Mini Director Problem, maybe.

[James Shelby]

I'm playing with a new right out of the box mini director and there is no power light when plugged into the PC and when plugged into a controller it flickers a few times then it goes dark. I think I have built a show but when plugged into a controller nothing. I have read the book a hundred times and there is no clue on how to troubleshoot this problem.

[lightzilla]

James Shelby wrote:

I'm playing with a new right out of the box mini director and there is no power light when plugged into the PC and when plugged into a controller it flickers a few times then it goes dark. I think I have built a show but when plugged into a controller nothing. I have read the book a hundred times and there is no clue on how to troubleshoot this problem.

I take it that it does not come back on after it goes dark? It should go dark and then come back on in a few moments.

Are you sure the show downloaded onto the SD card? Also it might not like your SD card. The new firmware might take more SD cards but Lexar SD cards worked well in the old 1.0 firmware.

It does draw its power from the controller......even with the main controller off it should still draw power from another controller (mine does anyways).

[cmoore60]

lightzilla wrote:

It does draw its power from the controller......even with the main controller off it should still draw power from another controller (mine does anyways).

Although this is true that the DC is passed along the network cable as well as the signal. Distance does play a factor. If the next powered on controller is more than say about 10 feet. The voltage drop may be to great for the mini director to power.

There has been some discussion with powering ELLs from a controller and it has been highly recommended to keep the cable between the controller and the ELL as short as possible to minimize power loss.

Chuck

[James Shelby]

Well I have one ctb16d on my desk and I connected the mini director to it and it works fine. So the next thing is to take it to the display and reinstall it to see what happens. Thanks James

[Surfing4Dough]

I believe that the first connection has to be less than 50' from the director, but there may be other issues that contribute to the voltage drop. It is really easy to attach an external plug to the mini-director, which I did, since I put the director on a timer and that is how I start/stop the show. Works well. Directions are in the manual on how to attach the cord. I would think this would be a much more reliable approach.