dharker Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Hello, I have been running a perfect show for about a week. Last night I noticed 2 of my green channels stayed on most the time on my mega tree. Even when I unplugged the lines and the controller and plug it back in they came back on.Today I ran the hardware utility and see I only see 4 of my 8 controllers 1-4 it sees. During the search for up to 10 controllers some channels on 7 and 8 do flicker but it says "found 4". The show still runs across all 8 controllers but many of the channels once turned on stay on and then 20 seconds or so late usually turn off. Some even shimmer etc on their own. Something is wrong with the communication or something. The lights blink on all controllers above 4 although I have watched controller 5 and 6 go steady for 10 seconds or so then they go back to blinking then 3 min later go steady then back blinking.I replaced the Cat6 cable from controller 4-5 and ran HW util adn still only sees 1-4. I disconnected 5 from 6 so only 1-5 to see if it would at least pickup 5 and no go.I'm not sure what to try to figure out the issue ? ?????????????????????Also a question- do they need to be wired in order- they are currently but If I was wondering if I went from 3-5 to bypass 4 and see if it saw 1,2,3,5,6,7,8 or something like that. I'm just not sure what to try next and the show looks like crap- Help Controllers are 1-6 older model with newest firmware 4.30 I think and 7-8 are new Gen3's. I do have a spare Gen3 I can build but just not sure that would help and would take considerable time swapping controller by controller ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 They can beconnected in any order.Make sure your cat-5s are in good order.Sounds like controller resets are in order. The attached doc is a good reference, first part covers resets. Attached files Kit_Troubleshooting_Guide.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dharker Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 Thanks Don, I'll try the resets and cross my fingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dharker Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 Don/anyone....From unit 1 I can see 2, 3 and 4 From 5 I can see 5,6,7,8 From 4 I can Only see 1 - all using the hardware utility.I replaced the Cat5/6 cable from 4-5 with 3 different cables and no difference. I Removed the only Jumper on J0 which was in the 2nd position, powered back on, red light flashed real fast for about 15 seconds then i powered off replaced the jumper and back on again- NO CHANGEControllers 3,4,5 are CTB16PC V2 all running 4.40 firmwareNow what ? I'm stuck and it's getting darker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Cherry Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 dharker wrote: Don/anyone....From unit 1 I can see 2, 3 and 4 From 5 I can see 5,6,7,8 From 4 I can Only see 1 - all using the hardware utility.I replaced the Cat5/6 cable from 4-5 with 3 different cables and no difference. I Removed the only Jumper on J0 which was in the 2nd position, powered back on, red light flashed real fast for about 15 seconds then i powered off replaced the jumper and back on again- NO CHANGEControllers 3,4,5 are CTB16PC V2 all running 4.40 firmwareNow what ? I'm stuck and it's getting darker On 4 & 5 can you see the controllers on both the Cat5 sockets? It might be the signal is not connected on one of the controllers sockets or a bad Cat5 socket, it should be a past through of the data from one socket to the other.Check the 8 wires inside the sockets they should be parallel to each other, look for dirt or corrosion also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dharker Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 Good question for some reason I thought of Only doing HW Utility on the first socket fo each which I assumed was the "IN" not really realizing they are both in/out...I can check- also frantically trying to build a new controller about 1/2 done....I'll let you know- thanks for the quick reply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmilkie Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Also, if you can, check each controller iduvidually ie; computer connected to one controller by itself, then start adding one controller at a time :ditto; sounds like a bad cable or socket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dharker Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 Thanks everyone and thanks for the comments- as many of you know this is sure frustrating especially with little kids faces haning out the car window !I but my last spare Gen3 controller and replaced controller #4- Instantly it fixed my "can't find 8 controller issue" I immediately found 8 controllers in LOR so i guess I need to contact LOR about next steps on that.However I still have a couple of issues unfortunatly. I had 2 channels on Controller 5 that did their own thing to their own beat for about 5-6 songs and then seemed to fix themselves. (yes I have turn off all lights at the end of each sequence. Once that was fixed i thought I was good as gold but then noticed that now that channel 96-107 (arches- 6 channels each) 3 arches are perfectb but the 4th starts on channel 96 and it seems now that controller 7 is the one having issues.Lights on two arches- some stay on until they are hit again, sometimes they don't go on so when I do a chase I see the first section go on and the other 4 stay off etc etc. Just about any random pattern you see but seems to reset once the next time the channel is hit in the song. I even get a few random same issues with channels 113-125 and still once in a while on channels 60-80. It's so odd...It is mixed of Gen 2 and Gen 3 but other than that it ran perfect for 7 nights and then bam...Am I resetting the controllers right- I power off, take off the jumper on J0 position 2, power on 15 seconds, power of and replace jumper and power on. It says it will blink 2x fast then off then 2 times fast etc but I only get nonstop fast blinks when the jumper is off.Anything else- I'm really getting stumped on what's happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dharker Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 For lack of any other suggestions I'm going to replace all the cat5e cables today- argh but open for any other suggestions ? ?Today I have it wired 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 but since I just learned the order does not matter I will probably rewire as 8,1,7,6,3,4,5,2- Just want to confirm this is fine ? ?They are a mix of Gen2 and Gen3 controllers. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBullard Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 controller wiring order does not matter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dharker Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 Thanks- I'll get to rewiring and hope for the best.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bisquit476 Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 What version of the software are you running? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 as for resetting the controllers. I see you have Gen2 and Gen3. What you are doing for Gen2 controllers is correct for resetting. But mind you I dont have a Gen3 myself. But I did read a post by a gent that says that your jumper is in a different position on those board. he stated that normal position is 4&5 and reset is 5&6. Please re-read the manual for the Gen3 boards to confirm this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dharker Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 3.1.2 Bisquet, and it was running perfect for 8 nights Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bisquit476 Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 Any changes in your weather? (rain, snow, etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dharker Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 Hey, I need to do a little more testing with the spare parts to figure this out- but replacing Controller 4 certaintly fixed 60% of the problems and then replacing ALL the CAT5 cables to the 8 controllers for the second time FIXED EVERYTHING.... At least for now... tonights show seems to have ran perfectly.Thanks you 5 or so guys for all the help and suggestions.. I was just going nuts seeing cars out front watching what I thought was a crappy show.....Looks like I neet to troubleshoot the old controller 4 to see if I need to send it back to LOR to get fixed but also looks like 1/2 of the problem was one of the Cat5 cables that after 8 nights of behaving must have crapped out on me.Again- thanks all !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bisquit476 Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 Did you look at your cables for signs of critter munching? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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