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Hardware Utility crashing?


sodajosh

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Can't get my ELLs to talk to each other out of the box, and from what I gather the proper thing to do is make sure they are all at the same speed and on the same frequency. However, when I plug them into the USB485 and plug that into the computer and start the Hardware Utility, I get one error message on the open screen, then when I switch to the LOR RF tab and try to Get Current Configuration, the app closes. I have no way to see or set the configuration. I've tried this on 2 different PCs. Am I doing something wrong?

I've updated the driver through Device Manager (says I am using the most recent one) and attempted to install the one downloaded from ftdichip.com, which also said it wasn't installed because the existing driver was correct.

Thanks in advance!

Josh

Hardware Utility Screen 1.jpg

Hardware Utility Screen 2.jpg

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How are you supplying power for the ELL? You must use a USB485B or have another controller connected such as a CTB16PC to supply the power.

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Com1 is not spelt with 2 m's  ??

There is no COM showing on the far Left. Did you auto configure or select from the pulldown (previously discovered)

That has to be valid.

FWIW I never had problems using the LOR supplied install

I would disconnect the dongle: Go into the Device manager and remove whatever was installed (it will be a disconnected device).

Then Reboot. Then use the LOR driver disk

 

 

 

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10 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

How are you supplying power for the ELL? You must use a USB485B or have another controller connected such as a CTB16PC to supply the power.

I just realized this as I was reading about the various adapters and about to buy another one thinking this one is defective. There is no power (no blinking lights) in the ELL and it is definitely because I didn't have it connected to a controller. Will be doing that tonight and I bet that fixes it! THANK YOU!

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1 minute ago, sodajosh said:

I just realized this as I was reading about the various adapters and about to buy another one thinking this one is defective. There is no power (no blinking lights) in the ELL and it is definitely because I didn't have it connected to a controller. Will be doing that tonight and I bet that fixes it! THANK YOU!

Once you provide power from a connected controller the setting should automatically fill in when you open the ELL in the HU.

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It's the most FRUSTRATING TIME of the year!! Lol

So powering the ELL from the controller allowed me to configure it in the Hardware Utility. But I still can't figure out why my ELLs aren't talking to each other. They were all set to Frequency channel 16, with a speed of 57600, and a power of 15 dBm. My sequences are all set to 57600 for speed. After verifying this, I connected an ELL to Controller 1 and then connected another ELL to Controller 2. On both ELLs, LED1 is blinking once a second or so, and LED2 is fluttering like a normal Cat5e led light would. According to the manual, this means they both are getting power and are both transmitting/receiving. The lights connected to Controller 1 are behaving properly on all channels. The lights connected to Controller 2 are off and stay off. Controller 2 is getting power, but is not powering any lights. Seems like the wireless isn't working. 

So I tried changing the Frequency channel to 00 on both controllers and tested again. Again, LED1 blinked once a second or so and LED2 fluttered. Same result though. Controller 1 is functioning properly and lights are working according to the sequence. Controller 2 is not functioning according to the sequence.

I have 4 Controllers total that I would like to get working, but can't even get 1 and 2 to talk!! I will seriously give a cash bonus to somebody that can help me figure this out!! Lol

Setup:
Gen3 mini Director uMP3g3 --> Controller 1 -- 10' Cat5e --> ELL1 --> ELL2 --10' Cat5e --> Controller 2 
                                                                                                                  --> ELL3 -- 10' Cat5e --> Controller 3
                                                                                                                  --> ELL4 -- 10' Cat5e --> Controller 4

All ELLs are using 10' Cat5e cables and are mounted to wood poles 8' off the ground and out in the open away from structures. ELL2 is about 120' away from ELL1. ELL3 is about 300' from ELL1. ELL 4 is about 215' from ELL1.

Hopefully I've given all the information you might need to offer any help... and I'm not joking about the cash bonus - I don't know what to do!!

Josh

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So I’m just gonna add this note for any other newbie like me that might run into the same problem with the ELLs not talking.

I tested the controllers and ELLs with the hardware utility and was able to control all of them. So the ELLs were talking, something was just wrong with the show. The manuals all said to check the speed on the communications and I thought I did that. In the Sequence Editor, under Network Preferences all sequences were set to 57600, same as my ELLs. What I didn’t know is that when writing the sequence to an SD card for playing through the Mini Director, the Hub defaulted to writing all my sequences at 19200 because I created the SD card show using the Simple button. Going through the Advanced you can select speed. Set that to 57600 and all the ELLs magically started talking to each other!

Thank you all for your suggestions and help!

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