Guest guest Posted December 24, 2006 Share Posted December 24, 2006 Hey All, Merry Christmas. Been a tough 10 days in the great Pacific North West with the wind storm. Finally power came back on on Friday after 10 days off. It's raining, what else is new, right. Anyway, no high speed connection yet so this is via modem.My controllers are just shutting down. Not sure if it is moisture related. Not blowing fuses, just all of a sudden shutting off, a lot. Like a breaker is blowing, but nothing that I can detect. If I re-start the sequence, it plays for 5 minutes and shuts down. It's gotten progressively worse over the night. At first all the lights were on for about an hour, then slowly cutting off with less time. With the modem connection, I can't do searches very fast at all. Any suggestions, if someone is stil online I would appreciate as I was hoping to run the lights all night tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 24, 2006 Share Posted December 24, 2006 Update, 3 controllers, controller 1 goes off first, then 2 and three follow about 2 mintues after with one channel on controller 2 staying on. So 47 of 48 channels cut out. Looks like Christmas eve may be a wash, but if anyone has any suggestions for the rest of the season,............... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Questions:GFI's?Are you having to reset the breaker?What about communication; wireless or CAT5. Wireless: Is the ELL functioning? CAT5: Any cables damaged over the last 10 days? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Expanding on Don's:Are the LED's in the controllers steady, on or off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Wind blowing - trees hitting power lines - fluctuating power on the grid. Do the lights in your house flicker? You may be having a brown-out or just low quality power in the area.I work for a power utility company. These things happen, and D-Light controllers are sensitive to power fluctuations. They lose synch with the RS485 signal and either shut off or flash random junk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 Merry Christmas Guys and Gals, just got back on line in between getting din-din ready. Still having to use a modem as no cable yet. OK, the set up is wireless with ELL's. No Cat 5 damage in the storm, no breakers in the panel needs to be reset, no blown fuses in the boxes.Controller 1 - Mix of LED's and the most incandecants total amps on circuit about 12Controller 2 - Same as above with total load about 10 ampsController 3 - controls the Mega tree (LED) and few incandecants total load about 8 ampsLED's are a mix of Twinkle and steady on. Most of the display is LED's with 2 inflatables, a couple blowmolds. There are some wireframe items, largest is a train, with about 8 amps total on the same circuit as controller 2.I will be firing it up early here in a few minutes before guests arrive. Hopefully it was moisture related. We have been dry all day so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 PS - with the storm power outage, no sequencing is running. I did not get a chance to work on any, so there is just one song that I have. I have a static animation sequence running that is 1 hour long and I run it in the sequence editor and have it loop at the end. No schedule or show. It ran fine before the storm hit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 OK, like asked above - what lights are on - ELL LED 1 flashing once per second, LED 2 short flashes, status of LED on controller card (steady - flashing).Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 double post - sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 One more thought - with power problems double check ELL channel number and baud rate in hardware utility on unit connected to your computer inside to make sure it did not reprogram itself. Power glitches can cause nasty problems in microprocessors should they occur at the right instant in time.Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 This is really puzzling. because last night, no problems at all and the weather was clear. I kept the display on all night to make up for Christmas Eve.The ELL however is pretty protected from the weather. It is funny how controller 1 which does have the ELL on it, shut down first, then numbers 2 and 3 after a delay. Now that I review my spread sheet, 2 channels on Controller 2 remained on, they outline the windows on the house. I looked inside the box, and all was dry inside. I still have a CAT5 line in the box and can switch it pretty quickly if I run into problems again. Getting at the ELL at night and in weather, is not going to be fun at all. I am hoping that Dan and John catch this thread after I am sure they take a well deserved long break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 From what you have been saying, it sounds like a communication problem. Without knowing the status of the ELL LED's and the LED on the controllers, I can't be much more help. You don't need to be troubleshooting at night, just run the hardware utility and do a chase sequence on each controller in the daytime. I'm pretty sure Dan or John would ask the same questions - what is the status of the lights on the controllers and ELL's.Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 Gotcha, it's kind of raining right now, so might be a good time to test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 As of right now, with the Harware Chase, ELL LED 1 is blinking once per second, LED 2 is flashing and on the controller, LED is solid. I am going to run my sequence for a bit to see if it cuts out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 The light pattern you described to me sounds like a normal condition and all should be working. Now if the display does again stop find out which light(s) have changed.Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 When the controllers "cut out".... that is it? they totally stop... It does not go intermittent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 This is really puzzling now and we may not figure it out till it happens again. Last night, it rained like heck, and the display worked fine, again. Today I will reboot the controllers just for good measure, because some of my LED's are remaining lit at about 5-10%. Not a huge concern.Dan, as stated, Cont 1 goes totally out. The only reason I knew that 2 and 3 went later is that, I was outside when one event happened. C1 went out and about 1 minute later 2&3 went off at the same time. Then 2 channels remained lit on C2 all else was out. There is no intermittant, once out, it says out. In the Sequence Editor, it thinks it is still running, cause I had to stop the sequence first, then re-play it.I think Mike has something, it is comms, no doubt, but I even rebooted the computer and fired it back up when the problem was occurring about every 5 - 10 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 One more thing to ponder about. I even switched computers that night, from the normal laptop to my desktop and still had the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 zman wrote: This is really puzzling now and we may not figure it out till it happens again. Last night, it rained like heck, and the display worked fine, again. Today I will reboot the controllers just for good measure, because some of my LED's are remaining lit at about 5-10%. Not a huge concern.Dan, as stated, Cont 1 goes totally out. The only reason I knew that 2 and 3 went later is that, I was outside when one event happened. C1 went out and about 1 minute later 2&3 went off at the same time. Then 2 channels remained lit on C2 all else was out. There is no intermittant, once out, it says out. In the Sequence Editor, it thinks it is still running, cause I had to stop the sequence first, then re-play it.I think Mike has something, it is comms, no doubt, but I even rebooted the computer and fired it back up when the problem was occurring about every 5 - 10 minutes.zman,Are you playing your show from the Sequence Editor rather than the Show Player or was that a terminology issue above?... If you are playing them from the Sequence Editor then I recommend that you switch to the Show Player. The Sequence Editor was not designed to run continiously... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 I have a simple setup with one LOR1602W The unit is indoors and not exposed to elements. I get the same glitch. I never know when its gonna happen.. i just look and the house is dark but music is still broadcasting and sequeces change. Restarting the show resumes the lights. Tonight Im going to make sure my data cable isnt running parallel with electrical wire and see if I have any other issues. I may try installing a ferrite Core on the cable at the LOR box. I run my shows from the Show editor as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts