George Cotton Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Tonight I had an odd occurance with my DC-MP3 controller, but for the last couple of nights I have been tweaking a new intro to my Halloween show and was able to update the sequence, load it onto the SD card and when inserted in the DC-MP3, it played immediately (as it should have).Tonight, I turned on the system (as I had done last night) and NOTHING. All controllers red LED's just started flashing. I removed the SD card and the red LED on the DC-MP3 started flashing as it should. When I inserted the SD card, the DC-MP3 seemed to recognize it since the red LED stopped flashing, but it never took control and started playing the file and the other controllers red LED's continued to flash.I even moved the rotary switch around to make sure that it had not lost connection to the "A" position and repowered the unit. Finally, after reloading the sequence several times onto the SD card, it finally recognized it and started to play and control the lights. Now, no matter what I do, how I start the units, everything WORKS!!!Needless to say, I was "spooked" by this with so few days left before Halloween. Has this happened to anybody else and if so, what might be the cause? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Cotton Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 Now it's a few days later and again my DC-MP3 won't start the show after the SD card is updated.The show has started with the same SD card for the past few days as scheduled. But tonight, I added a couple elements, changed the intro and loaded it onto the SD card.I powered down the system and changed SD Cards as a precaution. And as before, the unit will not start the show. Green light is on till I remove the SD card and then the Red light comes on. When I insert the SD card the Red light goes off, so I know it's recognizing the card, but it just won't cause the other controllers Red lights to go on steady and start to play.There is no time frame as it's started with a timer. The SE software is still v2.9.4. Last year I could change the SD card even when powered up and the new SD card sequence would start immediately.The DC-MP3 firmware was updated on 12/13/2010 to v4.20 and it operated just fine during Christmas even with hot-swap SD card changes many times as I refined the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 I think there was a bug with version 4.20. Roll back to the previous version to see if it continues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Cotton Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 One step ahead of you. Just tried 4.10 and same thing. Even converted one song to SE v3.0.2, which I'm not currently using but on another computer to play with until after holidays. Used the HU that came with v3.0.2 to load the SD card and still same thing. Tried my netbook using v2.9.4 as well. It just won't start.I'm now back to v4.20 on DC-MP3. I have a flashing Red and steady Green when no SD card is inserted. Push in the SD card and the Red goes out and the Green stays on. No other lights are on, no Yellow flash and controllers continue to flash Red.I even scheduled a time, a few minutes ahead of current, to start a show and programmed the SD card (the MP3 does have the correct date/time). No flashing Yellow and no show start even 5 minutes after the schedule I put on SD card.Rechecked the rotary swith to make sure it was in "A" position. Even tried "1" just to make sure. Nothing. Reformated the SD card to FAT32 and tried it. Nothing. Reformated to FAT. Nothing.Wish I had another DC-MP3 to check it with, but I don't think there is another one in town. It knows the card is inserted, but just can't read it. I have several cards; 256, 512 and 1Gb and all have the same problem.What am I overlooking? Till last week, everything just worked as expected. I'm afraid I have a bad DC-MP3. Only solution may be to run the show off my netbook. Inconvient, but would work as I'll be here through Halloween. But then I'm leaving for Tahiti and New Zeland a couple weeks later and returning just a couple days before I light up for Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallleyes Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 If i remember correctly i had this same issue last year.I chnged the brand of the sd card and that fixed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 wallleyes wrote:If i remember correctly i had this same issue last year.I chnged the brand of the sd card and that fixed it.Thank you. I was leaning on changing cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bisquit476 Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 I always use PNY, and have never had a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Cotton Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 Thanks guys, I knew someone would come through with a solution.I had a pile of SD cards of all different vendors. I dug through them this morning and found a couple of 1Gb and 2Gb cards from SanDisk and Lexar and BOTH worked. I guess it was just a fluke that the off brand worked several days and then didn't.I was using smaller 512Mb cards as my shows do not require that much space and they were some off brand. Once I used the Lexar and SanDisk cards everything seems to be working. The Yellow is flashing now, indicating the show is scheduled to run. What a relief.I've put a TapeWriter note on the SD card slot to use Lexar or SanDisk only in the future. One tends to forget from year to year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallleyes Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 I dug out my show cards and here`s what works in mine.Kingston512,lexar 512,integral 512,sandisk 512 & sandisk 2gb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallleyes Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 George Cotton wrote: I guess it was just a fluke that the off brand worked several days and then didn't.I had the exact same thing last year.Some other brands of sd cards worked on and off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Cotton Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 Lesson RE-learned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts