Dan, Tim, or anyone

[Guest guest]

I've been working hard in the last week to get my show going for the season. I have everything hooked up right, but when I tried to do a test of the show, nothing worked. The light on the first controller was on constant. So, I pulled it to test it in hardware. The light was always on constant, but the hardware would not recognize it. I pulled another controller out of the sequence, just to check it. It checked out fine, and the hardware recognized it. I then put the recognized controller as number one. Started hooking up controllers as I went along, and testing them. I got to number 5 and ran a test in hardware, and it only recognized 4 of the 5. It recognized 1, 2, 3, and 5. Number 4 light was on solid, but Lor does not recognize it, and number 5 (after 4), is working fine. I'm really confused. I have a lot of controllers to go, but there seems to be some kind of problem. It's hard to believe that 2 controllers are bad.

These are controllers that I used last year, and they were fine. I'm missing something here, and I would appreciate any help. I have been on vacation for a week to hook all of this up, and I have to go back to work tomorrow, but I will answer and check out any suggestions as soon as I can.


Thanks for your help.

[Guest guest]

Bill,

What types of controllers are you using?

You said that nothing worked when you tried to run the show. So are you saying that none of the controllers responed?

The controller #4, if you connect it directly to the PC is it found by the hardware utility?

[Guest guest]

Bill, I would try a reset on the controller by unplgging both the 120v and the Cat5 cables; turn both rotory dip switches to zero; plug in, you should get a very rapid blink; unplug again and insert data and power cables. I have had to this on a couple before. - - - Bill

[Guest guest]

Bill Foley wrote:

Bill, I would try a reset on the controller by unplgging both the 120v and the Cat5 cables; turn both rotory dip switches to zero; plug in, you should get a very rapid blink; unplug again and insert data and power cables. I have had to this on a couple before. - - - Bill

Another thought -- if it's a CTB08 (and therefore doesn't have dip switches), plug it into the computer by itself, and do a "reset all controllers" to the unit ID you want (04 in this case). That's fixed it for me in the past.

-Tim

[Guest guest]

Thanks for your quick responses. I have been out in the garage working on this problem since I posted, and I found the solution. I think Tim said it before, and I just let it go in one ear and out the other. (Can't teach an old dog new tricks I guess) "If LOR will not recognize your control board, reset the controller number) I did this, and everything is great in Athens, Ohio. Not sure why you have to do this again, but I am not an electronic guru, either. I'm just thankful for LOR, and the quick responses. Thanks again!!!

Happy Holidays, Bill:shock: (these emoticons are cool, lol)

[Guest guest]

Bill wrote: "If LOR will not recognize your control board, reset the controller number) I did this, and everything is great in Athens, Ohio. Not sure why you have to do this again, but I am not an electronic guru, either. "

Well the reason is that the original CTB08 cards can be fooled into believing that there ID has been changed when it really has been. Noise on the line can mess up things. Later CTB08s ( for the last year or so ) are much less susceptible to such noise.

The new controller code requires that the card be "unlocked" prior to a command like change unit ID and the commands themselves have additional checksums on them to make it more difficult to mis-read a command. I have promised that I would provide replacement chips to folks for a very long time and have not come through. I purchased the chips a few weeks ago but have not yet had the time to get them programmed and distributed. This really bothers me especially when I know that folks have to struggle a bit to get things going. I know it is late for this year but I will try and get these chips out asap.

The main reason for release 1.5.0 of LOR software was to support this additional protection on persistent commands to the units. Thus when people with version 1.4.0 or earlier get a new controller they cannot change the Unit ID or change Configuration Settings on the cards. The cards remain locked and refuse commands. Light control is not protected. It is somewhat self correcting so we did not add the complexity or overhead of additional protection to those commands.

[Guest guest]

Dan -- I know I bugged you about the chips but don't worry about it for this season. My boxes are already deployed, working fine, and I really doubt I'll touch them until teardown unless something really bad happens.

-Tim

[Guest guest]

Dan:

Last week, I wrote to you about a board problem. Board #3 is receiving a signal and working fine, but I can not go into it and test the lights because the network does not see it. But as I said-the board receives all commands for the lights. Even though the board is working, how can I correct the problem that the network can not see this board. I have replaced the phones lines thinking it was a line problem, but this did not fix it.

Can I do what was said above and temp. cahnge the ID of the board to O/O then put it back to #3.......... Will this help me.

I use this hardware test each night before a show to make sure all lights are working for the show runs.



Thanks.

Scott

[Guest guest]

Loftus001 wrote:

Dan:

Last week, I wrote to you about a board problem. Board #3 is receiving a signal and working fine, but I can not go into it and test the lights because the network does not see it. But as I said-the board receives all commands for the lights. Even though the board is working, how can I correct the problem that the network can not see this board. I have replaced the phones lines thinking it was a line problem, but this did not fix it.

Can I do what was said above and temp. change the ID of the board to O/O then put it back to #3.......... Will this help me.

I use this hardware test each night before a show to make sure all lights are working for the show runs.



Thanks.

Scott

Scott,

It sounds like that board has a transmission problem. If I understand correctly it does respond to commands and the LED goes solid on when connected to the PC.

If you want to test that card in the Hardware Utility, Start Hardware Utility the DO NOT CLICK REFRESH, Click in the window to the right of the refresh button and type in "3"...

The Hardware Utility will now send commands to Unit 3... Actually I always do that in the Hardware Utility. If I want to test box 2 I just type a 2 into the window... Refresh takes to long for my impatient nature.