Signal loss

[Dasaboros]

Not necessarily a newb, but know these are followed a lot. Been having issues the past couple years with signal loss at the last controller or two in my display. Last year had to cut down from 6 to 5 controllers....now I'm down to 4. Swapped controllers...all new cat5's...tried all diff configs of daisy chaining....reflashed sd card, re id'd all controllers...every time the last controller doesn't receive signal to run the program. Longest cat5 is 50'. Tried running the show off the laptop, but gave me an error open end code or something to that effect. I don't know what to do and about to go Griswold on my spiral tree (where he beats the [Foul Language Used] out of his Santa/reindeer). Any ideas?

[tomsusie]

It might be you need a terminator at the end controller.  If you do a search for terminator on the forum you'll probably find add'l info.  I don't know for sure that is your problem but is a possibility.  I'm running 4 controllers & 10 CCR controllers and have not had any problems such as yours.  I have one of my controllers connected via ELLs.  Hope this helps.

 

Edit:  In reading a little more on the forum, terminators seem to be more in use with DMX but did see some mention on LOR networks.  They do seem to be more with lights staying on or doing random things so it may not be the solution to your problem.  A place to start perhaps.

Edited December 6, 2015 by tomsusie

[dgrant]

Do one controller at a time during troubleshooting. Connect the first one, launch the HWU and verify its there. Connect the second one and verify you have both and continue. At any time, you lose connectivity, stop there. Look at the RJ45 connectors on the controller(s) and examine closely for messed up contacts, contamination and looseness. Now I have no clue about the SD cards or how that director works as I just use a computer to run with therefore my simple troubleshooting ideas are done with a computer.

[Orville]

Do you have any extension cords very close to, or physically crossing over any of the cat5 cables to your controllers? 

 

if yes, it may not affect the first few controllers, but as the signal goes down the line and the cat5 is closer than about 6"-12" {inches} from an extension cord or one crosses over the cat5, this could cause signal loss further down the line on the cat5 cabling.   

 

You need to keep your extension cords and any power cords at least 6" {inches} away{preferably a foot, 12" inches away} when, or if possible from any cat5 cables, and again, make sure they don't physically touch or cross over any of your cat5 cables, as again, this can cause the issues you're having of signal loss.

 

Surprised no one had brought this one up as it's usually the first one that most folks think of when it comes to signal loss to a controller.