DC-MP3 starting to fail?

[Dave Pursel]

Is my DC-MP3 starting to fail? I've been running the DC-MP3 off of a 1602W for 3 years now. This year I'm starting to have problems with a. shows not ending at shutdown time b. shows starting up in the middle of the morning ie. 2 3 4am. It's not consistant as to when the above occurs. And just a couple of days ago when I looked at the status leds I could detect that all three were very faintly lit. After I did a power reset they resumed being off. It's running V4.x.x since the lights blink four times when powering up and I use SSB to build my sequences. I've used the HU to reset the clock on 3-4 occasions. Controllers stay powered up so MP3 is always powered up. Yellow led blinks normally when show is not scheduled to run. Any ideas I can follow up on and try to troubleshoot what is occuring. Oh one thing I have noticed that I'm puzzled on is that my sd card has two sets of "sequences?" on it. Is this normal coming out of the SSB build program? ANd something else interesting just hit me as I was writing this. I am using 2 new 2GB sd cards (formatted as Fat cards) this year, but the shows were starting and ending ok through halloween and the first week or so of Christmas.

[Guest wbottomley]

Have you reset the card?

[Dennis Cherry]

You can load up to 5 shows on the SD card. If you want to remove one the H/W Utility will delete the show number you select and rebuild that show number only.

If you did not create 2 shows then go ahead and delete all files from the SD card and start fresh again and see what happens.

Make sure you setup your show times again and maybe even do a clock update.

[Dave Pursel]

Thanks for the input guys. I have reset the card and I assume you mean using the reset button, a couple of different days. I have been loading only one show on the card and in fact I thought you could only load one show on a card using SSB. I have about 11 (just musical) sequences. I have the selector switch set to the "A" position. One of those sequences has a media file that is still encoded at 192kbs but it seems to be running without problems. I have formatted the card (fat) a couple of different times as well as deleted the shows from the card manually prior to reloading it. Back to one question that Dennis raised. It is true that the SSB only works and loads one show on the card??? Every time I load the sd card, two shows are placed on the card. Is this normal? Just FYI, every time I reload the show, I do of course have to select my start/end as the defaults are not correct. Dennis also raised another question. Does any of the parameters of the HW utility affect the building of the shows with SSB? Also I just went to my show computer and I ran verifier and it is locating a .lss file from a year ago that now has some sequence errors but it was when I was doing some experimenting and never actually used it. But SSB doesn't use this, correct? And I have done a couple of clock resets. The show typically starts and end on time, just not consistently. It's just not predictable any longer. And because I'm away from the house right now for another couple of days, I can't babysit it. Last week when we returned home after four days being gone I found the lights and sound playing during the day.

[Guest wbottomley]

To effectively run the director card, mp3's need to be encoded at 128kbs.

I would flash the firmware in the card.

[Dennis Cherry]

Dave Pursel wrote:

Thanks for the input guys. I have reset the card and I assume you mean using the reset button, a couple of different days. I have been loading only one show on the card and in fact I thought you could only load one show on a card using SSB. I have about 11 (just musical) sequences. I have the selector switch set to the "A" position. One of those sequences has a media file that is still encoded at 192kbs but it seems to be running without problems. I have formatted the card (fat) a couple of different times as well as deleted the shows from the card manually prior to reloading it. Back to one question that Dennis raised. It is true that the SSB only works and loads one show on the card??? Every time I load the sd card, two shows are placed on the card. Is this normal? Just FYI, every time I reload the show, I do of course have to select my start/end as the defaults are not correct. Dennis also raised another question. Does any of the parameters of the HW utility affect the building of the shows with SSB? Also I just went to my show computer and I ran verifier and it is locating a .lss file from a year ago that now has some sequence errors but it was when I was doing some experimenting and never actually used it. But SSB doesn't use this, correct? And I have done a couple of clock resets. The show typically starts and end on time, just not consistently. It's just not predictable any longer. And because I'm away from the house right now for another couple of days, I can't babysit it. Last week when we returned home after four days being gone I found the lights and sound playing during the day.

I do not use SSB, but use the Hardware Utility, just my preference.

I only have one set of files on my memory cards.

The files all start with S1FILExx (where xx= 01, 02, 03, etc,) and end with MP3, or SEQ, and one file S1CONF.CFG.

If you are getting S2FILExx, S3FILExx, etc then that will be other shows.

I have no other files on my SD cards.

It is possible the DC-MP3 is having problems.

[Guest wbottomley]

Oh.... 9 shows can be placed on a card using the hardware utility.

[Dave Pursel]

I have the same files you mentioned Dennis, S1xxxx and S2xxxx with the following suffixes, cfg, mp3, seq, after each build. I did download the latest fw. Just haven't actually loaded it yet, guess I'm afraid of it not functioning at all once I try it. But I was going to make a couple of phone calls to my neighbors after supper and see if their lighting up tonight. As far as the Director having problems, that's why I am wondering if it's starting to fail hence my subject on this post. Just thought I would try to rule out anything I'm doing wrong since LOR electronics never fail..... : ) Any other SSB (Simple Show Builders) users that can chime in and help me here.

[Dennis Cherry]

Dave Pursel wrote:

I have the same files you mentioned Dennis, S1xxxx and S2xxxx with the following suffixes, cfg, mp3, seq, after each build. I did download the latest fw. Just haven't actually loaded it yet, guess I'm afraid of it not functioning at all once I try it. But I was going to make a couple of phone calls to my neighbors after supper and see if their lighting up tonight. As far as the Director having problems, that's why I am wondering if it's starting to fail hence my subject on this post. Just thought I would try to rule out anything I'm doing wrong since LOR electronics never fail..... : ) Any other SSB (Simple Show Builders) users that can chime in and help me here.

S2FILExx means Show 2. Is that what you have?

[Dave Pursel]

Yes, and S1's

[Dave Pursel]

Ok some progress on understanding what's going on under the covers. I did get a call from my neighbor last night and she said the lights were lite. Shocked me to be honest. I've been doing some googling against the lor site. I found some forum articles back a couple of years ago. It appears the reason I'm getting two sets of shows on the card, is because I'm using a Sun-Thur time selection and a Fri-Sat selection on the Simple Show Builder. I didn't know a different show got created for each one. A very important question I still have and haven't found the answer to. What firmware is presently loaded in my DC-MP3. It appears the startup light sequence, flashes four times for both V3 and V4 firmware. Is there something (HW utility?) that will secifically identify the HW level that's loaded in the DC-M3?

Tx.

[Dale W]

I have had a bad MP3 player. What will happen is that your show will either:

1. Stop playing

2. Not play at all

3. Channels do goofy stuff

to troubleshoot, remove the card from the equation and watch the show running from a computer. If you do not have problems, it is probably the show. If there is anybody within 20 miles of you, contact them, run their show on your MP3 player and see if there are problems with the display.

This is after you have reformatted your SD card (sometimes they go bad too) or used a different card to test your show.

[Dennis Cherry]

Dave Pursel wrote:

Ok some progress on understanding what's going on under the covers. I did get a call from my neighbor last night and she said the lights were lite. Shocked me to be honest. I've been doing some googling against the lor site. I found some forum articles back a couple of years ago. It appears the reason I'm getting two sets of shows on the card, is because I'm using a Sun-Thur time selection and a Fri-Sat selection on the Simple Show Builder. I didn't know a different show got created for each one. A very important question I still have and haven't found the answer to. What firmware is presently loaded in my DC-MP3. It appears the startup light sequence, flashes four times for both V3 and V4 firmware. Is there something (HW utility?) that will secifically identify the HW level that's loaded in the DC-M3?

Tx.

I am doing the Same schedule as you Sun-Thru 5:30-10:00 pm & Fri-Sat 5:30-11:00 pm and only have one show on my memory card. No S2FileXX files.

[Dave Pursel]

Without looking back through this posting Dennis, didn't you say you were using the HU to build your shows versus SSB? By the way, I just go home a little while ago after being gone 4 days and the show was actually running. I don't know if it was running 24x7 yet. I was going to check in with some neighbors and see if they might have caught it running late.

[Dennis Cherry]

Dave Pursel wrote:

Without looking back through this posting Dennis, didn't you say you were using the HU to build your shows versus SSB? By the way, I just go home a little while ago after being gone 4 days and the show was actually running. I don't know if it was running 24x7 yet. I was going to check in with some neighbors and see if they might have caught it running late.

Yes, I used the HU. You do not need a dongle attached just your card reader. Ignore the error message about no dongle found.

Click on the LOR MP3 folder tab in the upper left hand corner.

You should be able to figure out the rest.

[Dave Pursel]

Still need help. I want to upgrade the FW in my DC-MP3. I'm pretty insistent on finding out what FW is loaded in my DC-MP3 prior to upgrading though. That way if the upgrade fails or I have to revert back I want what level to revert back to. Does anyone know of a way to determine HW version level?