stachows Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hmm.. I will have to test all my cables.For a quick fix I have thought about just using cat3 cable with cat 5 ends and just make all new cables from scratch. I have the cat5 ends and plenty of cat3 cableMy understanding is that pins 4 & 5 are the only ones that LOR uses right now.I do not use any splitters or juctions. Just cables from one controller to another. mostly custom made but tested. My runs are as follows :PC to #1 = 6ft#1 to #2 = 3ft#2 to #3 = 40ft#3 to #4 = 60ft#4 to #5 = 1ft#5 to #6 = 1ft#6 to #7 = 10ft#7 to #8 = 1ft#8 to #9 = 1ft#9 to #15(CCR) = 40ft#15(CCR) to #E0(iDMX) = 20ft#E0(iDMX) to #10 = 1ft#10 to #11 = 1ft#11 to #12 = 1Ft I do have controllers that share a power connection, since a bunch of my controllers draw low amps. I do not have a single controller that draws more than 9.5 amps per side (1-8) or (9-16). Most are around 3.6 or so. If they are below 12 for the whole controller, I use the hot Jumper option, (and jump the nuetrals) as well since it is necessary so that I can only use ONE cable to supply power to the whole controller.For what it's worth, I love LOR and all of thier products, even though I am frustrated, I am looking to get this resolved asap, and hope it can help others..Scott. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stachows Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 Did not have time to test tonight... Sorry... Been working 12 hour shifts... then come home and sequence... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HillBilly4Ever Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 I think i finally solved my problem by listening to what everyne here is saying and my own trial and error. My cat 5 wire was run the same as last year but last year i only had 2 controllers not 5. With only 2, I used all the channels heavily so i never noticed if i had this issue.While re doing some connections and testing some more I noticed that segments of my arches came on with a loud part of the song when a lot of other lights came on. So after seeing that i started thinking about magnetic fields and induced voltages into the comunication wires. I ended up moving my comm wire around to get them away from running parrelle with the extention cords. I then also noticed that i had an extra 15-20 feet of comm wire neatly wrapped up in a circle sitting underneath the mass of cords from Controller number 1. I choped the wire down to size and put a new RJ-45 on and did a double check that for the most part the comm wire was not running right next to AC power (mains or controlled channels).Tested....and guess what! Problem appears to be gone!Thank you for all the feed back from everyone.Christmas might just be bright! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetacea Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 I am having this problem this year. I am running the same sequences and have the same 9 controllers as last year. I get a lot of channels randomly coming on and staying on. It makes the sequences look like garbage. Where is LOR with some support on this issue. I will recheck the placement of my network cables and try to avoid running them next to power cords. That is pretty hard though when there are extension cords running everywhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 Generally this issue is related to a communications issue. The best way to track it down is systematically look for the problem.First: A controller can have gone active... That is it may have somehow been convinced that it is a director and it is trying to affect the network. By resetting all controllers you can eliminate this as the problem.Second: There may be a bad cable or connector in the network. A bad cable at any controller can affect any controller in the network both up stream or down stream from the fault.The best way to check this is to connect the controllers one at time to the computer and see where/when the problem starts to happen. When disconnecting a cable in the network you should disconnect where the cable is outbound not inbound. That is you should not have a cable at the end of the network that is not plugged into anything.In very large networks it will be quicker to do a binary search. For example, lets say there are 10 controllers: First unplug the cable exiting the 5th controller and see if the first 5 work okay. If they do work okay then you know the problem is somewhere in the last 5 controllers so disconnect the last three, etc....Additionally: If there are ELLs in the network then if possible try running a cable to see if they are the cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stachows Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 Dan, as always...Thank you very much for your help.Scott. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveA Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I checked all my cables,and I am using cat 5 and cat 6 cables. Should I be using just cat 5 cables or can I use both? Help!!!Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveA Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Just ran all new cat 5 cables to all my 7 boxes. Still havig the same problem with channels comming on by themself. If I un plug my new boxes, problem goes away. Any other help would be helpfull.Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HillBilly4Ever Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I'm using only cat 5. Moving my comm wires away from power lines appears to have me fixed 100%. One other thing i did but not sure if it helped, instead of dasiy chaining from one to the next, i split at the one controller and ran a line to one other controller and then a line to the 2 controllers running my arches...after moving the lines away fromt eh power and this split, everything is now working. Not sure if the split did anything but since its working, i didn't bother un doing it and putting it back the right way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetacea Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I replaced a few of my cables and the problem is now minimized. It still does it, but not nearly as bad as it was. At least the display is playable now. I have always had this minor problem all 3 years now. Is a firmware upgrade necessary maybe? Or maybe a reset of all 9 controllers? I'm using the original firmware from when I bought the controllers in 2007. I have the PC controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark h2o Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Do you know which controller is causing the problem or have you plugged in each one individually and still get the same problem?My guess is one of the controllers is getting interference / feedback and causing all your other controller to have problems.What do you have plugged into the new controllers, animated deer or anything other than regular lights?Feedback could be coming back through from something out in the yard too.Let us knowSteveA wrote: I checked all my cables,and I am using cat 5 and cat 6 cables. Should I be using just cat 5 cables or can I use both? Help!!!Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark h2o Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Look into this thread also, (Thanks Steven)http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum76/20918.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stachows Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Well, I found my problem... Kind of....After replacing all my cables and re-routing them... MY PROBLEM WAS STILL THERE!!!But I finally had time tonight once everyone watching left, to go out and test...My problem was with DMX... I am not sure yet if it is the iDMX itself, or one of the lights attached, but what I do know is that when the iDMX is attached, my lights flake out. when it is not attached, they don't.Need to test further.. but for tomorrow I will run without the DMX which is just controls my floods. (where are the XMAS floods?)Thanks,Scott. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stachows Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 OK. it's official, My problem was a bad (homemade) DMX cable...:shock:Replaced the DMX cable and everything is working perfectly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveA Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Made all new cables and routed them away from and power cords. Problem still there. Made a terminator and installed in the last box. 99% of my problems went away. Still had 1 channel hanging on only on 1 song. Found that I did not save that song to the updated LOR program. Made 1 change in song and resaved updated program and problem went away.Thanks everybodySteve A.aka Santa in Argyle Texas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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