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Help!!!


Ballmiester

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So I have been setting up and testing and I keep having controllers drop out it doesn't matter what cable I use or which controller I connect to first and in what order. I went ahead and ordered a new high speed adapter last night anything else I should check I'm going crazy.

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So I have been setting up and testing and I keep having controllers drop out it doesn't matter what cable I use or which controller I connect to first and in what order. I went ahead and ordered a new high speed adapter last night anything else I should check I'm going crazy.

This may or may not be your issue but my first year I had a 16 channel controller that had a loose ethernet port. If I wiggled it it would turn on. But then eventually it would turn off. So I only had 16 channels. I used the other port and problem solved. But the last two years I added more controllers and needed to use the port. I found that I took half a toothpick and kinda stuck it behind the port to hold it in place. Worked so far without any issues. Just something I noticed.

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Check the pins inside the RJ45 jacks and make sure that they are in the proper position.  If some controllers are working and one other one is dropping out, I wouldn't suspect the USB adapter.  If you had the network cables plugged in last year without strain relief and someone tripped on them, that could pull them loose from the board a bit....

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I found 2 of my 6 controllers with RJ45 jack issues. I currently have a zip tie "pulling" up on the cable and that seems to have solved the issue.

 

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I found 2 of my 6 controllers with RJ45 jack issues. I currently have a zip tie "pulling" up on the cable and that seems to have solved the issue.

 

Check the pins inside the RJ45 jacks and make sure that they are in the proper position.  If some controllers are working and one other one is dropping out, I wouldn't suspect the USB adapter.  If you had the network cables plugged in last year without strain relief and someone tripped on them, that could pull them loose from the board a bit....

Zip ties sound better than toothpick lol!

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1 hour ago, Scud2 said:

This may or may not be your issue but my first year I had a 16 channel controller that had a loose ethernet port. If I wiggled it it would turn on. But then eventually it would turn off. So I only had 16 channels. I used the other port and problem solved. But the last two years I added more controllers and needed to use the port. I found that I took half a toothpick and kinda stuck it behind the port to hold it in place. Worked so far without any issues. Just something I noticed.

Was this the flat toothpick or the round?  Will a generic be ok?  

183157.JPG

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Thanks for the info I will check all the jacks again tomorrow and see if I can get it up and running I figured it couldn't hurt to have an extra high speed adapter anyway.

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You could always try voodoo. I often sacrifice a chicken while chanting to the electrical gods.

 

(Eating a bucket of KFC while yelling work dammit)

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4 minutes ago, Ebuechner said:

You could always try voodoo. I often sacrifice a chicken while chanting to the electrical gods.

 

(Eating a bucket of KFC while yelling work dammit)

Ooooooooohhhhh, he said a bad word.

KFC

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IF your controller worked prior to any problems then it may be a connection issue.  However, speaking from personal experience, I had three controllers go down last year.  Long story short is the problem was a loose connection with the CAT5 port in the controllers.  I sent them back to LOR for repairs and they work fine today.  Word of caution, be very careful when hooking up CAT5 cables to the port inthe controlles.  Some of the cables today aren't so easy to manipulate and this results in undo strain on the ports.  Hope this helps.

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I do the same thing with all my boards.

The surface mounted RJ 45 jacks always seem to be a point of weakness and should be protected in my view.

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9 minutes ago, ItsMeBobO said:

LOR sells these      The little couplers are not all good quality.  Several I purchased from Monoprice did not work. 


yhst-1552586516070_2270_12366784.gif

 

Love them. Started putting 2 on the bottom of all new controllers I build. Keeps from having to open the controller when running cables. I also tie-wrap the cat5 cable in at least 2 places on the controller mount before they're plugged into these. I figure someone tripping is better than the cat5 pulling the connector off the board.

True story this last weekend. Neighbor across the street keeps tab on how my show elements are coming along. He determined I have a problem (like I didn't know that). His determination stemmed from the fact that I spent 2 hours just running cat5 cables & tie-wrapping them all over the yard...

 

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31 minutes ago, ItsMeBobO said:

LOR sells these      The little couplers are not all good quality.  Several I purchased from Monoprice did not work. 


yhst-1552586516070_2270_12366784.gif

 

I'll vouch that these are great IF you don't have a bulky plastic/rubber protective covering sleeve on the CAT5 cable. I had to modify them to use them for my uses. It's a temp thing for now but plan to invent something using these for my uses in the future.

Edited by Santas Helper
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