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Lights flashing on when they're not supposed to


wookiemouse

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I have 3 separate sequences this year that when I fade on my white LED net lights on one specific controller, my roofline C9s and icicles flash. They are almost a ghosting/shimmer flash, sections here and there, not a full all on. It only happens with a fade on those white nets, nowhere else in the song. None of the sequences were copied/pasted; I have cleaned up for stray remnants, this is not the issue.

The controller that those white nets are on house my white nets (5), red net lights (5) and the icicles. It's a stand alone controller with an ELL. The C9s are on a completely different controller about 75' away and not in the line of sight of the first controller. This flash only occurs with the white nets on the first controller (I have 31 other white nets on 5 controllers and they fade without issue, and the red nets are not causing issues either).

I was able to replicate the problem using fades in the hardware utility with those white nets on. Testing them individually didn't cause the flash, but fading them as a group does. I have attached an incan string to the end of the white nets on that one controller as snubbers but it did not make a difference. 

Any ideas on how to fix this mess? I was planning on toying around with fade intensities today on the sequences, but none of my fades are super long to begin with.

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Update - I have tried switching out controllers and hardwiring a Cat5 cable to the nearest controller. The lights are still misfiring.

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I had this problem last year and chased it for a while, My solution came down to changing up how the controllers where plugged in. I had about 15 controllers plugged into to a 4 different  set of extension cords (about 4 each). I ended up running more cords and problem went away.  I chased network cables, made sure network cables not run near extension cords to maximum possible, and all sorts of other things.  Only got better when I swapped how plugged in, was very annoying when doing an all red sweep across the display and all 16 channels on one controller flashed on and off randomly. 

Edited by prevue12
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I'm having the same problem with alot of help from the help desk people (who are great) we figured on mine I am detecting more devices than I have and so signals to other lets say controller 1 are also going to " gost unit" 6, 11, 16 etc. And those signals as they get weaker are firing other channels on other controllers with less and less power. Tomorrow morning I plan to use contact cleaners on all my rj45s and make sure no bent pins. Well see if it fixes it 

 

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prevue12 - thank you, that's a new idea.  I gave it a try this morning. I previously had 3 of the 6 boxes on the same outlet, a few on the same cord. So I ran each controller on its own cord, and each of those cords to a separate independent outlet. I also made sure all my Cat5 were not bundled with any power cords. Still the same problem. :(

 

Thebug - did these other 'ghost' controllers show up in the hardware utility? Let me know if the cleaning works or not, I will give it a try here as well.

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Well I solve some of the problems by switching out a controller. Also after cleaning all those rj-45 ports it seems to be running a little better. But I'm still getting some flashing in a couple different items but not like I was before. If you get it figured out please let me know and I'll keep working on my stuff on my end and see if I can get it figured out

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I had this a couple years and it was traced down to my communication lines running too close and parallel with channel cords. All I had to do was make sure they were separated and when the do cross power lines I cross at 90 degrees. Good luck.

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I fixed it! I ran all my boxes in that section to individual outlets yesterday except for one - a small 1.16A one that didn't seem to be part of the problem. I paired it with a different section of the show and those elements started flashing randomly! So last night I ran it on its own cord to a separate outlet and the problem seems to be fixed. That one controller just doesn't play well with others apparently!

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