How to tell what year your controller was purchased

[Joshb]

TSO edition Showtime central says some controllers purchased before 2015 may not be able to handle the requirements of the ELOR. How can you tell if the light controller was purchased prior to 2015?

[dibblejr]

31 minutes ago, Joshb said:

TSO edition Showtime central says some controllers purchased before 2015 may not be able to handle the requirements of the ELOR. How can you tell if the light controller was purchased prior to 2015?

Gen3 would be the key. You can find that on the controller board itself or in the HU in a search. It will populate the controller. ie found one unit LOR....

Also the appearance of an LED light and not the domed light on the controller.

Note that some boards were stamped gen2 but are actually gen3, that's why the HU search is a better source if in doubt. I have 4 of those controllers.

JR

[Joshb]

That helps a ton man, thank you.

[Orville]

It'd help if there was a date stamp on the PC Board inside, but when I looked {unless it's on the backside where we can't see it} I couldn't find one.  However, when I bought my controllers, which are older, what I did was mark them inside the front lid with a black sharpie with the date I purchased the unit.  One has the date 09/16/2010 marked inside, so I know I got or bought that one on September 16, 2010.   Helps me know which units are newer or older versions of my CTB16PC Controllers. 

Using the HU, I really don't think it will tell you exactly what controller you have or any specific date of manufacture, I think you have to mainly go by the firmware installed, then look up the firmware download list on the LOR site to know which controller you may have.  

As far as I know, the HU WILL NOT allow you install firmware into a controller it's not designed for.  If unknown and you try, usually you'll get some kind of error like Controller is incompatible with the firmware you're trying to install or something to that affect. That's been my experience when I was unsure and tried to install firmware that wasn't for my specific device, just wouldn't accept it, rejected firmware that wasn't designed for it every time.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Orville

[dibblejr]

For the compatibility the date doesn’t matter, the OP didn’t understand how the controllers gel together.

It is only the generation that matters and HU does show that in the results.

JR

[Orville]

17 hours ago, dibblejr said:

For the compatibility the date doesn’t matter, the OP didn’t understand how the controllers gel together.

It is only the generation that matters and HU does show that in the results.

JR

My HU in 4.4.4 doesn't show what generation the controllers are, it only gives me the version of the firmware installed.   I see nothing that shows me my controllers are Generation 1 RGB controllers {Original CC controller 5VDC output}, nor does it tell me my older CTB16PC Controllers are V2 controllers, just, again, only shows me the firmware version.   So the only way I could know what controller version would be to go to the LOR Support area and look up the firmware that's in my controllers to know which version I have and if there is a newer firmware revision for it{them}.   

I see nothing in the HU that gives this specific information in the controller selector box or anywhere else to what the actual generation the controller is.   If it's really in there, where is it?  I haven't been able to locate it.   I know mine are V2 because that is what is etched on the PCB ,and the fact I know I bought them in 2010, long before the Gen 3's were available.  That and I marked them when I bought them on the inside lid cover.

[dibblejr]

6 hours ago, Orville said:

My HU in 4.4.4 doesn't show what generation the controllers are, it only gives me the version of the firmware installed.   I see nothing that shows me my controllers are Generation 1 RGB controllers {Original CC controller 5VDC output}, nor does it tell me my older CTB16PC Controllers are V2 controllers, just, again, only shows me the firmware version.   So the only way I could know what controller version would be to go to the LOR Support area and look up the firmware that's in my controllers to know which version I have and if there is a newer firmware revision for it{them}.   

I see nothing in the HU that gives this specific information in the controller selector box or anywhere else to what the actual generation the controller is.   If it's really in there, where is it?  I haven't been able to locate it.   I know mine are V2 because that is what is etched on the PCB ,and the fact I know I bought them in 2010, long before the Gen 3's were available.  That and I marked them when I bought them on the inside lid cover.

I just checked my video with the pixie16 setup and that is also a newer version of the software. And yes, it’s only controller type and firmware version.

I wonder if it changed along the way.

That was how I discovered I had 4 Gen2 AC controllers that were actually Gen3.( marked incorrectly from factory)

The boards are marked Gen2 but HU showed Gen3.

That was with 4.0. Something .  I just recently was forced to upgrade from 4.4.18 so I can no longer check that version. Hmm.

JR

Edited October 2, 2019 by dibblejr

[Mr. P]

It really doesn't matter as the firmware version can tell you what generation as well. Gen 3 controllers use ver 1.0?. The gen 2 controllers cannot load that ver.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Mr. P

[dibblejr]

7 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

It really doesn't matter as the firmware version can tell you what generation as well. Gen 3 controllers use ver 1.0?. The gen 2 controllers cannot load that ver.

That could have been how I discovered it and I forgot, but I did use HU to determine they were actually gen3 and not Gen2 as marked.

Last year was the first year I have had to update any firmware for whatever reason I had two gen3’s that didn’t work well with a newer gen3 during testing. It also took several attempts to get the firmware to update. I think it may have been the length of travel since they were 300’ away from the computer.

JR

[Orville]

10 hours ago, dibblejr said:

That could have been how I discovered it and I forgot, but I did use HU to determine they were actually gen3 and not Gen2 as marked.

Last year was the first year I have had to update any firmware for whatever reason I had two gen3’s that didn’t work well with a newer gen3 during testing. It also took several attempts to get the firmware to update. I think it may have been the length of travel since they were 300’ away from the computer.

JR

You should only have ONE controller connected when doing a firmware update.  

Albeit you can have all controllers connected, it's not recommended.   I had all mine connected once and tried to update each one with the latest FW update, somehow it scrambled all the controllers and I had to reset each and every one of them back to the factory defaults. 

Then I had to re-establish the unit ID ##'s I wanted them to be and add the FW update to each one individually.   Then no more issues with them.  

But I tried doing it with them all connected together and it turned into a disaster.    As none of them would work after that fiasco.   So I always do mine with only ONE unit connected at a time now if I need to update any or all of them.  Lesson learned.

 

[Orville]

10 hours ago, Mr. P said:

It really doesn't matter as the firmware version can tell you what generation as well. Gen 3 controllers use ver 1.0?. The gen 2 controllers cannot load that ver.

Only if I go to the FW Support page and look at each FW update for each type controller, then I can tell.  But just looking at in the HU alone, nothing there to really tell you whether the controller is V1, V2 or Gen 3.   At least nowhere in the FW files shown when I view mine does it give me any indication of which controller it actually is.  I would have to check the FW Update page in the LOR Support area to know for sure by comparing the FW I have to what is listed there.  It's the only way I know to find this info out.

[Mr. P]

1 minute ago, Orville said:

Only if I go to the FW Support page and look at each FW update for each type controller, then I can tell.  But just looking at in the HU alone, nothing there to really tell you whether the controller is V1, V2 or Gen 3.   At least nowhere in the FW files shown when I view mine does it give me any indication of which controller it actually is.  I would have to check the FW Update page in the LOR Support area to know for sure by comparing the FW I have to what is listed there.  It's the only way I know to find this info out.

All Gen 3 controllers use firmware v1.xx

All Gen 1&2 controllers use firmware v4.xx

and the firmware version is shown in the HU after doing the search.

[Orville]

1 minute ago, Mr. P said:

All Gen 3 controllers use firmware v1.xx

All Gen 1&2 controllers use firmware v4.xx

and the firmware version is shown in the HU after doing the search.

Yes I am aware of that, however, a person that may have bought an older controller may not know and going to LOR Support page where the FW is located would be the only way to know 100% which controller you purchased.  

I wouldn't have known if I didn't research the FW versions on the LOR support area of their site to know which RGB Controllers I purchased used were without going there and seeking out any updates to the current firmware in them.   That's how I found out they were CC version 1 controllers and 5V, as opposed to the newer CC II controllers which are 12V.   

So not everyone is going to know this just by looking in the HU itself, takes a little more work and research to know for sure what controller you might actually have.