Jerry Kohlenstein Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Tonight I had a GCFI tripped (channel 9-16), reset, tripped, pulled load cables and plugged back in until I found the tripping wireframe snowman. After that The controller started doing random flashing of lights, then I noticed it was causing weird stuff in the other controllers including back thru my IDMX to my dmx units. Pulled the main com feed to my display field and it was still feeding garbge to all the other controllers in the field. Shut down all power, rebooted comp, re-powered, still same problem. Turned off power to bad controller, but still in LOR loop, and problem gone (except I am missing 16 channels). Any ideas? Thanks in advance. Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Hans Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 I would change out the cat 5 to and from that controller. Also, try resetting the controller as per the instructions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Kohlenstein Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 Thanks Jim.Not likely to be a cable because it is a 48 channel controller and it is the middle card, it is the one in the middle and the other two work fine as long as this one is not powered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 With out power to the suspect controller you have powered down the electronics. Now if you reapply power, I suspect the problem to restart. You mentioned that you think that this controller is putting junk on the comm causing other controllers to wonk out. And the fact that it stopped when you removed power is a good indication that your correct. I am wondering if the comm chip on that control board is jabbering. This is when the chip just starts talking (transmitting) out of control like. First thing I would try is a new comm chip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Listen to Max. That is a good first step. With power off, pull that comm chip. Power back up and see if your network is clean. If it is, most likely the comm chip. I had one go bad this year and it cause two controllers further down the line to be intermittent. They were not even the next controllers in line.. they were about 4 controllers farther down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Kohlenstein Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 Found the problem. Tried resetting, that didn't work. When I went to pull the com chip to swap with one from another controller (to see if problem moved), I saw a mouse tail sticking out. Removed fried mouse, reset controller, all seems to be good now. Thanks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmaskarl Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Oh them nasty critters! They will get you every time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Well we all have heard of a BUG in the system (how many of you know the origin of that story?). But now we have to deal with mice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 One of my customers once had a cat cross the path of their on site 12.5KV transformer... We knew it was a cat by the shadow it left behind... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Sarge Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 hopefully I can do it myself... maybe I didn't reset right but I even changed the number of controller with a different controller.. had one channel stopped working, opened the box and a small worm or bug was fried next to channel 13.... cleaned it off, cleaned with a q tip and a little alcohol on it.... looks good but even after making sure it was dry before re checking it nothing happened when I tried it ... all other channels work fine... any idea how much it will cost me to get it repaired or is there some way for me to check it myself again... I tried even changing the controller number to a different one and still that one channel does not work. the worm was right on the edge where the wire for the light is plugged in on the board. I got it from WOW Lights so do I send it to them or do I send it to LOR.... I sent Mike at WOW Lights an e mail this evening but to soon to hear anything back from him... He will probably ans back tomorrow.... but its sat so I may have to wait till Monday.. changed the position of it and renamed it to control some things that doesn't need that channel as it was a mid channel on my arch that got bugged.... Now I have to remember.... the controller marked as number 1 is really number three and vice versa....and # 13 Rudolf is now connected to the other deer #12.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 More than likely without seeing, only from your discription. It could be a blown opto coupler, resistor and or Triac. Start with the Triac, then opto coupler and resistor at same time. Shame you dont have a cheap volt/ohm meter so you can due conductivity test of the resistors in the area. How do the copper traces look? I have seen traces vaporize off of boards before. As to cost, contact the help desk and put in a ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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