Phantom signals to controller

[snyder.cms]

I do believe I am truly experiencing the learning curve associated with starting this little hobby...but learning a ton.

I am running into a strange issue that I am looking for feedback on. Here goes:

Problem: I download a sequence and change it. I save it. I load it and run it, and the changes do not take effect....but they are properly represented (sometimes) in the S2 grid.

Detail:

I downloaded an S2 sequence for my Halloween display. It was written for the same number of channels I have, but with a very different setup. So, I ran it and made a note of the changes I needed to make to have the sequence look good with my setup. I then used the sequence editor to make the changes to one of the channels. I saved the changes. The original author clearly intended for that channel to be a little pumpkin flashing to a beat...in my case, that channel is my lightning floods and strobes...those things flashing with each beat kills the senses....so I just set them to off in the sequence.


I ran the show (enabled the schedule) and it played the original sequence...not the one I edited and saved. So I assumed that the scheduler pre-loads the show (so that changes I make to the sequence wont be reflected in the show until I edit the show), I completely delete that sequence from the show and then reload the edited sequence I just saved. I run the show again, and it is STILL playing the original sequence...

So, I re-open the sequence and my changes are reflected in the saved sequence (at least on the grid) yet when I play the sequence, the lights are doing the original stuff...I can sit there and watch the screen and look out the window and see lights doing fades and coming on when there is no fade or on for that channel at that time....but it was where the original file wanted it to fade/on.

At this point I just made sure that the problem channels were signaled to stay off (their old pattern was just annoying). I then saved the file under a whole new file name. I load it into the show builder and save it into my show....I then start the scheduler and enable the show and it is still the OLD sequence (but has the new file name).

The only thing that makes sense is that when I make changes to channel effects, the old effects are staying there in the background and overriding my new commands.

Just to make sure it was not a channel messing up on the board, I physically changed the channel the light was plugged into to a known-good channel and updated the sequence so that the info was sent to the new channel (just opened the channel in sequence editor and changed the channel ID)....it did send the content to the new channel...but sent the OLD content (content that is not visible on the grid). So, the problem appears to be the software, not the hardware.

Even if I highlight that whole channel with the "off" button so that the whole thing is set to off, it still lights to the old commands.
I did try just killing the lights by changing the controller that channel is associated with to a controller I dont have...(so switched from controller #3 that is outside, to controller #4 that doesn't exist). That shuts off the channel....but that just kills the channel, not fix the problem. But that is the ONLY way I can get that channel to quit doing the annoying stuff it is doing.

Confused yet? Because I am. I need to check again to see if my changes are even present when I re-open the file because at this point I have tried to fix it so many times I cant quite recall if it was there or not.

One thing that I think I may have done that may be causing some problems is that once I loaded the sequence, I changed the channel and then made changes to the commands or that channel...and then changed the channel again. However, I would think that the new commands would follow the channel as the channel number is changed...right?

Another problem that may or may not be related is that my controller appears to freak out mid-show. What I mean is that I have an animation sequence (no sound) that runs for a few minutes between each music sequence. That animation just makes my pumpkins flicker and other lights twinkle as filler. However, when a sequence starts, rather than run with the sequence (where the pumpkins should now light with singing to the music) all the pumpkins do it continue to flicker as if the last animation never stopped sending commands despite the fact that the show had moved on. Related?

Thanks for any suggestions you can provide.

[snyder.cms]

By the way, sorry for the long posts....just trying to give as much detail as possible so that you folks can get a real sense of what is going on.

Thanks

[-klb-]

The most likely cause is that you have more than one channel in the sequence editor set to the same hardware channel.

[-klb-]

To help narrow it down, you can run the LOR verifier. For most people, especially reusing others sequences, you will get a lot of errors/warnings. But look for any about duplicate channel configuration..

The LOR verifier only checks sequences that are in your current scheduled shows, on the computer you are testing.

[snyder.cms]

OK, checked that and we are fine. There are no duplicate channels.

I decided to sit down and try and narrow down what is happening.

I have confirmed that once I change a sequence and save it, it re-opens with my changes intact. When I play the sequence from the sequence editor, everything runs just as it should.

When I run the show that has that sequence in it, I get the OLD sequence despite the fact that I have 1) removed the old sequence 2) changed the name of the new sequence 3) added the new sequence (with the new name).

For those that know the software... Does the scheduling program grab the sequence from the saved files each time it runs the sequence in a show? Or, when you create a new show does it grab all the files at the time and make them all one file?

Tomorrow I am going to try starting over from scratch with the show editor and scheduling. I will delete the current show and start over again.

Quick question...I cant seem to just remove a show completely from the schedule in a quick way. I have to click on each show run (every 30 minutes) for the whole week, select delete, and then click to confirm...one by one until they are all gone. Is there a quicker way to do this?

Thanks!

[-klb-]

Have you disabled, and then enabled the show player?

The control panel reads all the files at the start of a show, or their first use, (depending on the precache setting) and does not load them again until it is disabled, and enabled fresh.

First pass, I suspected you had probably done that with all the other steps, but if you are clean, with no duplications, the disable shows, enable shows step is the next one I would suggest confirming...

[snyder.cms]

Yep, disabled and then enabled shows....still plays the old sequence. Closed everything and restarted...no change, restarted the computer, no change. Unplugged the controller and then restarted the computer (followed by restarting the controller) and still no change..

The only thing I can think of, but have no way to check or confirm is that the original sequence is sitting in a cache or something..

Will try more steps tomorrow.

Thanks for your help.

-C

[Guest wbottomley]

Did you rename the new sequence to something else or the same name?

[snyder.cms]

Completely new name. However, I am wondering if it is just a bad idea to make a sequence and then load it into a show before it is completely done. Perhaps I have some setting that wont update the show that is loaded into the sequence.

I am going to completely delete the show, make sure I have no changes to make to any sequence (and make sure that they run properly when run from the sequence editor), and then create a brand new show (with a completely different name) out of them. I will report back on what happens.

Thanks!

[Santas Helper]

Did you delete the old sequence in the show builder/editor and re-input an save the new sequence in the show builder/editor? You might have to do the same for the show scheduler (remove it and reschedule it) but can't remember from my last experience of changing shows.

[-klb-]

I think I just caught one item..

You have an animation sequence that is supposed to run in sequence with the musical sequences, correct? If so, it must be in the musical sequences tab of the show builder, not the animation sequences tab. The animation sequences play in parallel with the musical sequences. But, if you have the musical sequences tab open, you won't see your anmiation sequences as an option to add, unless in open file dialog, you go down, and change which types of files to show, each time you go to add an animation sequence in the musical tab.

If you are still having an issue, the next thing to check is the exact paths in use. If you bring up status, from the control panel, and look at the logs, make a very carefull note of the exact path and file name it is using for each sequence, and make sure that is exactly the path in use. For example, on one machine, it plays from the admin user folder, but I can only get the files to transfer across the network into the all users folder. So I have to copy them across.

As for needing a new name, 4 years of experience says you don't. I actually edit my files saving under a new revision number in the name, either about every half hour, or any time I make a major change that I think about. Then, I copy it to the show computer, and edit it in the sequence editor to link up the right audio file. (I sequence against a .wav, and use a .mp3 on the show computer) Then I save it against a fixed name for that sequence on the show computer, saving right over the version currently in use. Then, when I stop/start the show in the controll pannel, it picks it right up, no editing the show, no extra steps needed.

[Dave Batzdorf]

I would delete the file for the show - NOT the sequence. I generally start fresh every year this was. Not at home at the moment so i cant say what the exact name is. Will either have to wait til I get home or someone else can chime in with the file name.

[cmoore60]

There is also the verifier tool that will verify all the sequences, show files and schedule with in the LOR path. When i say LOR path that is where the files are saved based on the first time you ran LOR SE and told it where to save the files.

Chuck

[snyder.cms]

OK. Here is what I learned. Once I load a sequence into the show builder, any edits to that sequence I do after that will not be reflected in the show.

Once I delete the show and then create a new one with updated sequences all is well. Lesson learned.

Thanks for your help!

- C

[Santas Helper]

snyder.cms wrote:

OK. Here is what I learned. Once I load a sequence into the show builder, any edits to that sequence I do after that will not be reflected in the show.

Once I delete the show and then create a new one with updated sequences all is well. Lesson learned.

Thanks for your help!

- C

Hence my suggestion in post #10.

Glad you got it going.