Reliability of D512 compared to old USB Cable

[James]

Hi, just a quick question regarding the reliability of the D512s.

I have had a previous failure with the old style USB Cable, purchased another and have used it without issue for over a year.

This weekend I connected up my lighting system and my 2nd USB cable failed.

I believe this maybe down to a posible power surge from what I've been reading and believe they have got around this issue with a thermal fuse within the D512s

I assume this isn't a resettable fuse?

I will purchase the D512s, my question is will this likely happen again, anyone had similar issues?

Many thanks

[support]

To fight against "ground loop" agression, from lower protection to highest:
- Cable has a thermal fuse
- D512S has a "common mode range" protection
- D1024 and Rack1024 have a separate power for the DMX line which is fully isolated from the rest of the interface

That said, we strongly recommend you to locate the source of the ground loop and to fix the problem.

[James]

Many thanks for your response.

Regarding 'Ground loop' issue, how would one go about curing this?

From my earthed laptop I had the USB dongle going onto 2 LED pars (both earthed) when it failed, literally plugged the USB cable into the laptop and it immediately stopped working? Hadnt even sent a signal through, any clues?

This is a different laptop to the previous. The previous dongle failed in exactly the same way?

Will the D512s stop this from happening?

Expensive item at £200 ago if it keeps failing

Many thanks

[support]

The D512S protection is very solid.
No problem with small ground loop problems.

[James]

I will have a maximum of around 10 fixtures connected from time to time, would this pose a potential problem?

Can you explain the ground loop issue and how to combact this? I have never heard of this before

Never have any issues regarding flickering etc. Programmed light show works flawlessly eveytime.


Many thanks

[Luc Henrion]

Well, this subject interests me too: on an audio configuration, a ground loop is quite easy to detect (buzz!), but how do you detect it on a dmx configuration???

[James]

There isn't any signal 'blips'

It's the hardware, namely the old style dongle that has failed

Assuming there's been some sort of electrical spike that has fried my USB dongle? Twice on 2 different laptops

Guessing since they've put a thermal fuse in the replacement D512s this was a known problem.

Is there anyone I can message who designed the hardware regarding if this problem has been resolved?

[support]

Can you explain the ground loop issue

https://forum.thelightingcontroller.com ... =15&t=1686

[James]

Interesting...

I'm trying to locate a DMX optical isolator, looks like D1024 has a built in optical isolator, but would the thermal fuse of the D512 suffice?

I'm only running a few fixtures so don't need 1024 DMX channels

many thanks,

[Luc Henrion]

Thanks to support for the explanation, but my question remains: how can you detect a gound loop issue ???