Frustrated with CCRs and want to sell all twleve of them

[Gerald Rosemary Corey]

Been trying to work out bugs with our 12 CCRs ever since we got them (3 seasons).  Tried all the suggestions and resets and had someone (an electrical engineer) come out to help us trouble shoot any electrical problems and still have random firing and hangups. 

Surely is sad to have invested this much money and time into something that has been such a failure for us.

 

If anyone would like to have 12 CCRs (1 tape had failed again) so 11 are working and 1 is not, shoot us a fair offer and we will pack them up and send them to you!

[LOR Staff]

Before throwing in the towel, let me ask: Did you contact the help desk to see if they could help?

What you are describing sounds a lot like a communications issue, not an electrical one.

[Rick Creed]

I really agree with Dev Mike's reply, this is the first year, I have added CC devices to my display.  The biggest thing I noticed is my laptop started bogging down ALOT, I bought a cooling pad to place under it when I'm running LOR, it was overheating this year with the additional 300+ channels.  Kept the laptop cool and my own also.  LOR's help is top notch, which I can say is as good or better than the folks I deal with in the commercial automation industry.

[Gerald Rosemary Corey]

Spent a lot of time each season with the help desk trying all sorts of things.  Program is running on regular PC not a laptop.  This year we only ran CCRs and no other display items and used Brian Bruderer's programs, none of our own.  LOR did replace a couple ribbons and they worked.  It is the second six ribbons on the Aux A network (ribbons 7 through 12) that are giving us the main problems.  Others are random pixels firing or staying on at the end of a sequence.

[james campbell]

sound like you have it on legacy mode and not normal. check it in the hardware utility.
I know tis has been a problem with many others including myself

[Alan C]

I agree this sounds like a comms issue. As I understand it, the LOR protocol uses intelligence in LOR controller to relieve the loading on the show computer. With DMX, commands are sent many times per second to switch on all the lights that should be lit at the correct levels, which can lead to a high load on the show computer. With LOR, a single command is sent to switch on a light, and a further command is needed to switch it off again. Single commands are also used for fades and shimmers etc. The downside of this, is that a comms issue can cause a command to be lost, which could be a "light off". In this case, the light or pixel would stay lit until it is sent a new command later in the sequence.

 

 

Regards,

 

Alan.

[LOR Staff]

I checked into all your trouble tickets, and only see 1 that seems to reference this problem.  It appears that it was resolved to your satisfaction by giving you a replacement RS485 adapter in Feb of 2012.  Ticket 953465 

 

 Mon, Feb 27 2012 9:28am Received the new USB485B and got it installed with our original one. Had a chance to run a program last night and it worked beautifully! Looked just like Brian Bruderer's videos! Thank you so much. We believed this solved the problems. Appreciate all the input on our problem and we learned a lot of trouble shooting techniques that we would not have known before! Thansk to all of you. What do we owe you for the new USB485B? 

 

 

I admit that the search in our trouble ticket system is a bit limited, so I may have missed a more recent ticket.  If you do have a more recent one please private message me the number and I'll look into it.  

 

If you would like more help, please let us know.  Otherwise, I'm sorry for your frustration.  

 

Since I kind of derailed your sale topic, you can start a new one if you still intend to sell.

[Gerald Rosemary Corey]

Hi, Thanks for the reply.  There was also a ticket @424250 involved.

 

We seemed to have things working when we put the ccrs away after working on them last February.  When we got things running for the past season (November 2012-end of December 2012)) we never got consistent performances.  We left them up until now when our engineer came and now they seem to be even worse!

 

We'll try some more if you have suggestions!

[jimswinder]

We'll try some more if you have suggestions!

 

I would try what James Campbell suggested...check to see if they are in Legacy mode, I thought I had a bad controller until someone suggested the same thing to me.

Edited February 25, 2013 by jimswinder

[LOR Staff]

Hi, Thanks for the reply.  There was also a ticket @424250 involved.

 

We seemed to have things working when we put the ccrs away after working on them last February.  When we got things running for the past season (November 2012-end of December 2012)) we never got consistent performances.  We left them up until now when our engineer came and now they seem to be even worse!

 

We'll try some more if you have suggestions!

 

I saw that one as well, and figured our ticket system just split it off into a new number (it does that some times).  According to that ticket, John (the CCR guru around these parts) suggested several tests & possible causes.  I don't see any replies to it, so how did those tests and suggestions work out?  Did you want me to re-open that ticket for you so you can review it?

 

If it wasn't working, and then started by changing an adapter, and is now not working again, I'm 99% sure that the problem you are having is data transmission related.  Since it is getting worse most likely it is either a cable that is wonky or there is corrosion in/on one of the connectors.   It could be the physical USB port on your computer, or the cable from the USB port to the USBRS485, but those are usually pretty robust.  The other 1% could be because a controller simply needs to be reset.

 

I can understand your frustration.  We are here to help if you want it.  If so, go ahead and open a new ticket, re-open one of the previous tickets, or let me know and I can open/reopen one for you.

[Gerald Rosemary Corey]

Finally kept debugging everything again today and have determined that it is probably worn out connectors on a Cat5 cable to the LOR Controller box so we will replace both of them for next season. 

 

We were able to run the programs for relatives from Michigan (in  a light snowfall, just like Christmas) this evening and they ran flawlessly except for two CCRs that we discovered had received an errant shotgun pellet when we were dispatching a raccoon that was wreaking havoc around the house, so we will replace two CCR ribbons. 

 

Husband apologizes for his marksmanship and has decided not to sell the whole works!

 

 Now we can put the ribbons to bed for the year (as soon as the snow leaves the bottom of the pvc tubes they are mounted on).

 

Thanks to all of you for your support and suggestions.

[james campbell]

Finally kept debugging everything again today and have determined that it is probably worn out connectors on a Cat5 cable to the LOR Controller box so we will replace both of them for next season. 

 

We were able to run the programs for relatives from Michigan (in  a light snowfall, just like Christmas) this evening and they ran flawlessly except for two CCRs that we discovered had received an errant shotgun pellet when we were dispatching a raccoon that was wreaking havoc around the house, so we will replace two CCR ribbons. 

 

Husband apologizes for his marksmanship and has decided not to sell the whole works!

 

 Now we can put the ribbons to bed for the year (as soon as the snow leaves the bottom of the pvc tubes they are mounted on).

 

Thanks to all of you for your support and suggestions.

you do realize in a little more than 6 months we will be setting stuff up again.heck leave them up for the fourth of July

[k6ccc]

Tell hubby to work on his marksmenship. Either that or take away the ammo when the display is up.

[wmilkie]

Finally kept debugging everything again today and have determined that it is probably worn out connectors on a Cat5 cable to the LOR Controller box so we will replace both of them for next season. 

 

We were able to run the programs for relatives from Michigan (in  a light snowfall, just like Christmas) this evening and they ran flawlessly except for two CCRs that we discovered had received an errant shotgun pellet when we were dispatching a raccoon that was wreaking havoc around the house, so we will replace two CCR ribbons. 

 

Husband apologizes for his marksmanship and has decided not to sell the whole works!

 

 Now we can put the ribbons to bed for the year (as soon as the snow leaves the bottom of the pvc tubes they are mounted on).

 

Thanks to all of you for your support and suggestions.

Now thats funny!  Maybe transparent armored enclosures

[big joe]

now thats what i call service!!! great job LOR!!

[Gerald Rosemary Corey]

Today it's 67 degrees and not windy!  Got the ribbons and star down!  Now to order replacements for the two ribbons!