Anyone else trying out the new Firefly units?

[Paul Roberson]

Duke wrote:

Now if I could just resolve my sticky pixels I'll be a happy camper. Tried the 95 to 100% fade with no luck. All the controllers have V 1.3 for firmaware. I've removed them from power and plugged them back in right away and THERE STILL ON!!!!! Only after leaving them unplugged for a minute or so would they then go off. Now what?

Are you serious?? The sticking pixels don't turn off when the sequence ends?

Hmmmm IDK. If you would like send my your sequence and associated files and I will see if it does the same here.

You can send it to paulroberson@christmaswiththerobersons.com if you would like

[Duke]

Paul,

You got mail.

[Duke]

I think I've found why the pixels are sticking on.

If you have a fast ramp down or fade to off that has a timing of less than .05 then it might stay on. I've gone through 4 sequences I have and on those that have issues, I removed the fade-to-off and they no longer stick. Maybe this can be a firmware update soon? By the way, does Darryl know about this thread?

[Duke]

Dag nab it!! They're doing it AGAIN!

What the....?????

[thebaronn]

I have found many pixels sticking in my fast ramps. So far this has worked: I locate the offending pixels, (in my case 8 and 9 stuck on the way back, but not forward)so then i change only those two to full fades (it looks the same).

That is just my 2 cents, goodluck

Eric

[Duke]

Nope, that's not working either.

These stick on after applying power for a while and not even running a sequence.

Me thinks I got a couple bad strings.

Waiting for replacements to find out.

I wish these weren't so buggy. I really do like what you can do with them.

I've considered switching to Aurora for sequencing unless LOR can come up with the RGB mixer in their next version of S2? Nod nod wink wink.

Mixing RGB in S2 is a PITA. It would be nice to set the color on a cell by cell basis by picking it from swatches or something.

Now back to unsticking pixels.......

[thebaronn]

I agree that sequencing in S2 is brutal!!!
But well worth it.
Let's face it, lor needs their own version....
These sticking pixels are lame!!
It does sound like u got some jacked up product.

Eric

[tboerjan]

One thing other people talk about is doing the hardware update from D-Light. You do need their cable, though. I have downloaded "Aurora" trial version and it looked like a cluster to me. Maybe with more guidance...

Oopps - sorry about my post; looks like you've tried most of my ideas already.

[hosehead]

FYI, same sticking problem on mine but the fade solution fixed it. My fireflies were both only sticking on channel 9 with a reverse chase sequence (forward chase was fine). Anyway, went through my sequences with problems and added a quick full fade in those blocks and all is well...

[thebaronn]

So i have a new one. I have a firefly megatree using only the first 9 channels. And channel 9 sticks all the time!!!! Thursday, Im gonna swap 9 for 10.

Also I have a sequence where there is a continuous chase and then i have the unit do a shimmer and then back to a continuous chase. LOL! One chase works, and then the shimmer and then it does not go back to the chase, it just continues to shimmer for the rest of the sequence?????. I had to place a one beat fade down and the start the chase again and that took care of the problem. But come on? Seriously??

So I have posted some quick video. I have 4 firefly units in front of the house (top mounted like paul). In the video it looks like some of the top pixels are not lighting up, but that is just the angle, I have a fence there that was put up for halloween and I haven't taken it down.

And yes, that is an 8 ft (12 if you count the star/snowflake) firefly megatree using 8ft cast acrylic rods (it looks cool, but on a scale of 1-10....... i give it a 10 for the color ability, 7 on how it actually looks when you are out there after you can watch it for a while, 15 for initial impact it makes when you first see it).

Sorry for the picture quality, my camera sucks and the audio may be off a tad (wasnt in the mood to be a perfectionist today)

A Mad Russian's Christmas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unw7vIDB40g

Wizards in Winter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL-Z3dva_Zk

Also, just a sequencing idea, if you make a random chase sequence, and you want to copy and paste it to the next color on the same unit, if you make it off by a frame you can get some pretty cool results Like a blue chasing a red with a purple in between (works best with more that a single pixel lit up at the same time)

Also, for some reason controller 4 was off..... So that is y there is a huge dark area between the red/green shrubs.

I think with the firefly units I have 302 channels this year, ugh....

Let me know what you think!

And thank all of you for helping!

Eric


Attached files

[Paul Roberson]

SWEET.... I like it!

From the looks of it you are having less trouble from your FF units than I am.

I had a pwr supply stop working. I found another 12v pwr supply to use. I have one unit though that flickers whatever it wants too. Guess I should have put these behind the house instead of in the very front:shock: LOL

[thebaronn]

So apparently, the firefly problems are directly proportional to the amount of time you use them.... I have 5 fireflys, 4 on arches in the front. On 2 of the strands, there are pixels at are no longer white. One has a reddish tint and one has a blueish tint. Of course it only happens when they are on "white"

Any one else have these problems?

grrr

[Rafter Bar R]

Chinese quality, hope that D-Light is saving money now by having to replace all of these faulty FF strings.

[thebaronn]

Duke wrote

Tried the 95 to 100% fade with no luck. All the controllers have V 1.3 for firmaware. I've removed them from power and plugged them back in right away and THERE STILL ON!!!!! Only after leaving them unplugged for a minute or so would they then go off. Now what?
__________________________________________________________________


Well! I have now encountered your problem. I swear these things are getting to be a lot of trouble!!! So I have that Acrylic Rod Mega Tree and only use the first 9 channels (originally all channel 9s were sticking on every strand but I fixed that with the "fade" idea).

I actually watched my own show tonight and noticed that pixel 10 (which is lying on the ground it lit up, only red, and always red) Oh, it turns off with the song and only turns on when the firefly is actually accessed by the LOR network. So I thought that maybe I have it on at some point......I checked all my songs and that channel is never on in the sequencer!!!! But, it is always on during a song when it plays. Pretty Sweet!

Tomorrow I will fix it with black electrical tape :cool: oh yeah!

[Duke]

Guys, are you aware of this thread on the D-Light forum?

http://www.d-light.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=1322

I doubt D-Light is covering the cost of the defects but rather the manufacturer.
After all D-Light has them made for them to sell and I'm sure they're pounding on the manufacturer to get it right. They will be exchanging these for newer ones. I for one haven't given up on them yet. I'll wait to see what the new batch is like first.

[Paul Roberson]

Yeah, I have not given up on them either.

BUT it sure has been difficult getting good video of the show between Firefly sticking or flickering problems and CDIs LEDs not coming on!!

Some people have asked about the show and I have told them to wait till about the week before Christmas. I was hoping that these (both of them) problems would have been ironed out by then, but I don't know.

Firefly has gotten so bad that I have unplugged it. I have 4 of them and when I saw the post on D-light about the exchange I had 2 with the flicker problem. I sent them an email with my information. The next night one of the "good" strings started doing the same thing. I sent them an email adding yet another string. I also said I would guess if I keep running them that I would need to replace all 4 of them. All of my FF strings have the black circuit board.

I may just move the FF arches to the back yard and plug them in, and keep them cat5ed to the network, and just see what they do.

So far it has certainly been a mistake for them to be up front and center of the display. I sure am glad I did not advertise "the cool new arches" LOL


btw..Some of you know this is my first year with LOR. I was with "some other company" the last 2 years. I am VERY pleased with my decision to switch!!! I am very happy with the performance and the customer service I have received from LOR!!! I have had absolutly no problems out of LOR at all:cool::cool:

As Akeim would say "I am very happy to be here"

[thebaronn]

That d-light survey is a joke man!!!!

Im lucky. no flickering pixels, just off color pixels and sticking pixels that are easily fixed and one "always on" pixel.

I was outside last night at 3 am and i had all my fireflys on. The 4 unitys in the front are not the same color white. Where is that option?

grrrrr

[thebaronn]

So I know I have been whining about the firefly and all their problems.

But I have to say, when I am outside watching them do their thing I love them!

So what is your favorite thing about.to do with firefly?



Mine has to be fades from one color to another with the whole arch like fading a red to a purple to a blue to a teal to a green!!



Its always good to be positive!

[Paul Roberson]

thebaronn wrote:

So I know I have been whining about the firefly and all their problems.

But I have to say, when I am outside watching them do their thing I love them!

So what is your favorite thing about.to do with firefly?



Mine has to be fades from one color to another with the whole arch like fading a red to a purple to a blue to a teal to a green!!



Its always good to be positive!

LOL.......That hopefully we will get new pixle strings SOON!!! LOL

Personally I think they are awsome when I plug them in then the show starts. They are very cool. I am not working with any color mixes this year. I am only working with r,g,b,and w. I like the "clapping" effect they can do in green then red......It is all very cool right up to the point where they start flickering and doing their own thing.:X

Its kinda like listning to a very good song on a record ya know........then someone drags the needle off the side of the record.......

[hosehead]

Uhhhgg!! I thought I had lucked out since I had no idea what this flickering or stuck business was all about the first time I read that thread and saw the d-light poll. I came home late tonight and one of my arches is doing exactly that though. Pixels 11 thru 16 on one of my strings are flickering and/or stuck on solid in multiple colors (mostly white), even when disconnected from the show computer. Major bummer being front and center stage out by the road. I think I'm going to have to take that one arch down since it's so distracting. I feel like it's just a matter of time before my 2nd arch starts doing the same.