GaryM Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 If you are 100% sure the cat-5s are all good, and the rj-45 on the controller feeding your "missing" controller is good, and the controller itself tests fine, why not just try a simple sequence and test?I'd still lean towards something simple like a bad cat-5, bad socket, or a duplicate ID, but if all that is ok, you have the proper license level for the number of controllers, may as well test them in a different way, that being via a sequence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) Ted, just to clarify, there are no dials to set the unit ID? If there are not, and I'm having a bad reading comprehension day, you plugged in the bad unit, by itself, into the RS485 interface, hit the Detect units button on the HU and No Units Found comes up?From your above post, you did a reset.. The board, when plugged in by itself, is not found at all? But the red LED goes solid when it's plugged in? Look carefully at both Cat5 sockets, are any of the metal fingers pushed in/down farther than the rest? Also.. if you soldered the boards, take a minute to -reeeeeally- inspect the solder points on the Cat5 sockets.. I know it sounds dumb, but it is entirely possible to have missed soldering all (uh, any) of the wires of the sockets.. ..and no, you can not ask me how I how this! Lastly, I would plug it in, and Force Assign a different unit number.. maybe the HU just doesn't like the number "2" Edited October 22, 2012 by TJ Hvasta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Maue Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 When I go into the console, I can select unit 2, and have validated every channel works. Based on this, I know the stuff is working, just not showing up as being recognized....not sure if it matters...If it were me, and it was working fine when running in my show, I probably wouldn't worry about it, so long as it would behave when running a show. Can you control it with the Sequence Editor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted W Posted October 22, 2012 Author Share Posted October 22, 2012 Ted, just to clarify, there are no dials to set the unit ID? If there are not, and I'm having a bad reading comprehension day, you plugged in the bad unit, by itself, into the RS485 interface, hit the Detect units button on the HU and No Units Found comes up?From your above post, you did a reset.. The board, when plugged in by itself, is not found at all? But the red LED goes solid when it's plugged in? Look carefully at both Cat5 sockets, are any of the metal fingers pushed in/down farther than the rest? Also.. if you soldered the boards, take a minute to -reeeeeally- inspect the solder points on the Cat5 sockets.. I know it sounds dumb, but it is entirely possible to have missed soldering all (uh, any) of the wires of the sockets.. ..and no, you can not ask me how I how this! Lastly, I would plug it in, and Force Assign a different unit number.. maybe the HU just doesn't like the number "2"There are no dials. The "bad" unit can be plugged in by itself into the RS485 plug, the flashiong red LED stops and burns solid. The hardware utility cannot find that controller in the system, however when I go to the console, click on controller 2, all my 16 channels work.This unit worked last year, which was my first year doing this. I did build the board from the kit. I have not checked the internal Cat5 sockets, I assumed since I connected all the controllers together, if there was a issue with either the Cat 5 cable, or the sockets, then the downstream controllers would have issues as well. I will definitely look at the sockets, I have tried a few other Cat5 cables, not luck. I have tried to reset to another controller ID, 8 and above, no luck. Weird huh???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) Being able to pass thru the signal to the other controllers in the line wont really ID the problem with the sockets, as they are paralleled right there at the pads. The data doesnt go in, thru the board, then out to the other controllers, it goes in/out the sockets, so it's possible to have a couple good socket fingers but bad connections to the rest of the board. If the board has all good solder connections, then I'd suspect the Comm chip. Do a Trouble Ticket to LOR.. describe whats happening, they could mail you out a Comm chip and have you replace it.. that would be my guess and course of action. Edited October 22, 2012 by TJ Hvasta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryM Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 But wouldn't a bad comm chip also preclude talking to the board via the HU? As I'm understanding it, it works perfectly fine using the HU when connected directly.My money still sits on a bad cable, or bad cat-5 socket (and maybe not necessarily on that controller, if it is being put into the same point in the chain for all the testing). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) Gary, no, it's not working correctly in the HU main screen (detection), but it is working with the Console (next button)From the HU, Set Unit ID, Ignore Errors check box:On a very few PC's, Light-O-Rama is not able to detect attached controllers.In general, this is not a problem. However, when you attempt to set the unit ID, Light-O-Rama will generate an error that it can not detect the attached unit. When you check this box, Light-o-Rama will ignore these errors and attempt to change the address anyway.Ted, plug in the cat5 cable and controller, open the HU, in the Set Unit ID box, check the Ignore Errors box, set the unit to something other than 2.. (4, 5, 6, etc). Select the number, click the Set Unit ID button, then refresh, see if it finds it. Because the Console, set to unit 2 is actually controling the channels, there is some type of logic fault happening. Set the ID to anything but 2, Even if it doesnt find it, go on to the next step..exit the HU. Open the Sequence Editor. Open a sequence you have that you know has the unit # you set that "faulty" unit to. Click on Play on the menu bar (not Play, as in Run/Start), but the Play menu, make sure Control Lights is checked. If the sequence has a unit # you force assigned to the controller, plug in some lights to the controller, then click the Play (as in Run) button. Do the lights work correctly? If they do, the controller's working and something keeps it from being detected. Edited October 22, 2012 by TJ Hvasta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryM Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Ok, so I read it as, the controller works fine in the HU..HU can find it, can control lights. Would have to go test, but if the HU can't find the controller, didn't think the console would even work...but I might be wrong. Reading his comments, it does appear, I guess, that he's able to control the lights without the HU finding the controller. Strange... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 yeah, thats why I went into the HU to see what I could find, if anything, that might work.. Forcing it to Unit 2 (ignore errors) might get it addressable for the sequences.. it still sounds like a comm chip fault, but if Ted can get it Forced, and it works, then all's good, for a while maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryM Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Gary, no, it's not working correctly in the HU main screen (detection), but it is working with the Console (next button)Just to clarify (and educate myself) if you have a bad comm chip, you'd not be able to communicate with the controller at all, right? Be it ID, be it console, etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james campbell Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) There are no dials. The "bad" unit can be plugged in by itself into the RS485 plug, the flashiong red LED stops and burns solid. The hardware utility cannot find that controller in the system, however when I go to the console, click on controller 2, all my 16 channels work.This unit worked last year, which was my first year doing this. I did build the board from the kit. I have not checked the internal Cat5 sockets, I assumed since I connected all the controllers together, if there was a issue with either the Cat 5 cable, or the sockets, then the downstream controllers would have issues as well. I will definitely look at the sockets, I have tried a few other Cat5 cables, not luck. I have tried to reset to another controller ID, 8 and above, no luck. Weird huh???? thats weird it knows it is controller two in the console but not the hwu.I know you have to select unit two but still weird. I would force a unit renumber as a poster said earlier Edited October 22, 2012 by james campbell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Open a sequence and play it while that controller is connected. If it works, then hang some lights and don't worry about it. Just because it doesn't show in the HU doesn't mean it's not working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Its unit 2, but not unit 2... "This is mah brother Darryl, this is mah other brother Darryl.. " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magish01 Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 TJ,So many references to TV shows and movies in your responses. Is the radar screen on your flight deck really a DVD player??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 Just to clarify (and educate myself) if you have a bad comm chip, you'd not be able to communicate with the controller at all, right? Be it ID, be it console, etc?I have had a comm chip fail in this way. The controller could receive from the LOR network, but couldn't transmit. This is not a fatal error, because the only times the controllers transmit are when they are responding to a query from the HU, or when being used as an input trigger. Normally they just sit there, receive events, and flash the lights. I ran one controller with a bad comm chip for an entire season. The next year I got the chip replaced so I could do a firmware upgrade.It is very easy to test this. Since the comm chip is in a socket, simply swap it with one from a known good controller. If the comm chip is the problem, unit 2 will respond to the HU, and the other unit will not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 "I was that close." Yes I agree with Steven, the comm chip is two parts. A receiver and a transmitter. From what is being described the transmitter has failed. One fast way to confirm this is to swap the comm chip with another board. If the problem follows the comm chip then its a simple matter of getting a new chip and replacing the bad one. Really the only two times I know of that the transmit from the control board is needed or active is during the HWU refresh that the controller says to the program "Here I am". And if you are looking for an input to start a show, from THAT board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 which is what gave me that idea the chip was bad, because Ted said it would not ping back to the HU, but it would work in Console mode.. Agree 100%, swap comm chips, test.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryM Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 (edited) I was just thinking..maybe he should swap comm chips from a known good controller... Explanation makes perfect sense..thanks. Edited October 23, 2012 by GaryM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stawski Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 I have 5 unit ID's. The controlle for unit #5 is getting power and all chanels work when I turn on the controller through the harwasre utility. So I know that the cat 5 connection is working. But this controller is not recognized when i run sequesnces??? any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 I have 5 unit ID's. The controlle for unit #5 is getting power and all chanels work when I turn on the controller through the harwasre utility. So I know that the cat 5 connection is working. But this controller is not recognized when i run sequesnces??? any ideas?ya' mihgt tri checking sequnces. thair problum kould bee thare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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