Mr. P Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 Reading pixel reviews on Amazon is so hilarious sometimes. One person called them junk because they wired the pixels to a 12v power supply and they didn't work, duh. Another person attempted to light 400 5v pixels off of a 60w power supply and complained that only the first 40 or so lit up, really? Another was using 12v strips and complained that they lit in groups of three and complained that they were suppose to be individually addressable. You can't make this stuff up. 🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 2 hours ago, Mr. P said: Reading pixel reviews on Amazon is so hilarious sometimes. One person called them junk because they wired the pixels to a 12v power supply and they didn't work, duh. Another person attempted to light 400 5v pixels off of a 60w power supply and complained that only the first 40 or so lit up, really? Another was using 12v strips and complained that they lit in groups of three and complained that they were suppose to be individually addressable. You can't make this stuff up. 🤣 Sure you can. Years ago, someone complained that the TI99-4 computer made FALSE claims did not show in color on their TV set using the included RF modulator. (Their set was a B+W model. The ads had to be revised to clearly stat 'On Color Sets" ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 You would be amazed at how many trouble tickets can be cleared by exercising the ON / OFF switch to the ON position. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 So this years giggle ticket (or at least the one I remember right now): I had a person using 3 PixCons (actually, i think they had more, but it was 3 for a particular prop). "2 of these don't work! They're junk!" I need to test this customer to see what their knowledge level is so I can predict how it will go and what we're going to need to look at. "Ok, tell me about them. What are the IP addresses? What universes did you want running on them? What are the Status LEDs doing?" [Cust surprisingly sends all the information I need: IPs, universes, Which PixCon controller, string numbers, which 16 universes work, you name it.] "They still don't work!" So Mike thinks to himself that this cust is pretty on the ball - i purposefully asked a very OPEN question, and this customer told me EVERYTHING I would need to know (and they would need to know) to get things working. They HAVE the correct information and should know what that information is for. They just need to be reminded what has to happen, and give them some encouragement: "Ok, so all that sounds right, you are not doing anything obviously wrong. Remember, everything has to match: The universes on the board, the universes in the sequence, the universes defined in the Network Preferences. You have 1 working, the other 2 should be fine. Double check your configuration" "Everything is defined properly! There is something wrong with them!" Whew. Ok, so this customer seems to know what they are doing. They must just be suffering from the same malady I suffer from at this time of year: Puddin'Brain. Overloaded customer, just not thinking straight. I think they just need a poke. So at this point what I am trying to do is get the customer to slow down. It's not the information I want, I want them to go get the information and when they do to LOOK at it. Hopefully this gives them an AH HA! moment. "Send me a screenshot of the Com Listener and show me all the IPs and Universes it is opening" [Cust sends exactly what I wanted] OOooooook... I wasn't expecting THAT. I figured for sure I'd get a 'Hey! I found the issue' response. Guess I better look at it... "Those don't match what you said. According to that the first board is defined properly. The second board is trying to use the universes you want on the 3rd board. The 3rd board is using the universes from the first. Fix that. Again, I'm thinking: oops. He should have caught that. Now that I've pointed it out he should go and get things working. "I will make the changes but that doesn't explain why controller 2 wasn't doing anything. See, I changed it and it still doesn't work. These things are junk!" No no no. I am purposefully making this guy work by not giving him exact instructions - and he is pulling it off each time. He HAS to be smart. I guess we should continue: "Now, send me screenshots for each of those boards configs. I want to see tab 2 of the PixCon Configuration screen." [I'll be darned, customer sends the exact stuff I want AGAIN. ] Again, when I asked for the info, it wasn't the info I cared about. It was getting the user to LOOK at the data and have an AH HA moment. He STILL didn't have it. "OK, so I looked at your configuration for boards 2 and 3. Board 2 is set up with the universes for board 3 and vice versa." (I can see the IP and the 2 boards are backwards) "I've been messing with these for weeks, and was trying to get them to work last night. See, I fixed it they still don't work!" At this point this customer is 2 for 2. They claimed the boards IPs and universes were set correctly in both the board and the network preferences (which the listener showed), and they were not. The excuse is what I call 'a cover' - I'll write about those sometime. The customer is embarrassed that I've caught him twice with bad data. No big deal - infact there may be some good - the customer may be getting the hint how this is going to continue. "Ok, NOW send me a screenshot of the Network Preferences DMX tab, Advanced Mode. I need to see all the universes so you may need to send more than one screenshot". At this point the ticket ended. I can only imagine the customer looked at the network preferences, discovered again that his universe to IP mapping was wrong, fixed it, and then started to work. Just because they are smart doesn't mean they are smart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. P Posted December 21, 2019 Author Share Posted December 21, 2019 I can relate to to that. I think I am pretty smart but sometimes when I go back and read some of my posts I just think, hmmmmm that was some pretty stupid advice right there. 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kapkirk Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 Speaking as a smart guy LOL, I know what you mean, I ordered a camcorder for my wife to take on a disney cruise with the grandkids cause I thought the expensive one we have is older and might disappear, anyway so I order one to arrive no later than Monday, I noticed on Amazon it was to arrive tomorrow or Monday, but as of an hour ago it hasn't shipped so I look for another similar that has guaranteed shipping to arrive Monday, no problem find one, so I start a chat with Amazon with the order number already copied and ready to cancel and just order the new one. They start the chat with is this the order your interested in? This is before I ask a question, Yes, that's the one, well they say it is about to ship and will arrive on schedule Monday. Its there anything else we can help with? No, Thanks end chat. Ha, now I know the somebody is spying on me, like the truck dealer just did a 4 weeks ago, I had a backup camera problem with my 2016 diesel truck and the intermittent operation finally became permanent bad. So I call the local dealer to make an appt to have it fixed. Next appointment I can make is in 3 days. I made the appointment at the wifes office waiting to take her for lunch, get in the truck and dang the thing works, oh well it's been intermittent before and figure it will fail again but nope, 3 days and its perfect, even drove it extra trying to get it to fail, nope, 3 days and its perfect, so I call the dealer that morning and ask him if he can fix something thats working and he laughs, I cancel appointment and wait, the darn thing is still working 3 weeks later, now I know they are tapped into everything computer related, even my dang truck. It's not only the gov't it's Amazon and Detroit too, we don't have a chance. Now who's next? Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibblejr Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 I know Mike and the gang catch a lot of flack. I like taking some of the trouble off them. I wouldn’t know where to start trying to explain to you all what I have been told, asked to help fix. All the time knowing that the person on the other end is leaving bits and pieces behind because there is no way for some of the problems to happen the way the are saying. And the guys that you ask to follow every step as you talk them through it and you hear the keyboard and know they are trying to get ahead. I love helping where I can though, it helps me exercise my mind and keeps me alive. Merry Christmas to everyone JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts