How can ITest lights while making sequence?

[jasoncampbell83]

I'm having a brain fart. I'm trying to test my lights while creating the sequence in the sequence editor. I know their is a way I can hit play in the sequence editor and the lights will start working.

[Don]

Four steps...

 

1) Make sure no shows are currently running (or even enabled.)

2) Make sure the Hardware Utility is not running.

3) Look for a blue box in the lower right part of the screen.

4) Play -> Control Lights should be checked.

[jasoncampbell83]

don't see no little blue box

[Don]

What color is it?

[Santas Helper]

Just throwing this out here, but doesn't that little blue box or what ever show up when you upload the LOR Tray? Which you don't need when just playing sequences from the editor.

If just playing a sequence, make sure your "Control Lights" is checked as what Don mentioned.

[Don]

The blue box is at the bottom right of the Sequence Editor. If it's another color, then something else has control of the com port, and as such it won't be able to control the lights (even if you have it checked.)

[Santas Helper]

Thanks Don. Never ran into issues on that I guess.

I now see a box, like you mentioned. Of course going from V1 to V3, I didn't even notice it because it wasn't in V1.

[Orville]

When or did they replace the blue/show enabled {or red/show disabled} bulb with a blue box?   

 

Either that's in a newer version {I'm using 3.8.2} or I'm missing something somewhere, or the bulb appears differently on other versions of Windows than what I'm using, which is XP and 7.

[Alan C]

This is not the coloured status lamp that appears in the windows "system tray" area. In Sequence Editor, it is a coloured square in the bottom right-hand corner of the window that shows whether Sequence Editor is able to control the lights itself.

 

Regards,

 

Alan.

[Orville]

This is not the coloured status lamp that appears in the windows "system tray" area. In Sequence Editor, it is a coloured square in the bottom right-hand corner of the window that shows whether Sequence Editor is able to control the lights itself.

 

Regards,

 

Alan.

Well what do you know, I LEARNED something NEW!   

 

I never even noticed that in the SE at all before.   But then again, I always had "control ligjhts" checked, so I guess I just never really noticed that little blue box down there before.   Has it always been there?  Or was that something added later on?

 

I started back in 2010 with what I think was either 2.6.x or 2.7.x.  Been awhile and just can't remember, but don't ever recall seeing the box in the lower right of the SE.  Had to open my current version 3.8.2 to see what it was.

[Alan C]

I don't recall when it appeared, but I don't think it has always been there.

 

Regards,

 

Alan.

[Santas Helper]

Orville, I'm in the same boat. Never even knew it was there. LOL

That's why I was questioning what Don said. But "poof", there it is.

[Orville]

Orville, I'm in the same boat. Never even knew it was there. LOL

That's why I was questioning what Don said. But "poof", there it is.

Yea, me too.  When they were talking about a blue box in the lower right corner, I THOUGHT they were talking about the light bulb icon.

 

I never even knew that blue box was even in the SE at all, I don't recall ever seeing it, and if it was there the whole ime, I guess I just ignored it, not realizing it had an actual purpose! LOL

 

So now I know {on my system anyway}, if it's blue the SE will control lights, if it's orange, i won't.   I just had t play around with the control lights setting to see what colors the box would be.   I know now, but I never would have if it wasn't for this thread.   3 years and I never paid any attention to it, never noticed it once.   Guess I better start looking closer at things when I'm playing. uhm sequencing in the LOR software and using the other utilities.

 

Wonder what else I've missed? ROFLAM

[Dave Pursel]

Thanks Don.  I learned this today too after having used LOR since V1 for 6 years.  But then again I'm learning something new everyday.  And who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks..... : )

[Judy]

I'm having a brain fart. I'm trying to test my lights while creating the sequence in the sequence editor. I know their is a way I can hit play in the sequence editor and the lights will start working.

Please explain further re: test lights.   To watch lites while creating, you would need the controllers connected and Don said to ensure everything is disabled. 

Thanks.

[TheJackal]

What am I missing? I have tested lights (1 controller) before and the box is red on my laptop.......that's if it's the box right above the time.

 

[Max-Paul]

Ok, lets go to ground zero and ask some dumb questions.

 

1. controller has power applied (120V)

2. is there a cat 5 cable connected to the controller?

3. Is same cat 5 cable connected to the adapter dongle?

4 Is dongle USB cable plugged into the controller?

5 Have you ever gotten Hardware Utility to recognize the controller and you can turn lights on and off from HU?

6. If so for #5, have you followed the instructions on how to set up the Sequence Editor, so that the network has been identified and the correct comm port has been identified?

7. If # 5 & 6 are true, then as Don said make sure that you have no other LOR program running except for the SE and that under the drop down menu of "Play" that the "Control lights" is checked.

 

Thats about all I remember has to happen.

 

Oh and that you have the correct information programmed for each channel. Such as controller type, controller ID number, and individual channel number for the controller.

[Max-Paul]

What am I missing? I have tested lights (1 controller) before and the box is red on my laptop.......that's if it's the box right above the time.

Yep, thats the box in question. Do you have the dongle installed in your USB port? Is the LED blinking or on solid on the controller? Oh ya, is the dongle in the same USB port that you used last time. Moving from one USB port to another can change which serial port is shows up as. Exampe last time it might have shown up as port #3, now if your in a different port it might be serial port #4. I got bit by that the first year.

[Orville]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned and might be a factor in the lights not working:

 

 Do you have the FTDI {RS485} Driver installed? {you have to install this driver manually from the installation CD or from the LOR website, it IS NOT installed automatically with all the other LOR software!}  

 

If not, no lights will function because the USB485x unit won't be recognized until the driver is installed to make it function correctly with the LOR Software/Hardware.

 

You can download the driver here: http://www1.lightorama.com/firmware-updates/

 

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to RS485 driver and click on download, filename is: CDM20830_Setup.exe

 

Once that's installed everything should work, providing this is what might be missing from your installation.

 

I know when I first installed LOR, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't control lights either, installed the USB485 Driver {FTDI} that I was missing, but didn't know I was missing it, and everything started working together as it should.  You may have to reboot your system for the driver to take effect properly.  I had to reboot after I installed it, and it fixed my not being able to control my lights right up.

[Arteom]

I never really had any issues with this. All I did is make sure the computer is correctly connected to the controller though the Hardware Utility, then I turn it off. Whenever I play or stop the sequence in sequence editor, it automatically plays on the controller, I never had to turn on the control panel. Thats just my experience.