Need Help ASAP. Show is dead at start of each song for 10-20 seconds.

[prepper616]

I didn't change a thing other than light arrangement. Otherwise, same laptop, same sequencing, same show. Each of my 3 songs aren't following the sequencing. All three, the music kicks on and the lights don't for 10-20 seconds as well as a few times during it's completely dark for 5-10 seconds. Didn't change a thing. It's primarily when it's only a few channels going that it's dark instead of going on. 

All windows updates are completed and everything is up to speed on my laptop. 

I ran a diagnostic but can't attach due to size.

Please Help quickly!

Thank you,
Ryan

[Orville]

You say you changed the light arrangement, was this done in the sequence or physically at a controller by changing them over to different channels?  I'm not sure I am understanding what you actually did to create the issue.  Exactly what did you do to change the light arrangement?

 

[prepper616]

The only thing I changed was what each channel lit up outside. I changed nothing within the boxes (2 boxes with 32 channels total).

i didn’t change the sequencing, scheduling, or anything within the boxes from last year.

[Joe Polenchar]

Are you saying that you tried to change your channel config on your computer using the sequence editor?

You did not just plug your lights/props into different dongeles on your controller boxes.

[prepper616]

Nothing changed other than the power plugs coming out of both of my boxes are now connected to different and some still the same props or lights outside in my yard.

[mpageler]

Assume the diagnotics you mentions was some PC/windows based process?  In rhw LOE taskbar menu (lightbulb), their a  verify menu option that can be used to check for issues with a sequence and/or entire show.     Even thought you claimed to have done nothing more than switch box outlets, worth checkinto see if a channel is in several place of a sequence that would cause that channel to compete against itself. 

[gsmith37064]

Inside the Show Editor, you can tell it X number of seconds to wait between songs. Did you put anything in there by mistake?

I have mine set to 2 seconds between songs.

Edited December 10, 2018 by gsmith37064

[Al Saunders]

Hi Prepper616,

Is it possible that when you re-plugged what gets lit up that you put them on channels that are "higher" in the channel count? Meaning if your sequence has more activity on the first 16 channels and then lesser activity on channels 17-32 that may explain the appearance of the whole thing being dark? I would look at all 32 channels of your sequences and notice the "activity" on the first 16 and then look at the second 16 channels. If nothing is going on for a few seconds on channels 17-32 and you have your props plugged into those channels that's probably your issue. If you are using LOR sequences the first 16 channels pretty much have something going on all the time. The following 16 channel sets (units) have accompanying effects. And these 2nd, 3rd, and 4th units don't always have non stop "activity" going on.

I hope this helps and solves your problem.

Al

[prepper616]

I appreciate the help. I numbered my boxes 1 and 2 and each channel is numbered on the end of the cord. 

I have something plugged into every channel and my sequencing has almost zero “lights off” moments. Each song’s music starts and there is no light activity until 10-20 into the song. I know I have the sequencing so I have no idea why it’s plays everything else but the first portion and a few times in the song when it goes only channels 1-4 in box #1.

[prepper616]

1 hour ago, mpageler said:

Assume the diagnotics you mentions was some PC/windows based process?  In rhw LOE taskbar menu (lightbulb), their a  verify menu option that can be used to check for issues with a sequence and/or entire show.     Even thought you claimed to have done nothing more than switch box outlets, worth checkinto see if a channel is in several place of a sequence that would cause that channel to compete against itself. 

Which program of LOR is this in?

[prepper616]

1 hour ago, gsmith37064 said:

Inside the Show Editor, you can tell it X number of seconds to wait between songs. Did you put anything in there by mistake?

I have mine set to 2 seconds between songs.

I have 3 seconds in mine

[gsmith37064]

9 minutes ago, prepper616 said:

I have 3 seconds in mine

Can you send me one of your sequences that is taking a bit to load?

My email is below this message.

[prepper616]

6 minutes ago, gsmith37064 said:

Can you send me one of your sequences that is taking a bit to load?

My email is below this message.

sent.

[Joe Polenchar]

Prepper,

              Try to make yourself a new channel config file.

See if that does the trick for you.

[gsmith37064]

1 minute ago, prepper616 said:

sent.

You sent the LSV file. Can you resend the LMS please? I want to look at your channels.

[gsmith37064]

10 minutes ago, prepper616 said:

sent.

You sent the LSS file that time. I need either the LMS or LCC file.

LMS - sequence with channels

LCC - just your channel config

I am trying to see if you have anything that overlaps another channel.

Edited December 10, 2018 by gsmith37064

[Mscannic]

That happened to us last year.  Had to get a new sd card (pny 16 micro card from Walmart)  it was either that or I realized I was trying to write the show without using the little black thing that comes with a controller.  I just thought I could plug the sd card in the port on my computer.  It is the sad card reader/ writer under accessories.  Looks like it has changed since we got our original one.  Good luck!!

[LOR Staff]

I'm pretty sure I worked this ticket on the help desk (and I apologize if it was someone else.  My brain is still soup).  I was able to get the original OP working.  This is a great example of how sometimes we have to reinterpret what a customer is saying into what the problem actually is.

This is no slight to the OP!  The op was describing what he thought was happening.  He was not incorrect - it did appear to him that the show would take 20-30 seconds to actually start.  But the reason is not hardware or software related.

One of the first things we ask about when it comes to weirdness on lights is 'randomness'.  Is what the cust seeing random in nature, or is it constantly repeatable.  In cases of sequences not running correctly, randomness is usually attributable to hardware issues.   In this case, the cust reported that the issue occurred at the exact same time EVERY time in the same way.  That is a big clue - computers are not random by nature.  If they are doing the same thing every time in the same way at the same point in time it's because that is what you are TELLING them to do.  Identical action, even if that action is incorrect as was in this case, indicates the issue is likely (99.9) NOT hardware.

Experience tells us that in these cases it usually is a sequence issue.  The customer has either not programmed the sequence the way they think they did, used incorrect Nets/Unit IDs, has duplicate channels, etc.  We will then ask the customer if this was a sequence purchased from us, or if this was one they wrote themselves.  If they say they wrote it, we have them run Verifier on the sequence and see what it spits out.  

In this case, the sequence was ours, and a very popular one (one of the TSO sequences).  Those are some of the most heavily purchased sequences and literally thousands of people are running them.  If there was an issue, we would have heard it already (and MANY times over!).  The issue is probably NOT the sequence.

This leads to a great side bar on how we determine if we have a bug, or a customer issue.  When it comes to trying to figure out what is going wrong, we look at what the customer is trying to do and how often other customers may be performing the same action.  In this case the customer was using a Show Director.  There are major changes going on right now in the software for SD card creation so the chance that this is a bug is quite high which required some additional testing I will get into shortly.  If however the issue is in a program that has not changed in 2 years, it is reasonable to assume that it's probably NOT a bug in the program but something else.

There are some known issues with older MP3 director firmware.  Although this was a recent MP3, we still had the customer update the firmware to the latest version.  The problem remained.

At this point you have to assume a possible bad MP3 director.  But while all signs point that way, it is a VERY poor assumption so you want to continue to research.  More likely is a bug in how the SD card was created (remember, we're working a lot in that code these days).  We attempted to re-create the issue with the source sequence and found that it was working properly.  So now you have to think it's a bug with how the software is interacting with that customer's computer.  We had the customer send us the SD card files that he created.  Bit for Bit they were identical to the ones we created that we know work.  We ran them and they worked 100% (as expected).

So if you like to play 'Stump the Chump' - you've won at this point.  This chump is stumped.   The only thing that could be wrong is the MP3 director, but we KNOW how MP3 directors work, and there just is no way an MP3 director that was working (remember way up there identical incorrect action does not point to hardware) could be doing this.  Time for a remote.

At this point you don't know what you are looking for, so you have to go back to basics.  First, let's determine if the hardware is working properly with the computer.  The customer states that he has 2 controllers, both 16 channel AC units.  He connects up the USB adapter and it is working according to Windows.  Start the Hardware utility, select the correct port.  Now find the units and see if 2 respond.  Yes, both controllers respond BUT the first controller in the list is unit id 02. The other is 03.  

That is ODD.  It's not unheard of, but definitely ODD.  LOR sequences are written so that the first 4 controllers are used in kind of 'priority' order.  The main part of the display is 1, Most used highlights 2, etc...

In this case the customer had the 'main' part of his display connected to a controller that was set to unit id 03.  The channels on unit 03 in these particular sequences are only used when things really start ripping along.  The customer was absolutely right:  for the first 20 seconds or so, NOTHING was happening.  Changing the Unit ID of 03 to 01 fixed the issue - no more delay.