Random String turning on.

[George Simmons]

Check your comm cables. Even if they look good, replace the one that feeds the first controller that has channels acting up.

Edited December 23, 2012 by George Simmons

[ace_master]

My display ran fine all of December, and now on New Years Eve, I'm getting multiple channels flashing and turning off at random. Including my "TUNE TO" sign, and the power source for my inflatable motors. GRR. I had a new song ready for tonight show too!!

[ace_master]

Well I've got a new solution if all else fails....

I was having problems on my first controller on a line, so I unplugged everything after it, and still had problems (thank goodness, because I have about 20 controllers I'd have to check!)... figured I'd replace the Cat6 cable going from the computer->outside and it would fix everything... This did nothing! GRRR.... after another 45 minutes of fiddling around in below freezing temperatures (with viral LARYNGITIS, I might add (Don't get it, it sucks)). I restarted the computer mid-show, and problems persisted immediately as show initialized again.

THE SOLUTION:

I swapped USB ports on my computer from a 3.0 port to a 2.0 hub and everything now works fine. (I don't know why all of a sudden that port decided to go all wonky after a full month of working perfectly, but I didn't see a single channel stick after changing it).

On a side note... I do have a controller from last year that I had to replace because it just refused to work properly no matter what cable, usb, or computer i was connecting it to... I believe that there is a problem with the solder points on the board somewhere. Figured there was no point in opening up a help ticket after November, as there was probably much more urgent issues for others to have fixed and I didn't need this controller in my show this year.

[Steven]

I had a similar problem that I solved by putting an RS485 terminator on each end of the network.