Please help! Almost show time!!

[1nate1]

Ok, I have (5) ctb16pc controllers that are all daisy chained together and they are all set with the correct unit numbers 01,02--- ect. When I try to locate them through the refreash process only 1 and 2 are found, 3,4 and 5 have a blinking l.e.d, but if I hook up to 3 and leave 4 and 5 daisy chained and hit refreash it locates 3,4 and 5 just fine and I can control the lights also if I hook up one at a time it's fine .. Now, I've checked all my cat 5 cables (no phone lines are being used) and they are fine and I tried turning everything off and rebooting the computer.. This is my 4th year doing this and the only thing I've changed is adding 1 more controller which is 05 and I changed over to a computer with vista ( which sucks!) my old computer had xp and I never had a problem.. There's something going on between 2 and 3 and it's driving me crazy!!! Please help!! Thanks, Nathan

[Bob VandenBoom]

1. Remove 2 from the chain and go from 1 to 3, 4, 5. If you get all four, then unit two is the problem.

2. Try running unit 2 on it's own using each CAT5 connector. It is possible one may have a bad solder joint or bad contact. If unit two works with one connector and not the other, you know where the problem is.

[dougd]

I had a bad RJ45 connector on a board this year, it drove me crazy while hooking everything up. I just moved it to the end of the daisy chain and I will fix it after the season is over.

[1nate1]

Thanks, that's a great idea! one more question, could I use the phone line from 2 to 3 if one of the cat 5 jacks is bad? Or, I guess I could move it to 05 right?

[jimswinder]

Also. somewhere on the right hand side I believe is an option to tell it how many units to look for...if it is set at 2, it won't look for any more than that...so set it to MORE units than you have...

[Max-Paul]

jimswinder wrote:

Also. somewhere on the right hand side I believe is an option to tell it how many units to look for...if it is set at 2, it won't look for any more than that...so set it to MORE units than you have...

Thats kind of misleading Jim.
The number in the max units is actually the max address it will scan. So you could have just two units and they would be say addressed 01 and 0C. and you have max set to say 07. I still would never see the 0C controller. Remember the address numbers are addressing the controllers in Hexidecimal or 16. Which for some of you who are not familiar with Hexidecimal its like this. 00-09, then it uses 0A-0F, which represents 0-15 decimal. then it is 10-1F to represent 16 - 31, and 32 decimal is 20 in hexidecimal. This goes all of the way up to FF which represents 255 in decimal. All though I believe LOR only goes up to EF, with F0-FF reserved by LOR for what ever.

[rstately]

He only has 5, so he won't have the hexidecimal problem, but maybe a bad cable?

I know he checked them, but still.

[1nate1]

Ok, checked everything last night, it turns out I have a bad cat 5 port.. I hooked 1,3,4 and 5 up and the refresh process found all 4 so I change 02 to 05 and it found all 5 with no problems.. The lights were working great! One more question, is repairing the cat 5 port a simple process? Thanks for all your help! Nathan..

[Bob VandenBoom]

1. Check RJ45 connector for bad solder joints, bent contacts, or contamination on contacts.

2. Check solder joints on U2 - 28 pin IC right next to connectors.

3. Carefully remove U2 from socket and re-seat in socket.

4. Swap U2 (microcontroller) with a microcontroller from a known good unit. If this fixes the problem then the microcontroller has an issue. Try updating the firmware for the controller.

If none of these things fix the problem, call LOR tech support.

[1nate1]

Thanks Bob! At least I can make it through this christmas...

Nate