vshawkey54 Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 (edited) Hello! My 14 year old son with autism found the demo version of the sequencer and became obsessed with creating sequences. So.. he wanted the controller for his birthday which we got him last week. The problem is that we are trying to learn the entire software program and how it talks to the controller. We had no idea what we were getting into by purchasing this controller! We were able to build a preview and a sequence but can't figure out how to play it on the controller. We checked and everything is connected and talking to each other but the lights won't come on when we play the sequence. Help! We are newbies for sure and our son gets frustrated quite easily as you can imagine so any help you can give me would be super helpful, me and my husband are pulling our hair out!! Thank you in advance!! Valery Edited July 29, 2020 by vshawkey54 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 11 minutes ago, vshawkey54 said: Hello! My 14 year old son with autism found the demo version of the sequencer and became obsessed with creating sequences. So.. he wanted the controller for his birthday which we got him last week. The problem is that we are trying to learn the entire software program and how it talks to the controller. We had no idea what we were getting into by purchasing this controller! We were able to build a preview and a sequence but can't figure out how to play it on the controller. We checked and everything is connected and talking to each other but the lights won't come on when we play the sequence. Help! We are newbies for sure and our son gets frustrated quite easily as you can imagine so any help you can give me would be super helpful, me and my husband are pulling our hair out!! Thank you in advance!! Valery In the sequencer, you need to locate the "Control Lights" and make sure it's clicked. If that isn't checked, the sequencer will not send the lighting commands to the controller, hence no lights. Also make sure you have the LOR CONTROL PANEL running, if you don't have the LOR Light Bulb icon showing on your taskbar, chances are you don't have the LOR Control Panel software running. Also make sure you have the FTDI files installed as well, LOR requires those for the USB adapters to be able to communicate with the controllers. The HU will work without it as it is just a tool to make sure that the computer can talk to the controller, basically a back door. If all of this has been done, not sure what the issue could be. As these are the most common items that cause the sequencer not to operate the lights connected to the controller. One other possibility is a bad cat5 cable from the USB Adapter to the Controller. But you say everything is connected and talking, so I really believe it's the "Control Lights" isn't checked in the sequencer. Once that's done, hopefully everything should all fall into place and the lights should come on. Good Luck! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrown1972 Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 15 minutes ago, vshawkey54 said: Hello! My 14 year old son with autism found the demo version of the sequencer and became obsessed with creating sequences. So.. he wanted the controller for his birthday which we got him last week. The problem is that we are trying to learn the entire software program and how it talks to the controller. We had no idea what we were getting into by purchasing this controller! We were able to build a preview and a sequence but can't figure out how to play it on the controller. We checked and everything is connected and talking to each other but the lights won't come on when we play the sequence. Help! We are newbies for sure and our son gets frustrated quite easily as you can imagine so any help you can give me would be super helpful, me and my husband are pulling our hair out!! Thank you in advance!! Valery Have you clicked control lights in the top right corner of the sequencer? A little more info may help. What type of controller are you using, (AC or a pixel controller)? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zvacman Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Have you purchased the software? If so what level? The demo software won’t control the lights. Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vshawkey54 Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 Yes we purchased the basic software package too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 When you are attempting to control the lights, is the status light on the controller a solid light or is it blinking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vshawkey54 Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 Solid light Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vshawkey54 Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 It’s a CTB16PCg3 and we made sure the drivers were installed, the control panel was enabled and the control lights was on. When we tested the light in the hardware panel they lighted up fine so we are at a loss! When we try to play it back in the sequence editor, we are just playing it via the playback function, is there something else we need to do?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vshawkey54 Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 We have the status window open and it’s showing enabled and but there’s nothing in the sequence window. We are way over our heads with this program! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Have you actually created a working sequence? That is one that is either just an animation with lighting commands on the channels you are trying to light or a musical sequence where the lights are sequenced to the song/music you're doing? If there is nothing in the sequence, it won't do anything at all. You have to actually create a working sequence by adding in lighting commands, on, off, shimmer, twinkle, fade up, fade down, or differing intensities along any specific channel before anything will happen. Also did you give your Controller an ID number using the HU{Hardware Utility}, if so, does the Unit Id{Controller #} match the ID/Unit number in the sequence? If not, say you have Controller ID # 01, but you sequence used Id/Unit # 03, then no lights would go on as the controller ID is not matched to the channels in the sequence. I'm not very familiar with S5, but I think you folks might find it easier to uninstall S5 and install the last version of the S4 software, which is Version 4.6, as that might be easier for you to work with as opposed to S5. S5 is quite a bit complex from any previous version of the software. Just thinking that the child being autistic, S4 might be a better version to start him out with. It's quite a bit easier to use than S5. Not saying S5 isn't good, just thinking that S4 might be easier for him to grasp and program than S5 is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 You might try to open the hardware utility first. Leave the Sequencer closed. Configure the Comm Port first therefore get the computer to talk to the USB adapter. USB from the computer to the adapter, outputs RS485 to the controller. Do not connect the controller directly to the computer in this case. Next, in the HU, search for attached controllers. It should find it and identify its ID number. Under that on the same page, you can turn on/off, fade and so on, each individual output of the controller. That will tell us if the hardware is actually working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMassey Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 You have to tell the Sequencer what controllers you have and their ID's. If your Hardware Utility is controlling the lights that side of things is probably OK. You have to create a Preview to configure the Sequencer to talk to the controller. See Preview Design in the Help file. This can be as simple as drawing your strings of lights and assigning them to your controller ID and port. Later you can add a photo of your house and put the lights where you want them to be in reality. You can't play a sequence until you have a Preview and have assigned it to your sequence. Take a look at this video. There are a lot more videos there which also may help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trickyd Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Good morning Check with the hw util to see if communication is ok, controller id, check lights, etc best regards dick de wit the Netherlands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vshawkey54 Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 18 hours ago, Orville said: Have you actually created a working sequence? That is one that is either just an animation with lighting commands on the channels you are trying to light or a musical sequence where the lights are sequenced to the song/music you're doing? If there is nothing in the sequence, it won't do anything at all. You have to actually create a working sequence by adding in lighting commands, on, off, shimmer, twinkle, fade up, fade down, or differing intensities along any specific channel before anything will happen. Also did you give your Controller an ID number using the HU{Hardware Utility}, if so, does the Unit Id{Controller #} match the ID/Unit number in the sequence? If not, say you have Controller ID # 01, but you sequence used Id/Unit # 03, then no lights would go on as the controller ID is not matched to the channels in the sequence. I'm not very familiar with S5, but I think you folks might find it easier to uninstall S5 and install the last version of the S4 software, which is Version 4.6, as that might be easier for you to work with as opposed to S5. S5 is quite a bit complex from any previous version of the software. Just thinking that the child being autistic, S4 might be a better version to start him out with. It's quite a bit easier to use than S5. Not saying S5 isn't good, just thinking that S4 might be easier for him to grasp and program than S5 is. yes, we have created a working sequence, and a preview and made sure all the channels match. We play the sequence and yes, we have used the hardware too and when we test the lights in the hardware utility everything works fine. I just opened a ticket with the help desk so hopefully they can help us. Thank you for your feedback on the version, we will definitely look into S4. Thank you for your help! 19 hours ago, Orville said: Have you actually created a working sequence? That is one that is either just an animation with lighting commands on the channels you are trying to light or a musical sequence where the lights are sequenced to the song/music you're doing? If there is nothing in the sequence, it won't do anything at all. You have to actually create a working sequence by adding in lighting commands, on, off, shimmer, twinkle, fade up, fade down, or differing intensities along any specific channel before anything will happen. Also did you give your Controller an ID number using the HU{Hardware Utility}, if so, does the Unit Id{Controller #} match the ID/Unit number in the sequence? If not, say you have Controller ID # 01, but you sequence used Id/Unit # 03, then no lights would go on as the controller ID is not matched to the channels in the sequence. I'm not very familiar with S5, but I think you folks might find it easier to uninstall S5 and install the last version of the S4 software, which is Version 4.6, as that might be easier for you to work with as opposed to S5. S5 is quite a bit complex from any previous version of the software. Just thinking that the child being autistic, S4 might be a better version to start him out with. It's quite a bit easier to use than S5. Not saying S5 isn't good, just thinking that S4 might be easier for him to grasp and program than S5 is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 8 minutes ago, vshawkey54 said: yes, we have created a working sequence, and a preview and made sure all the channels match. We play the sequence and yes, we have used the hardware too and when we test the lights in the hardware utility everything works fine. I just opened a ticket with the help desk so hopefully they can help us. Thank you for your feedback on the version, we will definitely look into S4. Thank you for your help! Do you still have the Hardware Utility open? That won't work if trying to play a sequence - only one piece of software can control the lights at any given time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vshawkey54 Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 1 minute ago, k6ccc said: Do you still have the Hardware Utility open? That won't work if trying to play a sequence - only one piece of software can control the lights at any given time. No, we always close the hardware utility first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Do you have TeamViewer software installed on your computer? I would be happy to remote in and take a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibblejr Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 every time you go back and forth from SE to HU does the controller unit ID show up "correctly". IOW- if its set for unit ID 1 does it see it as unit ID 1? HU is just a back door to the controller and I do not rely solely on the "test lights" in the HU. If the Unit ID is correct , did you set up the Network Preferences correctly? JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vshawkey54 Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 So we have programmed a sequence, added a preview and we run it and it works and you can see it working on the preview. How do we get that to talk to the controller? We know the controller talks to the computer because we’ve tested it on the hardware utility. There must be some sort of setting we are missing?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vshawkey54 Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 1 hour ago, k6ccc said: Do you have TeamViewer software installed on your computer? I would be happy to remote in and take a look. No but I can definitely download it if you can help us!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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