sureview
I had long known that my smoke machine was evil and slapped spikes down my mains cable. now i have finally got round to sorting it .
Set up a test rig in the garage to determine how i could stop it .
first I plugged everything into one mains point with no mains filters inline and every earth checked I soon had a test rig that would crash VDJ nearly every press of the fog button!, accompanied by a crack on the audio too.
sometime it would not be a full crash, they would vary between a full BSOD (very rare), VDJ crash - total, Dropped audio which would restart, dropped controller connection, audio click only or just a flicker on screen,
I tested both my laptop and desktop computers, very similar results with both
I have tried various types of filter plug and surge protector with varying results, a £20 plug in 4 way extension with surge protection had very little effect, running equipment off my £250 APC UPS was better , but I could still make my system fall over .
I decided that if multiple surge protection filters were not going to stop the problem , I would need to prevent the problem at source.
I purchases some LCR arc suppression snubbers and fitted one to the fog button .....
result , complete cure!, no mains filters and I have fired the fogger a hundred times...
now I know this may not help users who are guest dj's at clubs and my suffer from the in house equipment, but its good to know that there is a simple cure for these inductive loads, and if you have your own rig its a 10 minute job to greatly reduce or eliminate the problem.
i could also get various lighting effects to cause problems too, the inrush of current at switch on could spike so I am now fitting snubbers to all the switches on my lighting control box too
and the cost of this miracle cure about £2.70, available from CPC, RS etc
Set up a test rig in the garage to determine how i could stop it .
first I plugged everything into one mains point with no mains filters inline and every earth checked I soon had a test rig that would crash VDJ nearly every press of the fog button!, accompanied by a crack on the audio too.
sometime it would not be a full crash, they would vary between a full BSOD (very rare), VDJ crash - total, Dropped audio which would restart, dropped controller connection, audio click only or just a flicker on screen,
I tested both my laptop and desktop computers, very similar results with both
I have tried various types of filter plug and surge protector with varying results, a £20 plug in 4 way extension with surge protection had very little effect, running equipment off my £250 APC UPS was better , but I could still make my system fall over .
I decided that if multiple surge protection filters were not going to stop the problem , I would need to prevent the problem at source.
I purchases some LCR arc suppression snubbers and fitted one to the fog button .....
result , complete cure!, no mains filters and I have fired the fogger a hundred times...
now I know this may not help users who are guest dj's at clubs and my suffer from the in house equipment, but its good to know that there is a simple cure for these inductive loads, and if you have your own rig its a 10 minute job to greatly reduce or eliminate the problem.
i could also get various lighting effects to cause problems too, the inrush of current at switch on could spike so I am now fitting snubbers to all the switches on my lighting control box too
and the cost of this miracle cure about £2.70, available from CPC, RS etc
Mensajes Mon 20 Oct 14 @ 9:43 am
sureview
note to moderators, I know this is not really a bug report , but there are so many posts with random lockups etc, and very little detail of what may be the problem, I thought a post here would make users think to check other causes of the lockup and maybe check there own equipment lol :-)
Mensajes Mon 20 Oct 14 @ 9:50 am
eclipseentertainers
Put your fog machine on a seperate circuit. Its causing a power surge and your laptop is losing power.
Mensajes Tue 21 Oct 14 @ 5:22 am
sureview
nothing to do with laptop losing power ! (why do people always think this??)
the inductive spike causing the problem could travel several hundred feet down the cable, so unless you can put the rest of your equipment on a different phase, it wont help
the inductive spike causing the problem could travel several hundred feet down the cable, so unless you can put the rest of your equipment on a different phase, it wont help
Mensajes Tue 21 Oct 14 @ 7:37 am
djdad
the issue here is that when you go to a venue that has such equipment (fog machines, large moving heads, Air- Conditions etc), you cant do what you suggest. You need a solution for your own equipment, and so far unfortunately there is no way to prevent it.
Anyways, this "issue" is and was present with version 7 as well. So in cases of a crash or a freeze, which is only happening with version 8 and not 7, we need to investigate if its software related, so users need to test both versions (if possible) and provide results from other venues too.
Thanks for the info btw.
Anyways, this "issue" is and was present with version 7 as well. So in cases of a crash or a freeze, which is only happening with version 8 and not 7, we need to investigate if its software related, so users need to test both versions (if possible) and provide results from other venues too.
Thanks for the info btw.
Mensajes Tue 21 Oct 14 @ 12:58 pm
sureview
I agree, I am currently testing a range of filters, as well as eletrically isolated usb cables (yes these do exist , there are also optical usb isolators), the problem is no always a spike on the L N, but also effects the earth as well.
nice thing about the test rg at the mo , is i can repeat the problem when i like so i can compare filters and surge arrestors.
the main problem with surge arrestors is that they will clamp and dampen a large surge, but do not seem to be that effective on very fast lower energy spikes.
If i find a filter combination worth a mention , I will of course post it here !
nice thing about the test rg at the mo , is i can repeat the problem when i like so i can compare filters and surge arrestors.
the main problem with surge arrestors is that they will clamp and dampen a large surge, but do not seem to be that effective on very fast lower energy spikes.
If i find a filter combination worth a mention , I will of course post it here !
Mensajes Wed 22 Oct 14 @ 8:07 am
DJ SWID
Anything new about a good filter to avoid electricity problems?
Mensajes Mon 28 Mar 16 @ 1:25 am