ace_master Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Today, another member of the household asked me why I had a show going in the middle of the day (I was busy, they knew I wasn't working on the lights at the time). I went to look an there was nothing going on outside... didn't know what to think. Then I was working outside a couple hours later and I saw some of my channels go on shimmer mode... I had my iPhone in my pocket and immediately logged onto my computer (iTeleport) and checked to see if something was turning the lights on... Nothing, shows were disabled, no Light-o-rama programs open. no visible reason for anything to turn on at all. Now I'm sitting inside my house and suddenly my icicle lights started shimmering, while everything was still disabled on the PC. I disconnected the USB connector from the computer in hopes it might prevent a strange midnight animation show... and I'm left wondering how often this has been happening?!This is happening on random channels, and not a whole controller at once. I know it isn't a specific controller issue because I saw it on both a PC controller, as well as a Showtime controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace_master Posted November 11, 2011 Author Share Posted November 11, 2011 Update:I was just laying in bed and my 12v controller turned on some of my strip lights! The network isn't even hooked up to my computer right now?! Some kind of ghost signals being sent out to my controllers?I'm using Cat6 cables all around, and the controllers are covered from any possibility of rain getting near them.Anyone know what's up with my network? my show played fine 2 days ago when I tested out a new xmas sequence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pest Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Sounds like you might be getting some RF interference from some where. D you ELL's in your setup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale W Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 small amounts of stray voltage passing through to LEDs?mine will burn as long as power is supplied to the controllers at about 5% intensity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace_master Posted November 12, 2011 Author Share Posted November 12, 2011 There are no ELLs in my setup, and on the PC controller that the lights came on: I have resistors(snubbers) installed on the board, so I would assume they would eat up any small traces of voltage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Go to the HU and delete all standalone sequences in the controllers. That could be the cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallleyes Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 When i was putting power to my controllers this year the same thing happened to me.My mega trees started shimmering as well as lights all over.I had ran a new ethernet cable in my basement going outside.When doing this i found and hooked into an old cable that was going up through the ceiling.Quess what.The cable i spliced into was still hooked up to my router.Ihad hooked it up a month earlier and didnt realize it was still connected to the internet.Thankfully it did no damage to the controllers as my show works just fine.Had me shaking my head untill i went inside to the computer and realized it was hooked up to the net. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grump010 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 I had the same problem my first year, I inadvertently bundled a couple of the Cat5 data cables in with a few AC power cables. This configuration is just asking for problems and I had shimmering mini trees at all hours off the day and night, I re-bundled the cabling and made sure all cat5 were separated from the power cables and the gremlins disappeared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Belcher Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Got your QR code. Very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Grump is smart, Grump is wise. I have been having this argument with others that think I am crazy. DO NOT RUN YOUR POWER CABLES AND COMM CABLES NEXT TO EACH OTHER. must be separated by at least 12".Dale, it appears you must have gotten your hot and neutral reversed to the controller(s) Let me ask you this. Does this happen only on LED strings. Does it happen to all LED strings on one or more controllers?I did this my first year. At first I thought I needed snubbers, so I added some. Then the problem got worse after a good rain. I was able to add 1 n 1 and got 2. Reversed the power leads to that controller and all was good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 The LOR controllers use an RS485 signalling standard that is widely used in industry, and very reliable. If you follow the standard, you terminate each end of the cable (ie the first and last controllers) with a 120 ohm resistor across the data pair. This reduces inteference with parallel power cables. I know that LOR says these resistors are not necessary, but if you are having communication issues, for the cost of a couple of small resistors - they only need to be a third of a watt, it could be worth a try.Regards,Alan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Actually Alan if you where to follow the standards it would be the last controller and out of the adapter. You want to go to the very ends of the daisy chain. So this would not be the first controller, but the adapter. And I bet you could get by with a 1/8 watt resistor. Not to many 1/3 watt resistors that I know of on the market.But I regress. There have been a few that have reported this to solve their problem. But then too this might all been not needed if they just kept the AC lines, both the lines feeding the controllers and the lines going out to the lights. I rather keep the noise off of the lines than to try to kill the noise once it has been introduce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Another possible contributor is CFL lamps on the same circuit as the cables bundled with the cat5/6 cable. All the power feeds I use are dedicated, in part to avoid any CFL noise feeding into the power cables, to cross feed into the data cables.I had a few CFL blacklights for halloween in 2007, and 2008. Even with the efforts I made to keep them from interfering with the show in 2008, putting them on their own controller, that controller on its own circuit,etc, having the data cables a few inches from the power cords for about 50 feet caused all sorts of com problems..Without the CFL, no com problems, even at times with 200 feet of cat5 laying in the middle of a a half dozen 12 gauge cords feeding the display. No issue seen there at all. But, it is better to keep it separated. You never know what noise will be backfeeding into your power cords. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace_master Posted November 12, 2011 Author Share Posted November 12, 2011 Thank you for all your replies. I did lay my cables closer together this year than I did last year with the intent of less clutter, so that might simply be the issue. I also have alot more CAT6 cables running around, because I am upping my controller count (should my order ever ship)... I guess every little bit of interference counts when you add more distance.I have no CFLs anywhere near my setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Max-Paul wrote:Actually Alan if you where to follow the standards it would be the last controller and out of the adapter. You want to go to the very ends of the daisy chain. So this would not be the first controller, but the adapter. Correct. I should have written "at the adaptor".And I bet you could get by with a 1/8 watt resistor. Not to many 1/3 watt resistors that I know of on the market. You can also build them into "RJ45" connectors, so they just plug in. (RJ45 in quotes, as I know that is not their proper name, although everyone seems to call them that!). . . There have been a few that have reported this to solve their problem. But then too this might all been not needed if they just kept the AC lines, both the lines feeding the controllers and the lines going out to the lights. I rather keep the noise off of the lines than to try to kill the noise once it has been introduce.I use RS485 quite a lot in high voltage substation environments, although I do use a screened cable. With the ends correctly terminated, the inteference pickup would seem to be minimal.Regards,Alan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Oh, we have a purist who only calls a 8P8C a RJ-45 if it is wired to RJ-45 spec. How many places know what you are asking for when you ask for 8P8C connectors?Would you be happier if we called TIA-568B spec cables RJ48C? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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