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. The report’s DMX configuration section has both, and the sidebar’s Line section compares every unit the bench has a report of.

Compare the address and the personality with the desk’s patch before anything else. To find what a desk calls the mode the fixture is in, see Find a fixture’s desk mode.

Past the end of the universe

The address plus the footprint runs past channel 512. The channels past 512 never receive data, so whatever they control sits wherever the fixture leaves it, and RDM can misbehave too. Move the start address down so the whole footprint fits.

An address outside 1–512, or no address on a fixture that uses channels, is a setting to make at the fixture before anything else.

Footprint disagrees with the mode

The fixture reports one number of channels for itself and a different one for the personality it is in. It may have been caught in the middle of a mode change, or its firmware disagrees with itself. Take the report again; if it still disagrees, trust the channel count in the manual for that mode. A current personality outside the list the fixture reports is the same kind of firmware fault.

Overlapping addresses

Two units on the line listen on some of the same channels, so whichever one the desk means, the other follows on those channels. One is addressed wrong, or a personality change made its footprint longer. Units straight off the truck often all sit at address 1: on a bench that is expected, and on a line it is not.

Two units of the same model in the same mode at exactly the same address may be a pair set up on purpose. The desk cannot tell them apart, and neither can the report.

A different mode from the rest

One unit is in a different personality from the other units of its model on the line. The desk profile that fits them will not fit it, and a wrong mode is the most common “broken” fixture there is. Check which mode the desk is patched for before blaming either. When the units are split between modes with no clear majority, the report lists each unit’s mode instead: fine if the desk is patched that way, and one of them is in the wrong mode if they are meant to match.

Different firmware

Units of one model on different firmware can differ in behavior, in their list of modes and in their private parameters, and some desks patch them as separate fixture types. Worth knowing before asking why only one of them does something.

From the command line

rdmbench-cli set-address 101 sets the start address of the first fixture found, or of the UID given after it, and reads it back. rdmbench-cli set-personality 2 switches it to the second personality in the report’s list and prints the mode and footprint it now reports.