MIDI signal loss from my GCP

[The Blue Letter]

Hello,
I am new to the forum, and have come here in search of some help. I need it big time. I am having problems with my equipment responding to the MIDI signals sent by my GCP.

The basic break down of the set up I am running is a GCP to control 3 GCXes - out of the last GCX's MIDI out/thru to a Line 6 Echo Pro, and from its MIDI out/thru to a Chauvet Obey 40 DMX Controller. Now, I use the GCXes to control all my effects and amp selecting/channel switching and that all works fine. But the problem I am having is that whenever I send a program change to the Echo Pro and the Obey 40 at the same time, the Obey 40 won't respond. However, if I don't send a change to the Echo Pro, while I am sending a change to the Obey 40, then everything works fine. It seems that my GCP is only capable of sending one command change at a time. I thought it was capable of controlling up to 8 MIDI devices? I have already done a lot of trouble shooting in this scenario including removing the Echo Pro out of the MIDI signal path, to see if it was something to do with it not passing along the MIDI data. I have swapped out some of the MIDI cables( I haven't changed them all though), made sure that the two devices are set to different MIDI channels, changed the MIDI channels that each device was set to, just to see if they would respond on a different channel, and then finally I just set the GCP not to send changes to the Echo Pro, so now the Obey 40 works every time and if I need a different setting on the Echo Pro, I have to manually change it instead of relying on MIDI to do it.

I recently ordered a MIDI Solutions 2-Output Active MIDI Thru Box to see that if I split the signal and don't feed the Echo Pro and Obey 40's MIDI signal through the GCXes if that would help out, but I am still waiting for that in the mail to see if it will even solve the problem. I would really like to solve this issue, so if there is any guidance you could give that would be so great. I look forward to working this out.
Thanks a lot.
Dan

[JohnClark]

This sounds more like the Echo Pro is filtering out messages that are supposed to continue downstream. What happens if you swap the MIDI connections... MIDI out of GCX 3 to MIDI In of the Obey 40, MIDI Out/Thru of the Obey 40 to the MIDI In of the Echo Pro?

[The Blue Letter]

John,
Thanks for getting back to me. at first that is what I thought too; that maybe whenever the Echo Pro got a command change that somehow it got bogged down or something and just wouldn't pass on the MIDI info to the Obey 40. Unfortunately the Obey 40 only has MIDI in so I can't really re route it like you suggested. However, since it doesn't have an out or thru, what I did was just remove it from the MIDI signal chain all together. So that out of my last GCX I went straight into the Obey 40. With my GCP still sending the command change for both the Echo Pro (even though it wasn't plugged in) and the Obey 40 it still wasn't switching whenever multiple commands where sent. Does that make sense? Let me know your thoughts. Thanks a lot.
Dan

[JohnClark]

Well now we are getting somewhere... are you sure the Obey 40 is set to receive only on the specified MIDI channel? It is reacting as if it were set to omni mode.

[The Blue Letter]

Yeah, I have the Echo Pro set to receive on Channel 1 and the Obey 40 to receive on Channel 2. I tried switching the channels, so the Echo Pro was on 2 and the Obey 40 was on 1. I tried separating them by a few channels so one would be on channel 1 and the other was on channel 6 or something like that... (cause I tried all 16 channels). I am an electrician by trade, and have a fairly firm grasp on trouble shooting ciruits, (I hope that doesn't sound * or anything.... hahaha) but with that being said, I have really given this a pretty thorough look over. I just can't seem to figure out what the problem is.

[JohnClark]

Since the issue seems to be with the Obey 40 not handling multiple messages sent to it, try setting the MIDI Out/Thru on the Echo Pro as an Out rather than a Thru. This should make the Echo Pro prevent any messages intended for itself from going downstream.
A MIDI splitter will only exasperate the situation as it really seems that the issue is sending more than one Program Change to the Obey 40 is what makes it not "obey".

[The Blue Letter]

ok sounds good. I'll try that tomorrow and keep you posted. Hopefully that will be the key.

[The Blue Letter]

Ok John,
So I went to our rehearsal space, set the Echo Pro to MIDI Out instead of Thru, and then only the Echo Pro would respond, and nothing would happen to the Obey 40 at all. So then what I did, was disconnect my GCP from GCX #1, plugged in the AC adapter, and went straight out of the GCP to the Obey 40 and sure enough it still wouldn't respond if two commands were sent at once. So I am sure it is something in the Obey 40 then. There isn't much to the instructions in regards to the MIDI, it basically just tells you how to set it to a specific channel and then what each command change would do. That's it. There isn't an Omni mode or anything. So I am not sure if there is a way around this or not. I don't know if MIDI mapping would work (not really sure how to do that yet) or if there is possibly just something wrong with the Obey 40 that needs to be fixed or maybe even modded out. But whatever advice you could help with would be great. Thanks again.
Dan

[JohnClark]

In your first post I thought that you were saying that the Obey 40 worked if it only received a single Program change, but I have found the manual for this device and see that, like most light controllers, it only responds to MIDI Note On/Off messages. The Ground Control Pro does not send Note On/Off messages. So I have to ask, did the Ground Control Pro ever control the Obey 40, and if so, what were you sending it?

[The Blue Letter]

well I am pretty new to MIDI so I am sure that I am just using some terminology incorrectly. The GCP is controlling the Obey 40, so whether it is note on/off changes or program changes I don't really know. Sorry. I do know that in the manual it has a page where it says what each MIDI channel number is assigned to the different scenes in the different banks, and so when I was setting it up, I just used that page to reference what lights I wanted on with each preset. It is the same way that I had set up the Echo Pro, so I didn't think there was much difference, and I guess that is why I thought they were program changes and not note on/off changes. But now, I am still trying to figure out how to change settings on both units, if that is even possible. Am I with out hope, or is there a way to make this happen.

PS.
When is the PP Versa going to be available?