new trouble with an old setup

[Michael Jon]

Ok folks, I have had my first two controllers for several year - old commercial hardware. One of them has the DC MP3 in it, and I have used it for years to run my shows with the old 512 MB card that came with it. First problem this year came with not finding my SD card when I was setting up. I don't know how big of a card the system can handle, and the smallest I could find was 8GB. Got my main box hooked up to a new 1602Wg3 - no trouble with two of them last year. Hooked my laptop up and tested connections on those two while I configured lights. Decided to call it day, downloaded to my new SD card ... nothing ... went back to the laptop, fine. My son had an old 512mb card, downloaded to that ... nothing ... Now when I hook up my laptop, sometimes I see the first controller, sometimes I don't ... any guesses to my problem?

[Orville]

This is why my DC-MP3 Director was retired 2 years ago.  It also will no longer read ANY SD card inserted into it.   The Director should be able to handle SD cards up to no more than 2GB, I was using Sans Disk 2GB SD cards with no problems, as well as 1GB SD Cards, along with the 512KB SD card that came with it.   I tried using my 4GB that came with my camera, and it wouldn't read it at all, or any SD Card over 2GB.

 

Used it for years, 3-1/2 years to be exact, and my 4th year it just refused to read the SD Card put in it, I opened it, looked at the fingers in the SD Card slot could see nothing wrong.   Yet, the HWU says the Director is there and working, but it won't read the SD Cards at all any longer.  It dies on opening day of my display, so had to move to a computer to run and get my show off the ground on it's opening night.

 

Hate to say it, but sounds like your Director could have the same problem mine does.   You may have to open a help desk ticket because it may need to go back to LOR for repair.

 

I just haven't bothered to get mine repaired, will probably just get the newer G3 MP3 sometime down the road, but for now, I'll just use my computer to run shows, actually worked out better for me, since the computer gives a lot more flexibility!.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Orville

[Michael Jon]

That was my initial thought until I couldn't get my laptop to see the controllers, either. It's the strangest thing I have seen so far with the setup but it's raining tonight so I won't troubleshoot. All was hooked through the laptop at first and I had the first 32 channels on at 100%. Left it on that night for several hours with the laptop and then shut down before I went to bed. Then went through the whole SD card thing ... now that I'm thinking about it, i didn't reboot the controller. Have to figure that out on the old one.

[Orville]

If an older CTB16PC{pre-gen3}, unplug the controller, remove the jumper from where it is, plug the controller back in and let it cycle, unplug, put the jumper back  on the header from where you removed it at the exact spot, plug back in controller and it should be reset.   If the older DC-MP3 Director, press and hold down the first and last buttons {if memory serves here, but I think that's right, if so, all the L.E.D.'s should cycle, you may/may not have to reset the time on it, but after the L.E.D.'s cycle, it should be reset.  I'm almost sure it's a couple of buttons that have to be pressed and held down to reset the older DC-MP3 Directors, and I think it's the 1st and 4th buttons.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Orville

[Michael Jon]

Thank you, Orville, I am going to give it a shot. I was able to reset the controller itself by doing the power off, switches to 0, power on, power off, switch back to setting (01 for me) and power on. That got my controller working with the PC input again. I'm going to try the jumper trick ... there is a reset button on the MP3 director itself but it didn't help last night. Out of desperation to get some lights on I tried setting in stand alone mode but it wouldn't let me which seems kind of weird. It kept downloading but failed. HWU doesn't see the MP3 director at all but fingers crossed on trying the jumper tomorrow. The other problem is PC doesn't see my linked controller or the clock on my primary at all although it did Saturday night. Tried resetting the second box (gen3) but didn't work even on direct connect. I am going to see if one my other controllers works and at least then I know that component also has a problem. At this point, I'll take steady lights this year over nothing. 

[wallleyes]

I also run the DC MP3 and had the same problem this year.  I found that although it powered up with power from the controllers I ended up having to use a power adapter directly into the director. Has worked great since.

[Orville]

I thought that too about the controllers and the RS485B that would supply power to the DC-MP3 Director when mine quit reading the SD Cards, but no matter how I powered it or reset it, no dice.  It refuses to read any SD Card that I put in it.   

 

So I know there is a definite issue somewhere with my DC-MP3 unit, took it apart and a small part fell out, not sure where or what it was, but have a suspicion it was probably a component that is in the circuit that reads the SD Cards when they're inserted.  

 

Never found the part, just too small, but looks like there is one or two spots that have solder on them, but no component, so don't know if it's just one or possibly more that somehow became loose and fell off the PCB and out of the unit when i opened it to see if i could see anything wrong with the SD Card slot, which looks perfectly fine.   So I'm pretty certain a couple of parts are missing and why it doesn't read the SD card, but my HWU can still see it and set the clock, etc.   Just can't get it to do anything else.

 

It's still apart somewhere around here, not even going to try and put it back in its case or together since it doesn't work anyhow, and I've probably lost the mounting hardware since it died 2 years ago.   Even though I try to keep the hardware with it, seems over time, even if in a container, I open it up and hardware always seems to mysteriously disappear from the sealed container I put it all in!

Edited December 18, 2015 by Orville