OK. got it to work. I am using the D-FI Hub. I have my light on 3-ch d1. First I turned on my D-Fi Hub then I plugged in and turned on my Obey 4 D-fi. On the hub I put it to receive auto then held down the auto button until it activated. I then held the D-Fi button down on the Obey 4 and it connected. I then plugged in the light. I'll go now to check to see if I can get it working without the D-Fi Hub.
You hooked up and powered on your equipment in the wrong order. You should always plug-in everything first and make sure the polarity switch on your controller is in the correct position and then power on your lights and then power on your controller. Give that a try.
For one thing, set the fixture to channel one , then on the controller to fixture one... Simple It is a four channel dmx controller, set the fixture to one and you'll have control the light needs more than four channels so you can't have that controller
Also... on the slim par 64’s there should be a flashing dot on the bottom directly to the right of the ‘d’ when DMx is present...that I do not see on your light. Maybe the cable?
Ok it's reasonable to say that the Chauvet Obey 4 D-Fi is very poorly designed, to say the least - at least the first version of this wireless controller, which features a single red D-Fi sync button. There is an updated version of this controller that adds a dip-switch next to the sync button, for manual setting of the D-Fi frequency. I can't speak to that one, I don't own it. Incidentally, both of these controllers are themselves updates to an older, non-wireless version - the original Obey 4. Like another here, I had tried and failed to get the Obey 4 to work at all, and it ended up in a cupboard for the last 3 years, a useless and constant source of mild annoyance. Well good news... thanks to this page, and some of the advice given, I've managed to take things a stage further and get the D-Fi mode to actually work. The advice about disconnecting the D-Fi connection inside the controller seems sound and makes a lot of sense, assuming you want to operate the controller in wired mode. I didn't try that, as it wasn't wired mode I was after. But the advice did help explain why any logical, engineering minded person would have a nightmare with this controller, as the obvious thing to do when troubleshooting this device (as is inevitable) is to try wired mode first, to remove variables from the equation. And it sounds like this will never work, or at least not without a) disconnecting the D-Fi connector inside, or b) (possibly) using a terminator. The manual is not helpful, assuming you are looking at the correct one (different versions of hardware...), but thanks to reviewing several other Chauvet manuals, and some trial and error, I found a repeatable procedure for setting the Obey 4 up with 4 Freedom Par Tri-6 lights. I reckon many other Chauvet lights will work in similar fashion. Procedure for setting up the Obey 4 in D-Fi mode with 4 Freedom Tri-6 lights: 1. Set the lights to 3-CH mode (for some reason 4-CH mode does not work with 4-CH lights, even though the controller is a 4-CH controller. The controls do all the wrong things in 4-CH mode). 2. Set your 4 lights to 4 different starting DMX addresses as follows... 1, 5, 9 and 13 3. Menu through to S-TR on the lights, change to drAS and hit enter. This puts the lights in auto-receive frequency mode. 4. Have the controller switched on, and use 4 fingers to simultaneously press the 'auto' button on the 4 Freedom lights (they should say 'Ar 1' when you press the auto button) and hold the auto button(s) for a few seconds, until the red LED on each light turns from a slow flash to a steady red light. Then quickly let go of the auto buttons and press and hold the red D-Fi sync button on the controller for about 5-10 seconds, until the LED's on your 4 lights start flashing quickly. Hopefully all 4 LED's will start flashing quickly. The point about doing everything simultaneously is that you don't have a lot of time to press the sync button on the controller, after the LED's go steady red, and doing them one light at a time can be unreliable. 5. If less than 4 lights end up in auto mode, you can try step 4 again for any lights that haven't synched, but it seems a bit hit or miss if this works. Sometimes you end up resetting all of them. 6. A quick hint about the controller. Push the left 3 faders all the way up if you want to use the preset color mode. For me this made all the difference. Good luck!
Hi Al, I just picked up one of the Obey 4 D-Fi (preowned) and I have the same problem with Stellar Labs Par 64s. NO control. I have a standard Obey 4, also. Sitting side by side, the DMX output on the standard Obey controls the light. Switch the DMX cable to the D-Fi unit, and no control/output (whatever). Decided to open the box. Found that when I disconnected the RF board in the D-fi unit, the DMX cable worked fine. Plugged power back to the RF board, no control. Final thoughts.... The RF board, who's input is taken directly from the DMX connector, is loading down the signal going out the DMX connector. Apparently not supplying enough signal for the DMX Slave that the PAR requires. Since I do not have any D-Fi equipment, I just left the RF board disconnected for now, and all of my cabled lights work fine. Have you found any other solutions? Gary
Did u manage to get it to work ? I have the same issue , my Chinese lights do not have dip switches so how can I tell the obey 4 what channel they are, very confusing .
The manual for Obey 4 is absolutely terrible, and does not explain AT ALL how to setup the "FIXTURES" buttons. They need to point out that you have to be fully aware of the channel setup of the fixtures you are using. The first 3 channels are going to be Red, Green, Blue, and the 4th channel is almost always the master dimmer for the fixture. I tested all of this and it worked great and as expected, with each standard PAR64 LED fixture set to DMX 1, DMX 5, DMX 9, and DMX 13 (i.e., FIXTURES 1, 2, 3, and 4). Chauvet really does need to learn how to write better manuals, so people can properly setup their equipment. Oh, and I have no idea why Al Okyne mentioned "D-Fi 2.4" in the heading for this video, when the controller is using is a WIRED controller, and he in fact, uses a DMX cable.
+Al Okyne Looks like I'm your guy then. I DMX all my lights for all my gigs regardless of what package it is. I own 8 SlimPar 38's, pretty much the same as the 64 just smaller. When you DMX them you will notice a small red dot blinking on the address bank indicating that it is pulling signal. I use Chauvet ShowXpress but the fundamentals are the same on a controller. A mistake that I see you're making is by turning on the light and switching it to a color. Also looking closely at the address bank, I saw no red light blinking indicating signal. Try this, power up the light and set it to 3CH DMX Mode and made sure that the address is 1. Then turn off the light. After you have done that, connect a DMX cable from your controller to your light. Then power on the controller. Once you have done that power on the light. Then select Fixture 1 on the controller and it should work. It should require only 3 channels CH 1 would be red. CH 2 would be green. CH 3 would be blue. If this does not work let me know and we can setup a call and try some different ideas. I began DMXing 3 years ago so I think I can figure it out.
Program the light then unplug it. connect the dmx cable then turn on the controller. Plug in the light. This is how I got mine to work.
DJKJSeph i just watched a review of the obey 3 and can confirm DJKJSeph is right.
OK. got it to work. I am using the D-FI Hub. I have my light on 3-ch d1. First I turned on my D-Fi Hub then I plugged in and turned on my Obey 4 D-fi. On the hub I put it to receive auto then held down the auto button until it activated. I then held the D-Fi button down on the Obey 4 and it connected. I then plugged in the light. I'll go now to check to see if I can get it working without the D-Fi Hub.
You hooked up and powered on your equipment in the wrong order. You should always plug-in everything first and make sure the polarity switch on your controller is in the correct position and then power on your lights and then power on your controller. Give that a try.
For one thing, set the fixture to channel one , then on the controller to fixture one... Simple
It is a four channel dmx controller, set the fixture to one and you'll have control the light needs more than four channels so you can't have that controller
Also... on the slim par 64’s there should be a flashing dot on the bottom directly to the right of the ‘d’ when DMx is present...that I do not see on your light. Maybe the cable?
Ok it's reasonable to say that the Chauvet Obey 4 D-Fi is very poorly designed, to say the least - at least the first version of this wireless controller, which features a single red D-Fi sync button. There is an updated version of this controller that adds a dip-switch next to the sync button, for manual setting of the D-Fi frequency. I can't speak to that one, I don't own it.
Incidentally, both of these controllers are themselves updates to an older, non-wireless version - the original Obey 4.
Like another here, I had tried and failed to get the Obey 4 to work at all, and it ended up in a cupboard for the last 3 years, a useless and constant source of mild annoyance.
Well good news... thanks to this page, and some of the advice given, I've managed to take things a stage further and get the D-Fi mode to actually work. The advice about disconnecting the D-Fi connection inside the controller seems sound and makes a lot of sense, assuming you want to operate the controller in wired mode. I didn't try that, as it wasn't wired mode I was after. But the advice did help explain why any logical, engineering minded person would have a nightmare with this controller, as the obvious thing to do when troubleshooting this device (as is inevitable) is to try wired mode first, to remove variables from the equation. And it sounds like this will never work, or at least not without a) disconnecting the D-Fi connector inside, or b) (possibly) using a terminator.
The manual is not helpful, assuming you are looking at the correct one (different versions of hardware...), but thanks to reviewing several other Chauvet manuals, and some trial and error, I found a repeatable procedure for setting the Obey 4 up with 4 Freedom Par Tri-6 lights. I reckon many other Chauvet lights will work in similar fashion.
Procedure for setting up the Obey 4 in D-Fi mode with 4 Freedom Tri-6 lights:
1. Set the lights to 3-CH mode (for some reason 4-CH mode does not work with 4-CH lights, even though the controller is a 4-CH controller. The controls do all the wrong things in 4-CH mode).
2. Set your 4 lights to 4 different starting DMX addresses as follows... 1, 5, 9 and 13
3. Menu through to S-TR on the lights, change to drAS and hit enter. This puts the lights in auto-receive frequency mode.
4. Have the controller switched on, and use 4 fingers to simultaneously press the 'auto' button on the 4 Freedom lights (they should say 'Ar 1' when you press the auto button) and hold the auto button(s) for a few seconds, until the red LED on each light turns from a slow flash to a steady red light. Then quickly let go of the auto buttons and press and hold the red D-Fi sync button on the controller for about 5-10 seconds, until the LED's on your 4 lights start flashing quickly. Hopefully all 4 LED's will start flashing quickly. The point about doing everything simultaneously is that you don't have a lot of time to press the sync button on the controller, after the LED's go steady red, and doing them one light at a time can be unreliable.
5. If less than 4 lights end up in auto mode, you can try step 4 again for any lights that haven't synched, but it seems a bit hit or miss if this works. Sometimes you end up resetting all of them.
6. A quick hint about the controller. Push the left 3 faders all the way up if you want to use the preset color mode.
For me this made all the difference. Good luck!
He used a DMX cable. Is this truly the D-Fi controller?
Manteniendo el botón de sinck pulsado se soluciona.
By default ... on power up every obey controller has the BLACKOUT on... try pressing your blackout button... your light may be not working...
Always, ALWAYS terminate the end of the DMX chain with a terminator.
try to set the light to A0001 may that setting will work
Ever figure this one out mate. I'm having the same issue. Can't even get it to connect to my D-Fi hub.
Hi Al,
I just picked up one of the Obey 4 D-Fi (preowned) and I have the same problem with Stellar Labs Par 64s. NO control. I have a standard Obey 4, also. Sitting side by side, the DMX output on the standard Obey controls the light. Switch the DMX cable to the D-Fi unit, and no control/output (whatever). Decided to open the box. Found that when I disconnected the RF board in the D-fi unit, the DMX cable worked fine. Plugged power back to the RF board, no control.
Final thoughts.... The RF board, who's input is taken directly from the DMX connector, is loading down the signal going out the DMX connector. Apparently not supplying enough signal for the DMX Slave that the PAR requires. Since I do not have any D-Fi equipment, I just left the RF board disconnected for now, and all of my cabled lights work fine.
Have you found any other solutions?
Gary
Same problem with my chavuet vesevuio geysers. ????
Did u manage to get it to work ? I have the same issue , my Chinese lights do not have dip switches so how can I tell the obey 4 what channel they are, very confusing .
I had to disconnect the internal connection going from the DMX plug to the D-fi board to get working wired DMX.
Use a DMX DIP Switch applet, available for both the Android and iPhone.
Does the obey 4 work with moving heads does anyone know?
The manual for Obey 4 is absolutely terrible, and does not explain AT ALL how to setup the "FIXTURES" buttons. They need to point out that you have to be fully aware of the channel setup of the fixtures you are using. The first 3 channels are going to be Red, Green, Blue, and the 4th channel is almost always the master dimmer for the fixture. I tested all of this and it worked great and as expected, with each standard PAR64 LED fixture set to DMX 1, DMX 5, DMX 9, and DMX 13 (i.e., FIXTURES 1, 2, 3, and 4). Chauvet really does need to learn how to write better manuals, so people can properly setup their equipment. Oh, and I have no idea why Al Okyne mentioned "D-Fi 2.4" in the heading for this video, when the controller is using is a WIRED controller, and he in fact, uses a DMX cable.
Bjorgen Eatinger do you have a video of how to set that up ?
Same issue with 4Bar Tri
Same here with my 86 RGB. Any solution?
Shouldn't your dmx controller be an Obey 3 and not 4 being your slimpar is a 3-channel dmx mode?
The Obey 4 is for fixtures with UP TO 4 channels.
Do you still need help with this?
+DJMatt hey Matt, thanks for the comment. Well yes I suppose. I basically gave up and my controller and DMX cables have been sitting in a closet.
+Al Okyne Looks like I'm your guy then. I DMX all my lights for all my gigs regardless of what package it is. I own 8 SlimPar 38's, pretty much the same as the 64 just smaller. When you DMX them you will notice a small red dot blinking on the address bank indicating that it is pulling signal. I use Chauvet ShowXpress but the fundamentals are the same on a controller. A mistake that I see you're making is by turning on the light and switching it to a color. Also looking closely at the address bank, I saw no red light blinking indicating signal.
Try this, power up the light and set it to 3CH DMX Mode and made sure that the address is 1. Then turn off the light. After you have done that, connect a DMX cable from your controller to your light. Then power on the controller. Once you have done that power on the light. Then select Fixture 1 on the controller and it should work. It should require only 3 channels CH 1 would be red. CH 2 would be green. CH 3 would be blue. If this does not work let me know and we can setup a call and try some different ideas. I began DMXing 3 years ago so I think I can figure it out.
DJMatt hey man, I'm having issues with an Obey 40 and slim par/laser. I can't get anything to work 😡
James P Did you read through my previous reponse?