Thebug Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 So last night (the 9th) i was working on my setup and testing my lights. I sat my laptop on the back of my car in the garage and was testing my controllers and the lights. Everything was working great and i was thrilled. My wife called me in for dinner and i grabbed the laptop and ran in. Had dinner then got ready for work and left for work. As I'm backing out i feel this bump like I ran something over and to my dismay crushed on the floor of my garage is the USB 485 dongle. ? ::face palm:: so needless to say i ordered a new one from lor but oh crud i not only feel stupid now I cant finish my testing and I'm dying to know how the last 2 controllers look. 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerry72 Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Nope can't laugh at ya. I run my show off a Pi. During Halloween, i could get no output to the lights. I spent almost 45 minutes tracing wires, ,checking the Pi output channels 3 or 4 times, traced some more wires, figured something bad musta happened with the Pi. My stupid Pi thought it was daylight savings time, set the clock back and it thought it was 4:30 instead of it actually being 5:30 when the show was supposed to start. Of all the things i checked, not once did i look a the clock on the PI. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Okay, fine - I'll break the ice. Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha! Definitely in the running for Dolt of the Week! Ha! Maybe even Dolt of the Month. (Although before you get your hopes up for that one keep in mind this is setup month, so the competition will be fierce.) Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha, Ha Ha! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 9 hours ago, Thebug said: So last night (the 9th) i was working on my setup and testing my lights. I sat my laptop on the back of my car in the garage and was testing my controllers and the lights. Everything was working great and i was thrilled. My wife called me in for dinner and i grabbed the laptop and ran in. Had dinner then got ready for work and left for work. As I'm backing out i feel this bump like I ran something over and to my dismay crushed on the floor of my garage is the USB 485 dongle. ? ::face palm:: so needless to say i ordered a new one from lor but oh crud i not only feel stupid now I cant finish my testing and I'm dying to know how the last 2 controllers look. that is why I always order a backup of things like that. My usual is to set my show up and nothing is running so I retrace and test wires and such, then after two hours realize I didn't start the control panel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sticks4legs Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 (edited) i chased cords, connections and computers for hours.......all over a tripped GFCI. Most have a face palm story at some point Edited November 11, 2017 by sticks4legs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Some of my lights were not coming on when they were supposed to, only to discover the Plug (end) was still in the last bush before the controller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 12 hours ago, Thebug said: So last night (the 9th) i was working on my setup and testing my lights. I sat my laptop on the back of my car in the garage and was testing my controllers and the lights. Everything was working great and i was thrilled. My wife called me in for dinner and i grabbed the laptop and ran in. Had dinner then got ready for work and left for work. As I'm backing out i feel this bump like I ran something over and to my dismay crushed on the floor of my garage is the USB 485 dongle. ? ::face palm:: so needless to say i ordered a new one from lor but oh crud i not only feel stupid now I cant finish my testing and I'm dying to know how the last 2 controllers look. This may sound funny, but did you try the crushed adapter? Unless the two connectors are so damaged that you can’t get a plug into them, it may still be usable. I would not trust it for my show, but might allow you to continue testing. BTW, you should have ordered two - one to have as a spare or testing. Of all the pieces of hardware we have for our shows, the one most critical item is the USB to RS-485 adapter. Without it you show is dead. My other advise is to always order the high speed red ones. Even if you are not running enough stuff that you need it, one of these days you will. And for only a few bucks price difference, you might as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thebug Posted November 11, 2017 Author Share Posted November 11, 2017 2 hours ago, k6ccc said: This may sound funny, but did you try the crushed adapter? It's in many small pieces Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 OK, here's my oops for this year. Last weekend I brought down the pieces for my pixel tree and assembled it. When I assemble the tree, the top of the tree is sitting on about a 4 foot ladder. I had a few repairs to do, and did those. For string 8, to do the repair, it was easier to remove the strip from the tree and do the repair. After the repair, I put the strip back onto the tree and tested it by playing a couple songs from my laptop. On Monday I stood the tree up and after it got a little dark tested it. Lo and behold, string 8 was completely dead. My guess was that I had not fully seated the connector onto the E682 and in the movement of standing up the tree, it had come loose. To make it a little worse, when the tree is upright, I can't reach the box with the controller with my eight foot ladder. It is mounted behind the star and is about 15 feet up. Either I take the tree back down, or go buy or rent a larger ladder. So yesterday I bought a 12 foot ladder. Opened up the box and found that the connector for string 8 was offset by one position. When I had put string 8 back onto the tree I had run the cable through the ladder and had to unplug it when I went to set up the tree. Apparently I put it back wrong... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfuller8400 Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 I burned out not one but two 485's because a PS mounting screw was too long and it was causing some weird electrical short on the RJ45 connector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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