Strange effect after turning off program

[morte615]

I work at Cedar Point doing maintenance on their Starlight Experience which utilizes Light-O-Rama as well as standard DMX dimming. Well lightning took out DC-MP3 Show Director and we had to take it out of the loop. After plugging a computer in to the system and using the USB-RJ45 W/ Booster adapter we got the show up and running.

But as we ended the show last night, we stopped the program and proceeded to shut down the rest of the lights, as we were returning we noticed that all the lights connected to LOR were on and blinking real fast (almost like a shimmer) We returned to the computer and unplugged the USB adapter but the lights continued to flash! Upon resetting the software (S2) they turned off, then a few boxes turned back on with the same effect!

Now there was no program running on the computer but these boxes still turned on, we are stumped as to what could cause it and had to turn off the power to the boxes at the breakers to make sure they would remain off.

So just curious as to what would cause the lights to stay on without a signal being sent to them from the computer. And BTW the director was completely unplugged and removed from the system, even the LOR box that it was attached to was removed.

[Don]

I've read this a few times, but I'm reading things here that don't add up (as it pertains to the hardware.)

1) "all the lights connected to LOR were on and blinking real fast (almost like a shimmer)" - This would have me thinking that there were Stand-Alone sequences loaded into a controller connected to the network. Why this doesn't add up? You should have noticed other problems when the show was running with the RS485B since the computer would be sending out commands as well.

2) "Resetting the S2 Software" - What was involved with this? Did you close the program, and re-enable shows? (Or were you running from the Sequence Editor because of the reconfig due to the lighting?) If you reset the software and some lights came back on then it might be a software problem. Why? If you have any shows enabled (that maybe you didn't know about?) when the software was reset, the lights would come on.

3) "they turned off, then a few boxes turned back on with the same effect!" -- This would have me thinking that the controllers with lights on had some lighting damage as well, and the triacs on the controllers were fried. Of course, if this were the case, then "all" the lights wouldn't be on, and resetting the software wouldn't have had an effect.

So, the questions I have would be:
1) You state it was "All" and then "Some" -- Was it really "All" and "Some" or did the words not get typed out right? The answer here would help focus the troubleshooting.

2) Need to be 110% there isn't a standalone sequence loaded onto one of these controllers.

3) If possible, remove the network cables from a controller and power it on. If some/all the channels react then either it has a standalone sequence on it, or the triacs are damaged. Repeat the process on a second controller to verify no standalone.

4) When you were running from the RS485B, were you using the Sequence Editor, or did you build shows and schedule them to run. If you scheduled them to run, did you schedule them at certain times, or just to run all the time?

[Guest guest]

Re question 2..was it a software reset, as in rebooting the show computer and LOR software, or a hardware reset of the controller(s)...?

Are all of your cat-5 cables known to still be 100% intact and not compromised?

[morte615]

sorry double post, what I get for using my phone to type a response

[morte615]

Sorry for the weird formatting of the reply but I am on my cell phone typing :-)
1. There "should" not be any standalone programs on the boards, when we were troubleshooting, we had boxes that were completly out of the network but did not see anything strange.
The way the system is setup is that the LOR director is triggered from a DMX relay at the correct time code, then the program on the director is run. Due to the lignting we have taken the box that contains the director out of the loop (more on that later)

2. A hard reset of the program was done, closing and reopening. I don't remember if we reset the computer or not. We unplugged the cables from the usb and we still had the problem. But I think that if a sequence is already on then it will still keep running when disconected from computer, correct?

3. Not sure about the triacs, we know we have ghosting triacs, wich will be replaced tonight. When the lights come on though its not just one chanel but all 16 for that box, and multiple boxes.

4. When we first noticed the problem ALL the LOR boxes were doing it, with all channels, but ater resetting the software only SOME (maybe 4 or 5) boxes were doing it but still every chanel.

5. Not sure if we were using the sequence editor or what, our lead tech set that up will have to find out tonight.

Also with the director box (which is a 16 channel box with the director included) we first just dissconnected the director by pulling the phone cord but after we hooked up the computer, half the chain would not work. By tracing the route back we completly removed the entire box (all 16 channels) and everything started working again; to the computer. So something in that box is breaking the comunication throughout the rest of the chain. We have not removed the box yet, that happens tonight, but wondering if something else happened with the lightning.

Thanks for your response. We have it working but would really like to know what's going on here :-)

[morte615]

And one other thing, right before leaving we cut the power to all the boxes and turned it back oln and right away the same boxes turned on. During this time the computer was on but no sequences were running.
After that we just cut the power and left for the night lol

[Guest guest]

Wouldn't hurt to do a hardware reset of the controllers.

power off unit, reset unit ID to 00, power unit back up, give it a minute, then power back down, and reset your unit IDs back to original setting.

May not help all issues...but more times than not, it clears some wacky behavior..especially in a situation like yours. And definitely worth doing before you replace parts or controllers.

And I still remain wary of any cat 5 cables after taking a lightning hit as you describe it. Makes sense you use a new cable, and test each box individually after reset.

[Guest guest]

P.S. i remember riding the Gemini, and the Corkscrew, among others, at Cedar Point, in the late 70s...definitely one very cool amusement park...:cool:

[morte615]

Will recommend the hardware reset, but doubt that we could replace the cat 5. Not only the expense but since most of it is buried (albiet in conduit) would make it more difficult. We have tested the cat5 using a network tester and its coming up fine.

And yeah been visiting th park for years and been working here seasonally since 2005. Currently work as astage tech for the ice show and a few times a week do maintece on the starlight experience. :-)

[JBullard]

morte615 wrote:

Will recommend the hardware reset, but doubt that we could replace the cat 5. Not only the expense but since most of it is buried (albiet in conduit) would make it more difficult. We have tested the cat5 using a network tester and its coming up fine.

:-)

Network testers are great, but ........ Just last week had a nearby lighting strike. Took out my cable modem. Replaced it, then found out the Cat5 from the modem to the router had to be replaced also. The network tester still showed the cable as good, but nothing would work until I replaced the "tested as good cable".

[morte615]

Quick update everyone. Last night we did a hard reset of most of the 38 LOR boxes we have. Got through about 15 of them when we noticed that 2 of our 8 channel boxes were causing all the problems, even after the hard reset. So we removed those boxes and the rest of the LOR display started working again!

We also removed the fried LOR box with the Director and replaced it with another 16 channel box. So the display is currently up and running and we are just waiting on the new Director to arrive (it has already shipped!)

Also for those interested we have 3 separate networks running for this display. We use DMX to control the majority of the lights (4 universes!), LOR for the summer section where we needed lots of channels quickly without adding more DMX channels, and a standalone controller (sorry don't know what brand) for our RGB displays (3 of them!)

Thanks for the help in troubleshooting our problem and it's great to know that this group is here when needed!

[tsrail]

By the way - took the family to Cedar Point a couple weeks ago.

The light show was great! Very well done!!!



It'll probably cause me to spend another couple grand on stuff for my Halloween light show -- so THANKS for that!

The RGB lights were very cool... Any details on brand/controllers?

Tom

[morte615]

LOL thanks I know that working here has made me want to spend a couple grand to improve my own shows!

I don't have the specific brands or controllers in mind, but next time I am on the trail I will take a look. Right now we are getting the park flipped over for Halloweekends, along with the Frontier Trail being re-themed to a SteamPunk zone. So a lot of the effects that we used from previous years will be redone!