These are the topics the app’s Help window opens, published so they can be read before the app is installed. Each page is exported from the app’s own help, not written again for the site.

The app shows the text for the computer it runs on. Here every platform’s text is shown, each part labeled: a paragraph headed On macOS:, or (macOS) after a phrase. Windows and Linux are planned and not started, so text labeled for them describes a version that cannot be downloaded yet.

An assistant connected to the bench reads the same topics, for its own platform, as the MCP resources rdmbench://help/<topic>; each page here names its own. rdmbench-cli guide <topic> prints one in a terminal.

What a symptom usually means on the line, cited to ANSI E1.68 and the DMX512 Guide, is in Troubleshooting.

Topics

Connect the widget and find the fixture
The bench talks to a fixture through an Enttec DMX USB Pro, called the widget here: USB on one side, a DMX line on the other.
When no fixture is found
Connecting can stop short in three places: the widget will not open, the line has nobody on it, or a unit answered but could not be listed.
When the widget won't connect
This topic is about the widget itself: the Enttec DMX USB Pro between the computer and the DMX line.
Read a fixture's report
The report is everything the fixture says about itself over RDM, in the order a repair goes: who it is, whether anything is wrong, then the detail behind that.
Corrupt frames: check the line
Nearly every DMX fault is the cable, the termination or the grounding, not the fixture.
A working fixture that looks broken
Some settings make a healthy fixture look dead, stuck or wrong: it will not move, ignores the desk, lights with nothing plugged in, or moves the wrong way.
Wrong colors: check the patch
A fixture showing the wrong colors, or doing the wrong thing on a channel, with no error code is most often set up differently from what the desk expects: the wrong DMX start address, or a different personality (mode) from the one the desk is patched for.
Watch a fixture over time
A report is one look at a fixture. Monitoring keeps asking and writes down what changes, which catches the faults that need time or handling to show.
Watch the whole line
On a line with more than one fixture, the fault can be a unit that stops answering now and then while the rest carry on.
Chase an intermittent fault
Some faults are not there when you look: a fixture that overheats after twenty minutes, a status message that comes and goes, a connector that drops the line when it is touched, a unit that stops answering now and then.
Light a fixture with Send DMX
Send DMX puts levels on the line and holds them, so you can see the fixture work while you read it: prove what a channel does, confirm a new address by lighting it, or load the fixture while the monitor watches its temperature.
Check every channel by eye
Some faults only show in the beam: a color wheel that sticks, a dead emitter, a gobo that won’t index, a tilt that stops short.
Check a fixture's RDM behavior
A report believes what the fixture says. The behavior check asks whether what it says can be believed: it sends the fixture a set of requests that E1.20, the RDM standard, says exactly how to answer, and lists which rules the unit keeps and which it breaks.
Load test a fixture
Some faults only exist while a fixture is working: a dimmer module that draws no current, a fan that never speeds up, an over-temperature that needs the unit lit for a while.
Read the wire log
Every report, monitor round and behavior check is made of packets: the bench asks, and the fixture answers or stays silent.
Record a fixture and replay it
A unit on the bench goes back to its owner, and what it did goes with it.
Finish a repair and print the repair sheet
When the work is done, Finish Repair marks the unit as going back: it records where the fixture’s readings are, resets the lamp counters if a new lamp went in, and takes a closing report.
GDTF files and the PID library
The bench reads two kinds of file it does not get from the fixture.
Find a fixture's desk mode
A fixture’s name for its mode and a desk’s name for the same mode are often different: the fixture says Standard (16-bit), the desk’s patch says Standard.
The PID library
Every fixture’s maker adds parameters of its own beyond the ones E1.20 defines: a color calibration, a fan mode, a dimmer curve.
Build a desk profile from the fixture
A desk patches a fixture with a profile: what each channel does in each of its modes.
Back up the bench, restore it, or move to a new one
The bench’s history is its repair history: every report, note, load test and channel walk, filed by unit.
Connect an AI assistant
An AI assistant on this computer, such as Claude, can read what the bench has saved and answer questions about your fixtures: what is wrong with one, what changed since its last visit, what was done to it last time.
Ask an assistant about a fixture
Once an assistant is connected (see Connect an AI assistant), ask it about your fixtures in plain words.