Trouble Patching Incandescent Lights with MagicQ and Leviton DDS 5600

Hey everyone!

I just picked up a MagicQ mini connect, but I’m having trouble getting my older incandescent wash lights to work with my Leviton DDS 5600 digital dimming system. I added a generic dimmer head in MagicQ and patched it to channel 1, which matches the dip switch on the dimmer, but nothing is happening – no communication at all. I’m still pretty new to this stuff, so I’m not sure what I’m missing. I’ve got two dimmer packs; one is set up for channel 1, and the other for channel 5.

Any help or advice would be awesome. Thanks!

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Hey man, I’ve had a similar issue with older dimmers. Double-check your DMX address on the Leviton DDS 5600. If you’ve patched MagicQ to channel 1, the dimmer should also be set to DMX channel 1. Sometimes the dip switch settings can be tricky, so make sure they’re all correct for the DMX channel you’re using.

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I think you’re on the right track with patching the dimmer head, but make sure that the signal is actually making it to the dimmers. Try switching out the DMX cable just in case it’s faulty, and make sure you’re using the correct DMX output from your MagicQ. Are your dimmer packs showing any signal lights when you send data?

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Hey, sounds like a classic DMX addressing issue! On older dimmer packs like the Leviton, the dip switch settings have to be just right. There’s a chart for DMX addresses and dip switch positions. Double-check that you’ve set those correctly, especially for channels 1 and 5. Also, are you sure your dimmer packs are receiving DMX data? A blinking light usually confirms if they’re getting a signal.

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I’ve seen this problem a few times with older incandescents. The dimmer packs can be finicky. One thing that worked for me was doing a full reset on the dimmer pack, then reconfiguring the dip switches. After that, make sure the DMX universe in MagicQ matches the one you’re using. If you’ve got multiple universes running, things can get confusing.

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You mentioned that you’re new to this, so just to cover the basics – make sure you’ve assigned enough dimmer channels in MagicQ. If you’re using a 6-channel dimmer, for example, you need to patch six channels for each dimmer. The first one starts at 1, then the second one at 5 (if it’s a 4-channel dimmer, adjust accordingly). Sometimes it’s something as simple as not having enough channels patched!

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