2 Channels light when playing EMPTY sequences - weird!

[Orville]

Well this one I can't figure out, I have checked, double checked, triple and quadruple checked my "Off Hours" sequences, which are ONLY 1 Musical Channel Sequences with no lighting commands in them whatsoever, ran the verifier and it shows all sequences are OFF!

 

Yet on controller #03, I have channels 1 and 15 staying on at about half intensity during the day, but work find when the show is operating and work fine with the overnight lighting sequence {musical but using a 2:30 silent MP3 file}.

 

I end the daytime music and the lights go off, load HWU, lights work as supposed to, come on only when I tell them too.

 

Channel 1 is a single C7 red bulb for Rudolphs nose, Channel 15 is just a small 20ct strand of clear incandescent lights that line my stairs.

 

These are the only two channels that turn on and stay on once tripped on, I can not figure out what, why or how these 2 channels are turning on and staying on, again, all sequences have been verified as FULL OFF sequences.

 

I can restart the daytime off hours Christmas music sequences and the lights are off, I sit and watch to see when the lights will come on to try and hopefully catch the sequence that may be doing this, but when I sit and wait for it, darn lights and channels never come on, as soon as I walk away, come back, the lights are on again.

 

This is really driving me nuts as I don't need Rudolphs nose or the top stair lights on during the day when the off hours music is running.

 

Anyone have any other ideas as to why this oddball thing is going on?

 

{working on borrowed time online here, as I know they are going to be shutting down my internet, I just have no idea when, really surprised it's still working at the time of this message, figured it would have been turned off by now!}

[k6ccc]

Sounds like a job for a video camera.  That way you can quickly watch to see when the lights come on.

[Ken Benedict]

Not a solution, but a workaround:

 

At the start of your Daytime sequence, bring all channels to 1 or 2 percent on for a second, then all off again.

That should refresh the LOR traffic and send an Off command out to all channels.

 

Only idea I have is some kind of electrical interference along the CAT5 cable somewhere.

[George Simmons]

I think your home might be on an ancient Indian burial site and the spooks are coming to get you.

 

Or maybe one of your neighbors is trying to drive you insane (or would that be "beserk") by playing tricks on you.  You can use a far less expensive alternative than a video camera.  Have Mrs. Orville watch out the window when you leave the area and she can call out to you as soon as the nose blinks on. 

[Orville]

Cat5 cables are all isolated from electrical wiring, with the exception where they cross the channel control and power wires inside the controller, don't see any way around that.  And I thought it was only controller #03, but it was actually Channel 1 on Controller #03, Rudolphs red nose and channel 5 on controller #05 that controls the 20ct incans on the top stair.

 

It's really weird, because today, after disabling the shows to add some changed sequences to the show, Rudolphs nose never came on once, but the lights at the top stair came on at some point and stayed on until showtime, then they went off, and show ran as normal.

 

I would think if I had any "electrical noise" on the line, this would happen even during showtime, lights always on or coming on when they weren;t supposed to, but shows run perfectly.

 

Unfortunately I'd have to have 2 video cameras going at the same time, one watching the display and one watching the computer monitor with time/date stamps so I could catch which sequence this happens with, but once the light or lights trip on, they stay on until the system closes that show and runs the evening kight show, then overnight lights also work perfectly. 

 

It's only happening during the daytime off hours music playing.  

 

Definitely a very weird occurrence and one I've never had happen before, been using these same 1 channel sequences for 3 years now and this is the first time this has been occurring in this manner.  So I'm at a loss to figure out why this is happening now.

[Orville]

I think your home might be on an ancient Indian burial site and the spooks are coming to get you.

 

Or maybe one of your neighbors is trying to drive you insane (or would that be "beserk") by playing tricks on you.  You can use a far less expensive alternative than a video camera.  Have Mrs. Orville watch out the window when you leave the area and she can call out to you as soon as the nose blinks on. 

Actually George, the site my home is on, from what rumors and stories I've heard, this was actually at one time an Indian Burial Ground.  Now I haven't been able to verify whether that is actually the truth or fiction.   So you could be on to something with the Spooks. LOL

 

My neighbors wouldn't mess with anything here, if anything, if they caught someone messing with anything in my yard, they'd be very apt to shoot first and ask questions later.    I have some really fantastic neighbors and we help each other out when we can, and they love the light displays, so if they caught any messing with anything, I'd hate to be the person they catch!

 

As far as my wife, I don't think I could get Marcia to watch the display until something happens, if it's not going blinky, flashy, shimmer or fading, she doesn't keep much interest in it. LOL

[OrlandoChristmas]

Well I suggest that you check all the day sequences to see if they have anything in them...

[Orville]

Well I suggest that you check all the day sequences to see if they have anything in them...

Did that manually, and over 125 sequences, found nothing in any of them!

 

What I did find, is I accidentally loaded a sequence I was working on for the actual show, so it didn't get checked, only my 1 channel sequences, so I went back through the show log to see if I could find something in there that I might have missed the first time I checked through them, and sure enough, there it was, a sequence that was not supposed to be in there at all, had a -48 at the end to denote a 48 channel sequence, and I had two channels in that sequence  I had just turned on two rows of cells that lit the top stair lights and Rudolphs red nose!

 

Removed it from the off hours music times and have had no further lights on at all during the off hours music.

 

So not only do you need to check the sequences, but check your show logs for any blunders like this that one can make very easily,  And even be missed. 

 

Fortunately I don't use the same file names for show and off music sequences, so it was a little easier to find when I really started verifying what was in the log files!

[OrlandoChristmas]

Awesome! You got it working! Well good luck with your display this year! Mine keeps getting messed up when the sprinklers turn on. I had some outlet shorts. Anywho. I might stop by your display this weekend, so keep an eye out! Talk later Orville!

[CKSedg]

I have been having the exact same problem, Orville--but to a far greater magnitude.  When the show is not running, random channels would come on, on any controller, sometimes as many as 15 channels.  With 12 controllers, it has been a nightmare trying to figure it out.  If I disabled the shows they would turn off--well, most of them.  Then I would have to pull up the Hardware Utility, and hit the "Lights Off" button to get the rest off.  Then, so the show will start automatically, I would enable the schedule again, and within 20 minutes, channels started turning on again.  So weird and so frustrating.  I've been using Light-O-Rama controllers for five or six years and have never had this happen before.

I went to the Hardware Utility to play around with things, and found that it only recognized 11 of my 12 controllers, although the 12th one works during a show.  I also noticed that there was an "ell" device showing at the bottom of the Hardware Utility page, even though I do not have an "ell".  I have never seen that before.  I went out and disconnect the data cable from the controller that is not recognized, and the "ell" went away on the Hardware Utility.  I enable the schedule for the shows again, and NO LIGHTS ARE COMING BACK ON!  Wahoooooooo.  Luckily, I bought a spare controller this year, so I will replace it tomorrow and see what happens!

[Orville]

I have been having the exact same problem, Orville--but to a far greater magnitude.  When the show is not running, random channels would come on, on any controller, sometimes as many as 15 channels.  With 12 controllers, it has been a nightmare trying to figure it out.  If I disabled the shows they would turn off--well, most of them.  Then I would have to pull up the Hardware Utility, and hit the "Lights Off" button to get the rest off.  Then, so the show will start automatically, I would enable the schedule again, and within 20 minutes, channels started turning on again.  So weird and so frustrating.  I've been using Light-O-Rama controllers for five or six years and have never had this happen before.

I went to the Hardware Utility to play around with things, and found that it only recognized 11 of my 12 controllers, although the 12th one works during a show.  I also noticed that there was an "ell" device showing at the bottom of the Hardware Utility page, even though I do not have an "ell".  I have never seen that before.  I went out and disconnect the data cable from the controller that is not recognized, and the "ell" went away on the Hardware Utility.  I enable the schedule for the shows again, and NO LIGHTS ARE COMING BACK ON!  Wahoooooooo.  Luckily, I bought a spare controller this year, so I will replace it tomorrow and see what happens!

 

This sounds like it could be 1 of 2 things, eithe a firmware update is needed in that specific controller.  Or if you're using a Director unit to run your show off an SD card and the USB485 is still attached to the computer, random lights can and will sometimes come on all over the display. 

 

When I was using a Director, had this issue if the SD card with a working show on it was still inserted in the Director and then tried to run something from the computer, having both cat5's connected, one from the Director to the USB485 and the other from the Director to the controllers.   As soon as I removed the SD card and re-ran things from the PC, it all went like it was supposed too.   But if the SD Card is inserted in a Director and the PC is used at the same time, weird things can and will happen.  Or once I disconnected the cat5 from the Director to the USB485, things also straightened out.

 

Since my Director died this month around the 5th or so, been using a PC to run the show and that's how I ended up with the wrong sequence in there, as now ALL sequences have to be in one place and can't just load them from any folder as I could with the HWU and onto the SD card for the Director.

 

Having used both sides of the coin now, I'm not sure if I will replace my defective Director now or not, in some ways the Director made things easier, in others it was more difficult, so I'm teetering on the fence right now if I want to stay with a PC {very inclined I must say} or get another director unit and go back to it {although seem to be leaning more to the PC now}.  But still a bit of a tough decision, I will probably get another Director and may use it for one side of the house where limited power is for non-musical animated lights and keep using the PC for the actual musical side of the display.   Decisions, decisions....lol

[Orville]

Awesome! You got it working! Well good luck with your display this year! Mine keeps getting messed up when the sprinklers turn on. I had some outlet shorts. Anywho. I might stop by your display this weekend, so keep an eye out! Talk later Orville!

Have you tried using those child proof electrical outlet covers in your female ends that are open?   

 

I have them in every open female end in my display, and when I lived in a house and an apartment that had sprinkler systems, never tripped my GFCI once and show always ran no matter how hard it rained or the sprinklers hit things.  

 

Also used those outlet covers on all my unused dangles on the controllers too.  Kept water splash and debris from being splashed up into the dangles as well.  Even if they weren't sequenced, I didn't want to take any chance a small trickle of power going out one of the open dangles could cause the GFCI to trip and shut down my show!

 

Will be looking for you to come by.    Won't be home 'til late this Saturday 12/14, have a Christmas Festival in Gotha I'm volunteering at, hoping to be home before 6pm, as the festival ends at 4pm, but then we have a little bit of clean up to do, so thinking more along the lines of 7pm or so Saturday night the 14th.  Otherwise I'm pretty much home 98% of the time.

[OrlandoChristmas]

Yea that's what I ended up doing. Before, I had those RedDot spring covers because they were nice and flat. Then, the other day I put those chile proof things on my outlets. Oh BTW, it was only partially the GFCI's. The other part of the problem that I figured out last night, was that some of the older light sets that I had, had bad male ends so they would come loose and stop working. I just ended up replacing those plugs.