Hello everyone! I’ve just. bought a Helios DAC but when I hit refresh on controller assignment, the DAC doesn’t show up. What am I doing wrong? I can see any other hardware control panels. I’m running on Mac and have looked within the general settings but can’t see the hardware there either. All advise very much appreciated.
Silly questions: Does the power led light up? And have you authorised your copy of Liberation?
One other thought is that you could try installing Modulaser to see if that can see the DAC
Also - mine doesn’t seem to be recognised if connected via a USB hub. Not sure if that’s down to my hub, though
Hi Gary! Welcome to the forum 
If it’s a USB Helios DAC, there’s usually very little that can go wrong on macOS. It should appear as soon as it’s plugged in, so it’s worth trying a different USB port or cable just in case.
If it’s one of the new Helios Pro units, those use the IDN network protocol, which Liberation doesn’t support yet. I had hoped to get IDN running this year, but time is getting away from me and it’s taking a bit longer than planned (where did the year go!).
Let me know which model you have and we’ll get you pointed in the right direction.
Seb
Hi Alex, Yes both leds light up, power and output. Yes it’s authorised as well. I did try LaserShowGen to see if it was visible in that app. I couldn’t see it via that either. I amusing a usb ‘C’ to B adaptor but surely that wouldn’t effect it?
Hi Seb, thank you for the warm welcome and your valuable advice. It’s a standard Helios Laser DAC. I’ve tried different cables. I just don’t currently have a usb ‘C’ cable, so I’m using a ‘C’ to ‘B’ adaptor. I have both led’s lit up but when I hit ‘refresh’ nothing is showing. I’m presuming I should get a ‘helios DAC’ showing in the ‘controller asignment’ window or something like that?
I use a C to B adaptor with mine and it’s OK. I’m surprised that both leds light up, though. Have you contacted Bitlasers?
maybe a dumb idea but have you tried rotating the usb c cable?
I would expect cheap chinese adapters to not connect all 8 conductors but only half…
does the adapter work with other devices like APC? or a printer with USB A?
Hi @Gary_Dean, I would definitely try another USB adaptor, it may be faulty or it could be one of those super cheap ones that only have power and not data.
cheers!
Seb
Hi all, so I’ve had a brand new usb c to usb a cable delivered. I was excited to try it out, but I’m still not getting anything showing.
I have a couple of questions.
- If I’ve just got the DAC plugged in without the laser, does it still show up?
- So I guess I’m asking does Liberation read the laser or the DAC? (same question really!)
- The led’s that the DAC has are 2 x rather dim yellow colour, as per their website - is that correct?
- How should I proceed from here to fault find the DAC?
- Should I try a fresh install of Liberation?
- It’s unfortunate that my licience doesn’t allow for 2 x installs, because I could then rule out a hardware issue on my macbook pro. (Is this possible for fault finding Seb?)
Thanking everyone in advance for all advice and suggestions.
ps. I haven’t contacted the manufacturer yet as I thought it best to rule out all outher possibilities first.
1: Yes, it shows up, i just tested it, for me the 2nd led starts glowing as soon as I arm in liberation
2: I’d say DAC, yes
3: For me theyre clearly glowing
4: I’d wait for a response from someone smarter than me, but Gitle from bitlasers is also very responsive and open to help.
5: Always worth a try
6:You can de activate and re activate your licence on different machines if im not mistaken. Have heard multiple people doing this on the forum! → trying it on another machine would be a really good check
Cheers
Thank you so much for such a comprehensive and speedy response. Legend!
If you’ve tried it on a different machine and checked multiple cables/hubs, I’d email gitle from bitlasers
Hi @Gary_Dean,
As @mathijslaser suggests, if you have tried multiple cables and adaptors then I would definitely recommend contacting Gitle at Bitlasers.
For reference, this is what a Helios should look like when you plug it in. You should see a very bright yellow LED on the left, and it should also appear in the controller list:
The second LED only lights up once Liberation is actively connected to it:
(One other small thing I noticed is that It looks like the Controller Assignment panel is not fully extended vertically. If the Helios is detected, it may be there but not visible until you resize the window)
Hope that helps, and let us know how you get on!
Seb
Thank you for the sound advice. I’ve just tried on a different machine but, alas, still no joy. I’ll reach out to Gitle.
Thank you Seb, for taking the time to take these images. It seems to confirm there’s summit going on with my DAC! Ill email gitle@bitlasers and see if they can help me solve this.
Great news! Gitle emailed back straight away with the solution.
For everyone knowledge ‘if both led’s are half lit(low light) this suggests the DAC hasn’t been programmed and needs flashing’.
If this happens, I now have the link to this file if anyone is interested.
I’ll check with Gitle first but I can’t see why he wouldn’t want this shared.
Anyway, all flashed and working correctly.
Both LED’s working as they should and visible in Liberation.
Thank you everyone who commented or made suggestions.
What an epic community.
Seb, you must be proud.