Guest guest Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Hi all.Late for Xmas! LOR gear only arrived a couple weeks ago and have only just managed to get some lights up to flash for the kids and keep the minister of war & finance happy (Wife)!I have set up my 64 channel LOR system, and have the controllers all on the bench currently for testing. I cant seem to get any animation sequence to download to allow the controller to run in stand alone mode?Hardware test works fine, and running a sequence from the sequence editor works fine when connected to the controllers as well. But following the instructions to dump a simple animation in to run some basic lighting control is just not working?It finds the unit OK (I am trying it on one unit only (and have tested other units as well so its not the single unit).I then download as per the instructions, and it starts the download (Says MAX is 31000 by the way on controller details), once it gets to a 1000 count it starts again and "retries =01" comes up, that also crashes at 1000 count.Error message is: Download has failed due to excessive errors. Check controller has good connections and only have once controller connected whilst downloading.After 4 retries it fails. Thats it, tried other controllers, including a prebuilt unit from LOR.OK, so Am I doing something blindingly stupid :? that i just cant see!~ All help appreciated muchly!*Edit*.Just managed to get an animation sequence of only 1115 bits of data to transfer after just hitting download again and again after it failed retries. Beginning to wonder if it may be a USB485 dongle issue?Only worked once though, cant download the next test sequence (6456 bits). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 OK. Have just spent a few hours troubleshooting it. Managed to get it to take a couple downloads of about 6000 bits(bytes). But that took a lot of re-downloading before they went thru a couple times in the end.Havent been able to even get it to take a 360 bit(byte) show in the last hour though!I have changed controllers (Re-addressed as well), changed USB lead, Changed Cat 5 lead (4 times). I'm kind of starting to think it may be a USB485 adaptor problem?I already know due to the late start this year I wont get to play LOR too hard ! No sequences written as of yet, only just managed to get some lights up (4000) and plug it all in!Because I discovered a problem ,only problem is, the USB485 converter or "something" that is ON when the sequence editor/hardware or shows are running is interfering horrendously with all my radio keyboards and mice!! Makes using a PC impossible whilst running LOR software and talking to the controllers.I decided to just do some basic sequences (Animations) running thru the PC to overcome this interference issue.Next year I'll use the MP3 director, actually I may end up getting it out this year if this issue keeps up!Thoughts anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 I had this exact same problem earlier this year. In September My niece was having a birthday party outdoors in the evening and since this was my first year I wanted to set up lights for her and use it as a dry run for Christmas. I could not download a standalone sequence into any of my controllers (all other functions worked fine from the PC) however other people I knew that had LOR could download the sequence into my controllers with no problem after several emails with Don and Dan it was decided that my RS485 adapter was bad and Dan sent me a new RS485B and that cleared up the problem. You might want to contact Dan and tell him about this.Also the decision to go to the MP3 will be well worth it I love mine it is GREAT if you already have one I would go on and use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 Bugger..Thats what I thought someone would say! Everything works brilliant except that one point! I have done extensive troubleshooting and the only thing I dont have a spare of to test is the USB485 connector.This is Karma cause I didnt order a spare when the little voice in my head was saying, "buy two buy two!"Sadly I am in Australia and wont be able to organise one until next year !, Oh well, I'll just have to leave a PC running for now, I am very late for switch on anyway, so I guess it doesnt matter to much. Will get a week or so out of the new toys!If anyone else has any ideas I would certainly be happy to try them out as a resolve!Thanks very much for your feedback! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 Hi, I did receive your email but will answer here.This sounds like a communications problem and it could very well be an issue with the USB485 adapter. When doing the download, do you only have one unit attached to the PC? Also make sure that only one cable is plugged into the controller and there is not an unterminated cable comming out of it... Use as short a cable as possible.What version of windows do you have on the PC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 I had the same problem until I downloaded the new version of the hardware utility. Worked fine after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 HI, thanks for the reply.Yes I tested with varying lengths of Cat 5, in the end it was all on the bench, < PC- 2 foot USB lead- USB485- 1 foot cat 5- Controller > (Dont come much shorter than that!)PC is running XP Pro (2002) - Service pack 2.All features work well except the download as a standalone unit.*Side note* Heres another question, I sent an email to kits@LOR but didnt receive a reply (Unless the spam filter ate it) In the LOR controller kits I bought for Aust (240 volt) the resistor value is 220 ohm just before the Triac, if using on 240 Volt the kit instructions says to use a 330 ohm, I bought a pre-built controller as well and noticed this has 220 Ohm, is this a problem I should appraise with my running the controller on 240 volt as per the kit instructions?Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 I will send you a newer version of the USB drivers. They may help. as far as the side note: The pre-built will work fine.... Although 330 is optimal for 240V, 220 does work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 No worries, I will give it a try and report back. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 This may not be it , but I found that some cat5e cable plugs differ in size by like a millimeter. I was using the LOR cable for testing and then when I went to install outside with a new 100 ' cable it did not work. I found that the pins in the jack were pushed back not making contact with the cable plug. After carefully bending the jack pins back it worked.Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 Sequence Dr. wrote: This may not be it , but I found that some cat5e cable plugs differ in size by like a millimeter. I was using the LOR cable for testing and then when I went to install outside with a new 100 ' cable it did not work. I found that the pins in the jack were pushed back not making contact with the cable plug. After carefully bending the jack pins back it worked.MikeI Have tried 7 different cat 5 leads, including the LOR one. as a note just measured/compared all plugs and they are all exact to the eye.I'm a data technician so know lots about data cable! I just make new ones whenever I need!Thanks for the input though, helps to know everything so others that may be suffering the fault can learn as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 NP, just food for thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 No worries, again thanks for the input it all helps to try to diagnose issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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