Help - Unable to access one of my controllers

[Manti]

Hoping someone can't help out. Just upgraded to 48 channels this year from 16 last year. I am daisy chaining the controllers using cat-5e 1>>2>>3 but neither the HWU or the Sequence editor see #3 when daisy chained. I connect the PC to the controller #1 via phone line.

For troubleshooting I've tried using different cat-5e cables from #2 to #3 and cat-5e instead of phone line to controller #1. The only time I could see #3 was if I went directly from the RS-485 adapter to #3.

I'm hoping I'm making some obvious mistake that is easy to correct. Any help would be appreciated.

Also a couple questions popped into my mind as I was troubleshooting.

1. Does controller #1 have to be the first in the chain or could I go #2>>#3>>#1?
2. If you use separate networks, e.g. Regular and Aux A., does that mean you need two RS-485 adapters?

Thanks,

Mike A.

[Guest Don Gillespie]

Manti wrote:

Hoping someone can't help out. Just upgraded to 48 channels this year from 16 last year. I am daisy chaining the controllers using cat-5e 1>>2>>3 but neither the HWU or the Sequence editor see #3 when daisy chained. I connect the PC to the controller #1 via phone line. this concerns me

For troubleshooting I've tried using different cat-5e cables from #2 to #3 and cat-5e instead of phone line to controller #1. The only time I could see #3 was if I went directly from the RS-485 adapter to #3.

I'm hoping I'm making some obvious mistake that is easy to correct. Any help would be appreciated.

Also a couple questions popped into my mind as I was troubleshooting.

1. Does controller #1 have to be the first in the chain or could I go #2>>#3>>#1?
2. If you use separate networks, e.g. Regular and Aux A., does that mean you need two RS-485 adapters?

Thanks,

Mike A.

Mike you have the RS-485 adapter plugged into the computer right, next you have a cat5 cable running from the RS-485 to contoller 1 is this correct? from controller 1 you have a cat5 cable going to controller 2 and then from controller 2 a cat 5 to controller 3, is this right? have you IDed the contollers 1 thru 3 through the HWU if you haven't you must ID them before you can daisy chain them together let us know these answers then we will go from there

[Manti]

Don, thanks for the reply.

Earlier as I was going through the troubleshooting I used the console in the HWU to turn on the lights for each unit. I did it with #1 and #2 in daisy chain mode but had to wait until I direct connected to #3 before it would work in the console. I did try #3 while it was daisychained but no joy. This leads me to believe each controller is correctly identified but I'll go through and reset the Unit IDs tomorrow again.

Mike A.

[Manti]

I located the problem. It was indeed something obvious though probably only to those that have been around when the blue board controllers were for sale. I bought one used and forgot that the ID is set manually. I was able to set the ID via the HWU directly but everytime I would power it off and back on it would return to what the switch ID was set at on the controller. Having limited my HWU to show only 5 controllers, it never detected the unit since the switches were set for unit ID 24.

Mike A.

[JBullard]

That's why it is so important when asking for help with controllers to identify what kind you are using.

Yes, I have some blue boards, also