Tim Fischer Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 I was watching the show tonight and noticed that in some sequences, some of my long fades (fading down over 2-3 seconds or more) were looking really choppy on my Merry Christmas sign - instead of fading to black, it was almost like it was attempting to do a fading twinkle or something. It really isn't the effect I intended.I haven't noticed this before, but I'm not sure when it started happening. The particular controller is a CTB-16PC. Not sure how recent the firmware is, but I usually take an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to FW updates and these are sequences that have worked great in the past - only change for this year was converting to the latest software and adding in a few new items on different channels.Thoughts? If these were LED's, I'd think I'd need a snubber, but these are incandescents...-Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 Nobody has any idea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 How old is the firmware?My first suggestion would be to try upgrading one.. I upgraded about 40 PC series controllers last season. I did have the USB port lock up during one upgrade, and even though it had no valid firmware, the bootloader was still able install the new firmware when I started over. So I think it is lower risk than you might think.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 Tim,I would try a reset on the controller.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waxhaw Larry Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 I had the same issue on some incandesant lights last year. Before I took it all down I upgraded the firmware and tried the sequence again... nice smooth fades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted December 14, 2010 Author Share Posted December 14, 2010 Thanks - it's brutally cold out there, but once it gets above zero I'll give this a try. Appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 Tim Fischer wrote: Thanks - it's brutally cold out there, but once it gets above zero I'll give this a try. Appreciate it!Also try re-drawing the offending fades in the sequence. I have seen a few cases where the sequence editor would "break" a fade into a bunch of small sections (based on the timing)... We could never get it to repeat so not sure how it happend and have not seen it lately but it would be an easy fix!Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 Tim Fischer wrote: Thanks - it's brutally cold out there, but once it gets above zero I'll give this a try. Appreciate it!I upgraded the firmware on several controllers from the show computer without removing them from the network. There were no problems with those or any of the other controllers on the network.You can't do that through an ELL, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 Finally did the firmware upgrade this afternoon. It's still misbehaving...Dan- I don't think it's a sequence issue, unless every single one of my sequences got corrupted in moving from last year's version to this year's... If I get a chance I'll try to isolate a bad portion of a sequence, redraw it, and see if it works.Barring that, could the cold affect this? It's been very cold all season. Is there a zero-cross detector circuit that might be marginal/bad solder joint/whatever?Thanks,-Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 I haven't tried a physical reset yet - does a FW upgrade do that automatically or is it worth trudging through the snow, hoping I don't drop the jumper in the snowbank, etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 Hi Tim,I see that behavior on some of my longer fades after it rains and we are running the next day. Since that rain happened last night, I have several decorations that have choppy fades and they were all right before the rain...It seems to go away as things dry out...Randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 Randy wrote: Hi Tim,I see that behavior on some of my longer fades after it rains and we are running the next day. Since that rain happened last night, I have several decorations that have choppy fades and they were all right before the rain...It seems to go away as things dry out...RandyInteresting. I might have to open up that box after all and see if there's anything inside.Thanks,-Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 A firware upgrade does not do a reset. I do not think that a reset will help but on a warmer day it is probably worth a try and will not hurt anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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