I need bigtime help!

[Guest guest]

Well I am working on a big display (well big for me) at the park. They are counting on my big time and looks like I may let them down. I am trying to use wireless connectors to go from inside a building to the display about 500 feet from the inside. I have the voltage booster adaptor that plugs into the USB on the computer and then one of the wireless connectors is suppose to attach to that. I set up the adaptor on the computer here at the house before I brought it to the park. It located it, I hooked up a controller to it and it located it so I figured well that is easy enough. So I bring the computer to the park, hook it all up. I plug in a wireless controller to the adaptor and go outside and hook up the other one. Nothing is happening. The show music is playing so I know the show is on. So I tried to figure it out. I used the hardware utility that came on a disk with the adaptor and according to the wireless book they should all have a default setting already there. Nope. The whole thing is blank. So I tried to click it off the frequency,etc and save it. No way to save it. I hit the update configuration button and did nothing. I click on set default and it can't find the controllers. I close out the hardware utility and open it back up and all the settings are blank again. And also it has set the comp port back to 1 when at the house it set it to 3. Maybe I need to just hook the controller back up to it and reset it to 3? I tried to manually do it but it just goes back to com1. So in summary, wireless controllers are doing nothing and I can't figure it out. Do I need to remove the hardware utility that came with the program so only the one with the disk is on the computer? Also it says not to use data cables. My wireless controller set only came with one green cable. I used that one for the inside controller and had to use a regular 10 ft cat5 cable that Dan sells for the other one but I think that was a no no according to the handbook. Do I have the controllers not set up right physically? I stuck one up on the wall on top of a picture frame and the other I kept moving around but it will be zip tied to a wireframe tree. Lost and frustrated in Irmo,SC

[Guest guest]

Well I see what a fouth my problem is. His website says you get two cat5 patch cables and I only got one.

[Guest guest]

Hey Brad,

Let me know how it goes. I'm thinking about the wireless thing myself.

Tom

[Guest guest]

Stop the Hardware Utility. Attach the USB485B to the computer.

You said the USB485B installed and worked at the house (I'm assuming you mean through the Hardware Utility (HWU)) and that it installed as COM3. You can verify this by clicking My Computer -> View system information -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> click the "+" Ports (COM & LPT) ==> you should see "USB Serial Port (COM3)"

Start the Sequence Editor, click Edit -> Preferences -> Network Preferences. You will see the Network Preferences window. In the Dasher section, use the drop-down menu to select "(None)," do the same in the X10 section. Use the drop-down menu in the Light-O-Rama section to set the Light-O-Rama Network to Comm3.

Plug the ELL into the USB485B with a 10' or less Cat5 cable. LED1 should be pulsing at about once/second.

Start the Hardware Utility. Use the Manual Select to select Comm3. Say OK to the pop-up boxes. The little ELL icon should appear on the lower right of the window and radio waves should be emanating from it. LED2 on the ELL should be flashing, but dim -- this is the heartbeat from the Hardware Utility being transmitted.

Click the "LOR RF" tab, the Current Device Parameters should fill in and the radio buttons should be set to Frequency 16, Speed 57600 and Power level 15. [Verify that you have "ver=2.8" in the Parameters window. If not, you need to get it from the LOR support page.] Use the radio buttons to set this configuration if it is different and click the Update Configuration button.

Unplug that ELL and plug in the other ELL. Check its configuration as in the above paragraphs. Be sure that both ELLs have the same configuration.

At this point you should be able to connect the ELL that's not connected to the computer to the controller. Its LED1 should flash once/second. LED2 should also be flashing more quickly, but dim. (Hardware Utility still running with the other ELL)

Stop the Hardware Utility and start the Sequence Editor, make sure Control Lights is checked inthe play menu. Open a musical sequence and play it. If these are pre-made LOR sequences, the channels will already be configured for LOR controllers. If they are not, you may have to click the Channel butttons and Change the channel settings.

Let me know how far you get.

[Guest guest]

wow.. Thanks John! I won't get out there until tomorrow afternoon but I will give all that a try.

[Guest guest]

Brad Caudill wrote:

wow.. Thanks John! I won't get out there until tomorrow afternoon but I will give all that a try.

Forgot: Remember to stop the Sequence Editor after setting the comm ports. Only one LOR program must be running at a time that references the comm port.

Good luck.

[Guest guest]

Well here is what happened

1) John is a miracle worker. I had a tad bit of difficulty but once I had the updated hardware utility it worked like a charm.

2) For some reason a few songs when I say all fade up or down or all come on there is one part of one controller that does not do this. I had the same problem with that controller last year when I did this in standalone mode. Any idea what that issue is?

3) A FM receiver can not handle 16 speakers attached to it. I tried out two of them and it power overloaded. I was using those small Dual speakers.

4) After messing with number 3 the breaker tripped and I could not figure out how to reset it so I will be out there tomorrow.

5) I still can't get a clear FM signal more than a couple hundred feet. I was hoping for about 500 feet or so radius to make the powers at be happy. That range would cover the park boundaries. I am using a FM25B with TM100 antenna. I may hook up my FM100 tomorrow and see what that does.







Dual Outdoor Speakers (LU43PB)
DUL LU43PB



• 3-way design
• 40mm mid-range drivers
• 4" woofers


• 25mm piezo tweeters
• 100 watts peak power
• Weather resistant

hmm.. 100 W peak power.. I guess that might be why a power overload.. I had 1600W hooked to it!

[Guest guest]

Brad Caudill wrote:

3) A FM receiver can not handle 16 speakers attached to it. I tried out two of them and it power overloaded. I was using those small Dual speakers.

Brad, do you have the speakers wired in series and parallel to keep the speaker impedance as rated. With that many speakers you have to alternate the speaker wiring. Your last speaker will have to be wire parallel. The one before it in series, the one before it, parallel, before it, series....and so on.

I have 10 speakers wired to my receiver and it is working just fine.

[Guest guest]

I just hooked + to + etc all the way down. I did one side of 8 speakers as the right side and one side as the left side. I am brain dead right now from this week. How exactly do I do what you said.

[Guest guest]

I located this online.. A little bit confusing but I think I understand. The end set is wired up + to + and - to - and then next set I bypass it sorta and go negative to +.

[Guest guest]

Three groups of 2 or 3 speakers in series may work as drawn below:



Pairs 7 & 8 will have a little more output than 1-6. If you had a 9th pair in line with 7 & 8 they would be balanced almost perfect.



Impedance 1-3 in series 24 Ohm, 4-6 24 Ohms, 7 & 8 16 Ohms

Impedance Total = 6.857 Ohms





+ AMP AMP –

| |

|(+Spk1-) ---- (+Spr2-) ----- (+Spr3-)|

| |

| |

|(+Spk4-) ---- (+Spr5-) ----- (+Spr6-)|

| |

| |

|(+Spk7-) ------------------- (+Spr8-)|

| |









This would have an impedance of 1 Ohm (with 8 Ohm speakers).



+ AMP AMP –

| |

|--(+Spk1-)---|

| |

|--(+Spr2-)---|

| |

|--(+Spr3-)---|

| |

|--(+Spk4-)---|

| |

|--(+Spk5-)---|

| |

|--(+Spr6-)---|

| |

|--(+Spr7-)---|

| |

|--(+Spk8-)---|





Charlie

[Guest guest]

That is what I did in your second diagram. I guess it works but puts a big strain on the receiver.

[Guest guest]

Brad Caudill wrote:

That is what I did in your second diagram. I guess it works but puts a big strain on the receiver.

Brad:


If you did the second wiring, you put a one ohm load on a 8 ohm (or possibly 4 ohm) output. It will not like that. You want to try to match the output load impedance as close as possible to the amplifier output. The series / parallel wiring in the first setup is the right way, but the two speakers in one line will be louder than the other 6 as the voltage divides 3 ways in the 3 speaker path as compared to the two speaker path.

Mike

[Guest guest]

That is fine.. The louder the better. I was told they want it loud.

[Guest guest]

phew what a day. I wired up the speakers and got that part working and was able to get the breakers untripped. Then my wireless receiver was not working. It was not receiving communication bits. I took it inside and hooked it up to the computer. The second led does it flashy thing and seems to be fine. I take it back outside and nothing. So I replace the one inside with the one outside and problem is fixed (for now). So that is all well. I let the program run and drive around the park and come back and the breaker has tripped again. I rerun cord and trips again. No power at all now. I got the park electrician to come over and he gave me attitude and I told him I have no idea how much power it is pulling as it does not stay on all the time. So he does his thing, I do mine and eventually we got it all up and running and it ran for an hour just fine. I did not touch a thing and just left it. I did accidentally unplug the computer when I went back inside to turn the shows off so I hope it did not screw anything up. I also hooked up the FM100 and it cleared up the signal some. The FM25B had bad bass problems and clear as day with FM100. Go figure. So as of now ready to go for the grand lighting on Monday night. Thanks to everyone for your help. I will post some pics of it all soon.

[Guest guest]

Alright here are a few pics..

Attached files

[Guest guest]

second picture

Attached files

[Guest guest]

Brad,

I noticed in your original post that you are going about 500' from inside a building with the ELLs. This is risky, line of site distance is up to 1000', but going through a building wall reduces that dramatically. You should put the ELL that is inside the building outside a window with a line of site to the receiver. The Cat5 cable from the USB485B to the ELL should be no more than 25', less if possible.

John

[Guest guest]

I said 500 ft but really I would say maybe 200 ft. The building is higher up than the display. I got a 10ft cable on the box attached to the computer and a 10 ft cord attached to the first LOR box. It worked like a charm today once I switched the boxes out. I am not sure why but the second LED was not lighting up at all so I switched them and it worked fine. I really could have just ran a cat5 cable from inside to outside. I still may have to if I have any more problems with the wireless part of it. There is only one wall the signal has to go through (outside wall). Also one odd thing. I tripped a breaker on the first two boxes so they lost power yet the last three boxes still were getting the signal and were working just fine. Really odd.

[Guest guest]

Brad Caudill wrote:

I said 500 ft but really I would say maybe 200 ft. The building is higher up than the display. I got a 10ft cable on the box attached to the computer and a 10 ft cord attached to the first LOR box. It worked like a charm today once I switched the boxes out. I am not sure why but the second LED was not lighting up at all so I switched them and it worked fine. I really could have just ran a cat5 cable from inside to outside. I still may have to if I have any more problems with the wireless part of it. There is only one wall the signal has to go through (outside wall). Also one odd thing. I tripped a breaker on the first two boxes so they lost power yet the last three boxes still were getting the signal and were working just fine. Really odd.

If switching the ELLs makes a difference, then something is probably wrong with one of them. They should really be at roughly the same height. The antennas are designed to broadcast in a plane.

All controllers put power on the Cat5, so a couple near the end would still power the ELL. An ELL used only for receive consumes only a third as much power and a transmitter, so it can have a longer Cat5 without problems.