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Hardware scan of CTB16PC shows CCF Ver 1.3x


jeffl

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I performed a hardware scan of two different ctb16pc v1 boards and they both show up odd. Can anyone help me out? I'm sure these have the latest 4.30 firmware and showed as such in 2.94.

11 - CCF Ver 1.30
11 - CCF Ver 1.32

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I don't know much about the hardware, so take this with a grain of salt, but I notice that they're both listed with the same unit ID (11). Doing this could cause strange issues when it comes to things that require two-way communication between the computer and the controller.

For example, if the computer asks "Hey unit 11, what are you", unit 11 should reply "CTB16PC with version 4.30". But if there are two different things that both consider themselves to be "unit 11", they might both respond saying that at about the same time, and the two simultaneous responses will be garbled together, leading to the computer thinking that unit 11 (presumably a single unit 11) is something entirely different than it actually is.

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I should have used different examples. These were two different controllers scanned one at a time. I'll do more experimenting on a different computer.

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Guest wbottomley

jeffl wrote:

I performed a hardware scan of two different ctb16pc v1 boards and they both show up odd.  Can anyone help me out?  I'm sure these have the latest 4.30 firmware and showed as such in 2.94.

11 - CCF   Ver 1.30
11 - CCF   Ver 1.32


Have you tried to update them again?
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I downgraded to 2.9.4 and I get the entry below, what I would expect to get.

11 - CTB16PC Ver 4.30

I find it hard to believe I found a bug after all the testing that was done. :)

My OS is Windows 7 64 bit with SP1.

I'll try on a 32 bit OS tomorrow and see what I get.

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jeffl wrote:

I find it hard to believe I found a bug after all the testing that was done. :)

There are companies who probably spend many times more than LOR does on the software ... and those have bugs to.

It happens to everyone.
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I just got my new gen3 controllers up & running. Using the HWU in S2, when it finds the controller, it says "01 - unknown device??". Bug or do I need to upgrade to S3 to get the correct version to show up? My older controllers show the correct information.

I'm going to install S3 and will get back with more info.

MikeH

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MikeH wrote:

I just got my new gen3 controllers up & running. Using the HWU in S2, when it finds the controller, it says "01 - unknown device??". Bug or do I need to upgrade to S3 to get the correct version to show up? My older controllers show the correct information.

I'm going to install S3 and will get back with more info.

MikeH




Mike are you using an mDC or DC-MP3 Showtime Director and do you have an SD card inserted in it?

If the answer is yes to the above question on the director units, read on, if not, you probably have some other issue.

If I forget and plug my USB485B from the computer via cat5 to any of the controllers and forget to remove the SD card from my DC-MP3 Showtime Director, I get that same error.

So if using an MP3 Director unit, it's not a bug, it's the director is operating off the card (even if a show is not running) and will respond with that. Once I removed the SD card from the MP3 director, it located all controllers with the correct information!

Another issue you may come across, if using an MP3 Director unit is that if you run the Sequence Editor and the SD card is still inserted, it will try to run both the sequence on the SD card AND from the SE! Which will do some strange results with any lights attached to a controller. Which if you aren't aware of this can really make you think something is messed up somewhere. The mess up is just human error.

Again, this only applies if using an MP3 Director unit.

If there is any other hardware that does or can do this, I don't know as I only have 5 controllers and an DC-MP3 Showtime Director connected together, but if I forget to pull the SD card out and not thinking it's still connected, I do get some funky results when the SE and the SD card try to control the lights on the controllers!
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MikeH wrote:

I just got my new gen3 controllers up & running. Using the HWU in S2, when it finds the controller, it says "01 - unknown device??". Bug or do I need to upgrade to S3 to get the correct version to show up? My older controllers show the correct information.

I'm going to install S3 and will get back with more info.

MikeH

Each version of software ships with information on how it should figure out what kind of controller it's talking to. Again, I don't know much about the hardware, but I imagine that Gen3 controllers didn't exist when 2.9.4 was released, and so 2.9.4 doesn't know how to identify Gen3 controllers that it talks to.
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That's interesting Bob, if that is true, that could be a problem for folks that may not upgrade for awhile and would buy a new G3 controller. I would think the firmware should or would have something in it that would allow the G3 controllers to talk to previous version of the LOR Suite.

If it doesn't, might be something Dan and the folks at LOR may need to look into.

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I believe that we have a way to distribute new versions of that information, if necessary, without requiring that the customer upgrade to a new version of the software.

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I installed S3 and ran HWU, it correctly identifies the new G3 controller. Bob, you're correct on S2 not being able to identify Gen3 controller.

Orville, I'm using CBT16PC, and I believe you have a valid point. People that don't upgrade to S3 may be confused, as I was, to see that there is an unknown device. For a moment I thought there may be something wrong with the controller board.

Alas, all is good now. Thanks for your help Bob and Orville.

MikeH

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I just tried a known good 32 bit Vista machine with 2.9.4 and it works as expected. I downloaded and installed 3.0 and I get a the same problem.

I think this might a be a new product and I'm almost sure a bug. The controllers I'm testing are CTB16PC V1 kits if it matters.

01 - CCF Ver 1.32

Are there other things I should try? Also; do I need to report this somewhere else besides here?

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There is a file LOR_DeviceFile text file that has a line with the contents below (Problem Entry). There is also a line 150 with the CTB16PC definition (Good Entry). If the CCF line is removed everything works as expected and it retruns " 11 - CTB16PC Ver 4.30", just what it should be.

Problem entry:
150,CCF Ver 1.? , 16 , 64000 , 0 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 0 , 0 , 1 , 0 , 0 , 0


Good Entry:

150,CTB16PC Ver 4.? , 16 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 1 , 1 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0

I don't know what these define, but I expect the CCF entry should have a different number in the first column.

My guess is this file just needs to be adjusted and everything will work as expected. LOR support will know for sure, but hopefully this helps.

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bob wrote:

I believe that we have a way to distribute new versions of that information, if necessary, without requiring that the customer upgrade to a new version of the software.


That would be very good Bob. Because I won't be upgrading for a while yet, but I may purchase a few more controllers and I'd hate to buy one or more of the G3 controllers and find out that S2 can't use them until I upgrade.

I don't want to upgrade until I can afford the Superstar license since I am also planning if things go well in a few months to the maximum on the SS software license. But I may purchase a controller or two before I upgrade. Although I'm kind of on the fence on that currently, get new controllers or upgrade first. Still going to be a bit before either is done, but I'd also hate to install the new firmware in my OLDER controllers (since I read this is going to be possible, or has that changed?) and then find out they wouldn't work under S2 with the newest firmware upgrade.

Although I could go back to the previous firmware version if it didn't work with S2 correct?
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Although I could go back to the previous firmware version if it didn't work with S2 correct?

I'm sorry, I don't really know much about the firmware. Again, I suggest opening up a help desk ticket with this question if you don't receive a meaningful reply here soon.
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I am running 3.0 Advanced and tried to update my firmware

I got: 01-CCF Ver 1.40



tried to update with CTB16PC_V4-30.lhx

Status: Load Failed

Activity: Grabbed Unit-215-0

Not correct firmware for controller

BL=215, FW=0

I don't understand, What am I doing wrong?



bret

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