TaylorFox Posted December 4, 2012 Posted December 4, 2012 Hi everyone! First of all, I apologize for the lengthy post. So this marks the first year I've had anything go wrong with my controllers (been doing this for about 5 years now) and I need some opinions. So I'm operating with three controllers: two sixteen channels and one eight channel. I have one eight and sixteen channel controller mounted in the garage and the other sixteen channel is mounted in the yard to control my mega tree. I have them daisy chained with the mega tree controller being last and run outside using a 100 foot network cable. This year, I'm getting the blinking status LED on this unit and the computer is not recognizing it. I've done everything I know to resolve the problem, including buying another network cable, changing the Unit ID, power cycling, and changing the sequence of the chain with no luck. However, I found some extra network cables and decided to try several different kinds to see if that would help, and out of three cables, only one corrected the problem, and even then I had the unit directly hooked up to the laptop, and not daisy chained. So I called LOR and they said that perhaps the USB adapter is old, and the system could be losing signal and is unable to reach the third unit. They suggested we switch the defective unit with the first and see if that resolved the problem, and still no luck. So, I've done everything I know to do. Do you guys have anymore suggestions for me, or does it sound like it's about time to send it in for repair? Thanks in advance!
k6ccc Posted December 4, 2012 Posted December 4, 2012 100 feet is not that far for an RS-485 signal. To clarify, when you swapped the 16 channel controller in the garage with the one in the yard, did the problem stay with the location (the yard), or stay with the controller? If the problem stayed with the location, them it's likely a cable problem. If the problem moved to the garage when you moved the yard controller to the garage, then it's likely a issue with the controller. If it looks like a controller problem, take the controller inside next to your computer so you can use a short Cat-5 jumper between the controller and your RS-485 adapter. If that does not communicate, verify if both RJ-45 jacks on the controller are affected or does only one jack show the problem. Each step helps to narrow down the problem.
TaylorFox Posted December 5, 2012 Author Posted December 5, 2012 The problem stayed with the controller even when it was switched. And I actually took my laptop outside to it and used two different short cat5 cables, one worked and the other did not. However, the one that worked seemed to fit really tight into the connection, so tight that it was hard to even get it out. But that was the only cord I had any luck with, even a brand new 100ft didn't work.
Santas Helper Posted December 5, 2012 Posted December 5, 2012 Sounds like a cat5 cable problem. It works with one and not another. Throw away those bad cables and get new ones. If it's bad, it's bad.
TaylorFox Posted December 5, 2012 Author Posted December 5, 2012 Well, that's the thing. It didn't work with the old 100 foot, so I pulled out some shorter ones I had laying around and hooked the controller directly to the computer, and it worked with only one of the two. So I assumed it was a cable problem. So I did buy another 100 foot cable, ran it, hooked it up, and still no response.
LORisAwesome Posted December 5, 2012 Posted December 5, 2012 Remove the boots from your cat5 cables, these can sometmes cause connections issues.I am wondering about the controller that is just before the problem controller in the chain. Is it possible that one of the RJ45 jacks in not working on that one? If you swap the cables in those jacks, do you lose another controller?Jerry
TaylorFox Posted December 5, 2012 Author Posted December 5, 2012 I removed the boot from one that wasn't working, didn't seem to make a difference. And the new 100ft cable that I bought didn't even have a boot. And I actually thought about that, thinking it might be a problem before the last controller. So I actually daisy chained the first 16 channel off of the second one with no problem. So I don't think it's a problem with the one before it.
Dave Batzdorf Posted December 6, 2012 Posted December 6, 2012 Does the contoller work on the bench connected to the show PC with a short cable? If yes, make this controller the first one in the chain. Does the next contoller work? The main thing is to eliminate the contoller in question.
TaylorFox Posted December 7, 2012 Author Posted December 7, 2012 Yes, it worked with just a short cable. I moved it to the first in the chain and still no response. Looks like it has to be something with the controller itself. I've moved it to different arrangements in the chain and tested all cables and jacks associated with units one and two in the chain.
TaylorFox Posted December 15, 2012 Author Posted December 15, 2012 Update: So I contacted LOR and they send me a refurbished unit (thank you guys for the speedy replacement). I've hooked it up in the chain and the status LED is solid, so that's a success. But now my hardware utility is still not recognizing the controller, even though the unit ID is set correctly. Could this be a problem with the firmware? My other two controllers are older, so I don't know if that makes a difference. I'm also running version 2.3.8 I'm trying to get this fixed tonight for an event we're having, so any help is greatly appreciated!
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