USB driver hangs

[LightORamaDan]

socalezrider wrote:

Is there any update/resolution to this problem yet? Please advise.

The current software is less sensitve to USB driver problems than earlier verisons. (This does not include the Hardware Utility which has not had changes to the communications). You can for example, unplug the USB adapter during a show and plug it back in without causing a problem. In earlier versions of the software that would have caused the show to hang.

We are also looking into different USB vendor chips as well as enhanced filtering on exsiting our existing designes. We are at the mercy of the vendor's USB drivers and if they hang there is little we can do about it. We will continue to work on this.

[Nixay]

I think the problem described here is the same problem I described in http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum76/16612.html

I've only being doing short-duration tests with a DC board, but my problem is happening when I power up and down the DC power supply. The USB adapter is becoming unresponsive, requiring it to be unplugged and plugged back in to the USB port, and in some cases it comes back online without a reboot. Same problem on all four USB ports on the show PC (a small form-factor 2nd-hand Compaq desktop). My main PC however has no problems.

If we're suspecting electrical interference, an idea to throw out there............. since the USB485B has two RJ45 sockets, if only one is in use and the other is exposed, would some kind of terminator in the unused socket help protect it?

[-klb-]

For RF interference, like switching motors and fluorescent on and off, (most of the cases I see documented in this thread) the type of wire being used will be far more important than if there is an open connector on the adapter... It would be interesting to see if the issues relating to motors and fluorescent fixtures switching on and off are more common when using phone cord instead of cat5, or if it is independent of the cable type used..

Nixay, do you have a powered USB hub you could try between your show PC and your USB-485B? Not sure it is likely to make a difference, but it is interesting that the issue only occurs on your show PC...

- Kevin

[DerrickHoffland]

I have the same issue with a slightly different twist. I have the USB485B running off a Compaq small form factor desktop. I am using the hardware utility in console mode to live control DMX moving heads and scanners to music playing off a CD in the computer.

I can go about 3-5 minutes before the hardware utility locks up and I need to reboot. The computer, however, will not perform a reboot through the start menu nor through a ctrl-alt-del. I have to pull the power plug. This is despite using the end now option on the LOR not responding dialog and verifying that the application is no longer running in the task manager.

Running the heads from a DMX operator console, independent of LOR, will still cause the hardware utility to hang.

[Nixay]

DerrickHoffland wrote:

The computer, however, will not perform a reboot through the start menu nor through a ctrl-alt-del. I have to pull the power plug. This is despite using the end now option on the LOR not responding dialog and verifying that the application is no longer running in the task manager.

Out of curiosity, if you unplug the USB485B from the USB port can you then perform a reboot?

Nixay, do you have a powered USB hub you could try between your show PC and your USB-485B?

I don't have a powered USB hub so haven't been able to try this, however I'm going to get hold of a SC485-RJ45 serial adapter and test the stability of that and if successful will probably ditch the USB and go with serial ports instead. My cable runs won't be long enough need the booster anyway.

[DerrickHoffland]

Nixay wrote:

Out of curiosity, if you unplug the USB485B from the USB port can you then perform a reboot?

I have not tried this. I put this together for my daughter's birthday party and didn't realize the problem until too late. I ended up just working around it. If I have more time this weekend, I will do some trial and error.

When it worked, it was pretty cool though:




Attached files

[bigbth]

Looks pretty cooooool. Where is the Beer fridge?

[DerrickHoffland]

bigbth wrote:

Looks pretty cooooool. Where is the Beer fridge?

About 10 feet behind and to my right of where the pic is taken.

[disneyman]

Well it's a new year and we have great new software but:( the crashing problem continues. The show crashes at ramdom times but it does not always crash.

[LightORamaDan]

disneyman wrote:

Well it's a new year and we have great new software but:( the crashing problem continues. The show crashes at ramdom times but it does not always crash.

Hi,

I sent you a PM asking for your address and the type of USB adapter you have. We have a new cable that will hopefully solve your problem. I want to send you one to test with.

If there are a few more folks that are having a USB hang problem and who have a display up now, send an email to support@lightorama.com . I would like to get a few more people to run a test.

Thanks
Dan

[Dr. Jones]

I had the hang issue, but thought it was a fluke. I havent tried it since, been using the serial-rs485 adapter since

Dan - which cable? is it the usb or cat 5? I have several different manufactures of cable I can try.

[LightORamaDan]

It is the USB cable... We tried a number of different cables and different filters until we found the correct combination. Even VERY expensive cables made no difference.

We will be adding the cables to the store. They definitely make a big difference. We cannot test every PC and every LOR network but we can generate tons of noise that immediately crashes the USB device on a some PCs that we have and the cables prevent that from happening.

Ironical, a 6 year old Gateway computer that we used to develop the USB devices, never fails... The USB hardware is like a rock!

[disneyman]

Success!

The new cable works great! 7days an counting and not so much as a hiccup.

I ran around the house flipping switches plugging and unplugging things,even the fluorescent lights haven't caused a crash.

Thanks to dan and everyone at lightorama for sticking with this problem. I am glad I made the choice to buy lightorama they prove time and time again that they are the best!!

[DerrickHoffland]

I have also tested the new cable and have had no further issues with the adapter freezing up.

I am running LORII with 32 channels and a DMX universe in my basement. Previously I would run at most 15 minutes before the adapter would hang.

I ran all weekend without a hitch. Thanks for the solution!!

[LightORamaDan]

disneyman wrote:

Success!

The new cable works great! 7days an counting and not so much as a hiccup.

I ran around the house flipping switches plugging and unplugging things,even the fluorescent lights haven't caused a crash.

Thanks to dan and everyone at lightorama for sticking with this problem. I am glad I made the choice to buy lightorama they prove time and time again that they are the best!!

DerrickHoffland wrote:

I have also tested the new cable and have had no further issues with the adapter freezing up.

I am running LORII with 32 channels and a DMX universe in my basement. Previously I would run at most 15 minutes before the adapter would hang.

I ran all weekend without a hitch. Thanks for the solution!!

That is good news. Those are the results we saw but it is good to see it working in the field.

One minor correction. The problem was not the Adapter freezing but rather it was the hardware and/or USB drivers in the PC that were freezing up. I only mention this so that people do not think that a new adapter will fix the problem. A particular adapter would work fine on one PC but with the same adapter another PC would occasionally freeze up. The cable filters noise from the PC thus adverting problems.


Dan

[bossgroove]

Is the cable available for purchase? I scanned this post twice and can see mention that it might be available, but didn't really see if I could or what I should purchase. I want to get it as a precaution.

[LightORamaDan]

bossgroove wrote:

Is the cable available for purchase? I scanned this post twice and can see mention that it might be available, but didn't really see if I could or what I should purchase. I want to get it as a precaution.

The Cable will listed in the accessories by Monday.

[disneyman]

Well it's been three weeks now (or may be four)and no crashes at all. I say Problem fixed. Thanks guys!!

[lkinsey]

I have one of the new filtered USB cables and ran my show all day without any hangs.

I did all the things that created a failure in the past and I'm happy to say I failed to replicate the failure.

Nice work LOR Team....

[Lou Knudson]

I had the same problem with the show stopping and posted it under LOR hardware. After contacting Dan I determined that unplugging the USB cable would free up the locked up computer, but I had to reboot to get the show started again. I tried using the filtered USB cable from LOR, but still had the problem. I didn't know what else to do since time was running out so I set everything up on another computer. I have been testing everything inside for a week and have not had the same problem.

[Richard Hamilton]

disneyman wrote:

Yes all updated were applied to xp and lor. I thought that maybe it was crashing because I was also running zara radio, but it crashes with nothing running.

ZaraRadio is not going to crash your system or cause problems with LOR. Your problem is somewhere else.

Oh, I came back in to edit and say that I did not see your posting about your success with usb cable before I posted this. I'm connecting to my computer at home from a remote location. Glad to hear you got things resolved.

[Liteitupman]

Hi

I'm looking at purchasing a cheap laptop for my display. The recommendation on the LOR website for the new software is a Pentium 4 processor. I started to look and got confused on the certain types of processors (i.e. Dual Core, Core 2 Duo, Pentium M). I'm just wondering what you think was the best.

[Richard Hamilton]

Liteitup wrote:

I'm looking at purchasing a cheap laptop for my display. The recommendation on the LOR website for the new software is a Pentium 4 processor. I started to look and got confused on the certain types of processors (i.e. Dual Core, Core 2 Duo, Pentium M). I'm just wondering what you think was the best.

Bottom line is that any computer you buy new, even very low end computers, are going to have far more memory and and many times more processing power than you will need for LOR. Pentium 4 is the older class of processors that have been out for many years. Duo core types of processors are the newest line in the last year with faster processing (but not a lot faster).

I think a more important choice is whether or not you want a 32-bit version of Windows or the 64 bit. There is some performance improvement in 64-bit, but in my opinion, it isn't enough to offset the problems you might have if you run lots of programs. If you get a 64-bit version, then software with drivers are going to need the 64-bit version of those drivers. Another important thing to me is that I occasionally do some Visual Basic 6 programs and the development system will not run on the 64-bit platform.