"Freezing" and "Skipping"

[tvweather62]

I've been running a 32 gb SD card on our Showtime Central director for 10 days. No issues.  

   Tonight, however, the music "froze" in a type of feedback loop.  I unplugged, and plugged back in.  Worked fine.

    30 minutes later, noticed songs started skipping, and lights in all zones froze.  Unplgged.  Tried again while taking out

SD card and putting back in.

    Worked fine...but then did it again about 20 minutes later.  The ONLY thing different today was I added 2 laser lights, NOT to the Light O Rama controller...and different

outlets...but still...that's the only thing different.  I unplugged them...and am trying again.

    Any ideas what could be causing this as it worked flawlessly for the first 10 days.

     

[Speedster]

What brand of SD card are you using?  Kingston is what LOR recommends, and a few forum members also said that Lexar works well for them too.

Did you try creating a new SD card, or reformatting and reloading the show on the current SD card?

[tvweather62]

47 minutes ago, Speedster said:

What brand of SD card are you using?  Kingston is what LOR recommends, and a few forum members also said that Lexar works well for them too.

Did you try creating a new SD card, or reformatting and reloading the show on the current SD card?

About to do that as we speak.....it worked fine for a week, but I guess it's always possible things can happen. And yes, it's a Kingston.

   The Timer I use says 15 amp Max.....while it worked fine, I wonder if I should try and find a 30 amp timer...if there's such a thing.  How is YOUR  set up going?

[Speedster]

Hmmm....maybe try it without the timer to see if that's what caused the issue?

I had a problem with the GFCI breaker popping several times during a light rain last weekend.  Found out that 4 out of 16 candy canes had the unused female socket face down into the grass, with 1 or 2 of them actually touching the soil.  I've remedied that since then, and so far so good.  I took videos last night and posted them today.

 

[TheDucks]

10 hours ago, tvweather62 said:

About to do that as we speak.....it worked fine for a week, but I guess it's always possible things can happen. And yes, it's a Kingston.

   The Timer I use says 15 amp Max.....while it worked fine, I wonder if I should try and find a 30 amp timer...if there's such a thing.  How is YOUR  set up going?

1) your timer has a power cord with a 5-15 plug. Hence a reason for the rating. This is the same reason LOR residential controllers have 2 cords. 15A per bank

2) If you really need 30A, you will need an Intermatic (or equivalent)  Hardwired, timer. A single pole unit will handle 40A... BUT you really want multiple PROTECTED Branch 15A circuits. (another case of Bigger is not always better)

There are basic 2 ways to get there. 1) Use the timer to control a dedicated (show?) SUBPANEL. 2)use your old timer to operate the coil on a multi-pole CONTACTOR (each pole is fed from a separate power cord and feeds a separate outlet.  #1 is typically used for MALL sized parking lot lighting. #2) for apartment common area. Another advantage of either: the lamp voltage could be 277V (common industrial) and the control 115V

 

Measure your (full WHITE) load, don't guess. If you use a number of >50W 5 or 12V LED supplies, be aware that those all have huge inrush demand for the initial power up. You need to leave 'wiggle room' to avoid breaker trips

Another consideration is the cord gauge between the wall plug and controller. TRIAC / SCR have firing angles that are IN SYNC. You get pulses of current, not steady.  Most meters do NOT  read these peaks. Your cord may be just too small.  Simple test: with the controller (with show lights)  connected direct to the wall outlet, does it now behave? 

There is a rule of thumb for extension cords. Bump the suggested (amp) gauge size for every 50' .  This is usually for power tools. You might consider using 25' instead for electronics (LED PSU's)

[tvweather62]

On 12/3/2017 at 11:30 PM, Speedster said:

Hmmm....maybe try it without the timer to see if that's what caused the issue?

I had a problem with the GFCI breaker popping several times during a light rain last weekend.  Found out that 4 out of 16 candy canes had the unused female socket face down into the grass, with 1 or 2 of them actually touching the soil.  I've remedied that since then, and so far so good.  I took videos last night and posted them today.

 

I noticed you said you had problems in the rain.  I have never done anything special with my lights in the rain...always ran them as usual with no specific casing for the plugs. Now that we have everything plugging into a controller (which is inside and dry), do you think we need to cover all the connections with those weatherproof covers or are they still ok as in previous years?

[tvweather62]

On 12/3/2017 at 11:30 PM, Speedster said:

Hmmm....maybe try it without the timer to see if that's what caused the issue?

I had a problem with the GFCI breaker popping several times during a light rain last weekend.  Found out that 4 out of 16 candy canes had the unused female socket face down into the grass, with 1 or 2 of them actually touching the soil.  I've remedied that since then, and so far so good.  I took videos last night and posted them today.

 

By the way, your place looks great!  Thanks for sharing the video!!!

[Speedster]

On 12/7/2017 at 2:11 PM, tvweather62 said:

I noticed you said you had problems in the rain.  I have never done anything special with my lights in the rain...always ran them as usual with no specific casing for the plugs. Now that we have everything plugging into a controller (which is inside and dry), do you think we need to cover all the connections with those weatherproof covers or are they still ok as in previous years?

I covered them with plastic baby-proof outlet covers and made sure the sockets weren't laying on the ground.  I didn't have to do that the previous 2 years using a non-LOR system because everything was daisy-chained together and there were very few unused sockets.  But since nothing is daisy-chained in my LOR setup, I feel that I have to plug those unused sockets to hopefully prevent GFCI breaker trips.

On 12/7/2017 at 4:45 PM, tvweather62 said:

By the way, your place looks great!  Thanks for sharing the video!!!

Thanks!  It was a lot of work, and I know I'll do some things differently next year, but overall I'm pleased with how my 1st LOR setup turned out.

[Dcroc]

Doesn'tmatter what brand of SD card anyone suggests.  They can all fail. I  have had many simply go bad.  Starts with bad sections.  That is where I would start.  Try a whole new card.