardware problem with Compu, i am done with this program. I have had numerous problems with the software that has affected my live show, such as the program shutting down completely or it recognizing it as the Sunlite controller. I have had many more problems, but I won't continue to list them, as i have posted about them all before. most, if not all, of these problems have happened while i was at a show or music festival, but i managed and the show went on. But this dongle problem put a halt to my light show, and the band i work for was not happy.

Customer support told me that i would have to send my dongle in, and that the repairs would take about 3 weeks. Ever since i received this program, i have coddled the dongle knowing that if something would happen to it, i would be screwed. I baby this thing and take more care of it then i do my lights themselves. So when this thing stopped working this past Thursday i was very surprised and upset. I was even more surprised and upset when customer support told me they could not send me new dongle before my next show, because i am not a dealer of elation products.

I have a full fall tour schedule, and now a useless light show with out the dongle. With the money i spent on compu and the dongle, and a brand new laptop built to the specs of compu, i could have a purchased a very good lighting controller, and probably wouldn't have had all the headaches that compu has given me.

So, I will send my dongle in to be repaired, but in the meantime, i will be buying a new lighting controller and saying good-bye to Compu. I don't want to do this, as i have come to really enjoy programming through compu, and really enjoy the easiness of putting together a kick ass light show that my band, its fans, and my other clients have come to love over the last 8 months. However, as my band continues to grow, I can not tollerate these problems any more.

Dunn, I too have been surprised as to how many problems you encountered with this program and hardware. i have really been surprised that you have stuck with us through the thick of it all. For that the company and i appreciate it. And also i would like your address which you can email to me at james k AT Elation lighting DOT COM. Also im always on and im sure you still have my cell number if you need anything. feel free to call it if your at a gig and in a jam in the future.
Sincerely,

email sent.

want to recomend an elation controller that wont crash on me?

well how many total channels and is any fixture more than 16 channels each?

my current set up:

8x Martin SCX600 scanners - 11 channels each
1 Stobe - 2 channel
8 PAr cans - 4 channels.

So i would need something with at least 94 channels. I do have some shows coming up in november where i will have more fixtures, so if i were to a get a new controller, i would need something that i can build upon.(one of the reasons why i liked compu so much)

Magic 260 or Showdesigner 1 will work best

i will look into these two controllers. is there an elation controller that can have compu scenes and switches loaded into it?

i'm not too sure. i know using basic scenes like one scene no movement no steps, i can load it into a dmx parnter. But you wont want a dmx parnter, it would be too limited for your applications. Let me look around. But i would really consider the magic 260 or a show designer. They are also easy to add on. Simply go over your scenes you made, add the fixtures looks and save it. Then your updated.
Sincerely,

Dunn,
Just remember there can be problems with any controller. I was curious about something though. Were you an Opto-isolater of any kind when your interface failed?
I fried two dongles before I caught on to this. Both times it was due to some type of a power failure. The power would come back on abruptly and twice it sent a spike up the dmx line and fried the dongle.
Since purchasing an opto-splitter i have had no problems at all. I have been using compuware for 4 years.
I am actually a sound tech and I like compuware because its easy to use once it is programmed. I guess if all I did was lighting I might want a board like a show designer or equivalent. Well whatever you do decide is fine but I was just letting you know that for me its been very reliable since i got the opto. TAP

By an opto-splitter or isloator, are you refering to the Opto Branch 4?

Along those lines, would a DMX-Branch 4 be a suitable or accptable replacement? Its not so much a matter of money, but more a matter of what scenario works better for me.

I've got some scenarios I'm trying to address and a splitter solution seems to be the correct solution to address part of the issue. Wireless may be the rest of the solution. But, if I'm going to buy something, I might as well get as much "additional benefit" from it as possible. While I'm using MyDMX rather than Compu Live, I can't see where the MyDMX dongle would be immune to the same scenario you desscribe.

Since I am also a sound company, and often have to do sound in environments where the venue operators are rather clueless about power, I have many times popped a breaker due to ignorant promoters telling me how to do things and well, 2800 watts later being requested and sure enough, that 15-amp breaker is going to do what it is supposed to do. But, I haven't had that issue in a couple of years, and I was using a DMX Operator.

In regards to Dunn's problem with the dongle and Compu Live, without knowing his computer's specs(make, model and configuration), it's pointless to troubleshoot. It could be a service pack issue, it could be the fact that the resources used for USB are shared with something else and that never fares well for pro A/V applications. For example, a lot of Dell and Gateway laptops have power and clocking issues on USB and firewire sharig resources with other hardware, thus rendering those latops as useless for pro audio applications that use either USB or firewire

Just because it is "spec'd" out for what you think you need it to be used for, doesn't mean it's gonna work out for you. The problem is these issues surface when it's too late(after the purchase). Specs for business(like office type stuff) are totally different than spec's being what are needed to be acceptable for pro audio/lighting/video applications. It's best to talk to a place like Sweetwater who sells laptops and other hardware for AV stuff so the can keep you on a product proven to be "issue free within reason". Never know, a service pack or hofix might hose all that.

quote:

Originally posted by Dunn:
i will look into these two controllers. is there an elation controller that can have compu scenes and switches loaded into it?

Nope. You can use an AR 32 to load Compu scenes into though.

OOh, now there's a cool option.

Work your butt off in Compu Live, then have a fully redundant hardware solution backup. That's awesome, especially since Dunn talks about using this touring, and I know all about touring and needing redundancy, fail-over and "no excuses".

Does it work with MyDMX as well?