Afilocamo Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Hi Guys! Apologies if a similar question has been asked already, I've searched other threads and couldn't find an exact answer. This is my family's first year using LOR's products. We're very excited to see our house dance. We have a total of 12 strings of CCBs on our house with 7 Controllers (standard green box that comes with the lights). I've daisy-chained the controllers to one another using a standard cat5 cable. When I plug my computer into the final controller, the hardware utility only recognizes the controller that I'm plugged into directly. I've even exported the sequence and visualization I've created into Sequence Editor (configured to all 7 controllers) and yet only the two strings that my computer is directly plugged into are working. I've tested all of the lights previously so I know they are all working. My question is this: Is there something I'm doing wrong with my daisy-chaining of the controllers? Is this a configuration issue with my hardware or software? Fingers crossed that I'm just missing one simple step considering all the lights are already on my house! Thanks all for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wbaker4 Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 You are using the High Speed RS485 USB Adapter.... right? Did you set each controller's address before connecting them together? Each is a unique address? 12 strings should only require 6 controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afilocamo Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 Thank you for your response wbaker4/ Yes, Using an RS485 adapter. When configuring each controller all I did was set up a unique unit ID for each. Is there an additional step required to set up it's address ? *side note: I have two controllers with only one string attached which is why we have 12 strings 7 controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsMeBobO Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 The CCB controllers all come set to unit one. Each CCB controller is TWO units (one for each string of 50) http://www.lightorama.com/help/hardware_utility.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afilocamo Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 Thank you ItsMeBobO. It's my understanding that the second string on the controller takes the subsequent ID of the unit you configure in the Hardware Utility. For example, if I configure the controller to be unit ID 0A - 0A will control string 1 and 0B will control string 2. Is this an incorrect understanding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsMeBobO Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 (edited) yes assign to 0A 0C 0E Sorry I see you asked a negative question. Youve got it correct. Edited October 30, 2016 by ItsMeBobO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afilocamo Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 Only thing I can potentially think of is selecting the "Auto Configure" button on each controller. I think I may have forgotten this step when I reassigned each unit ID. Is this a necessary step in the process? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 1 minute ago, Afilocamo said: Only thing I can potentially think of is selecting the "Auto Configure" button on each controller. I think I may have forgotten this step when I reassigned each unit ID. Is this a necessary step in the process? No. The AutoConfigure is to find what Comm port number has been assigned by Windows for your USB to RS-485 adapter. Personally I don't recommend that you do that at all. In my opinion, it's better to verify with the Device Manager what Comm Port was assigned and manually select that Comm Port. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afilocamo Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 Seem to be at a bit of an impasse then - not sure why else my PC would only be finding the controller i'm plugged directly into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Laff Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 what do have the max unit set to in hardware utility if your controllers ID's are high numbers the max no has to be set beyond that to find all controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsMeBobO Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Screen snaps may help others diagnose. Is your max controllers high enough? hmmm is your licence level for multiple controllers? I have alwways had advanced so I dont know if the imposed lower level limits affect HWU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Lower license levels than Advanced WILL NOT see 7 controllers, Basic I think is 2, Basic + is 4, so if the CCB is "2" controller ID's in one controller and you only have a BASIC license, your HWU will never see anything past the 1st CCB string plugged into it, that being 2 controllers. You will need Advanced at a minimum and using CCB's personally I'd definitely recommend the PRO LICENSE level for no further issues with RGB type lighting. Otherwise, as others state, you may not have your HWU controller numbers set correctly. But from your description of the issue, I'm really thinking this may be an license level issue/problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Is the status LED on each of the controllers on steady or flashing? When you changed to u it IDs, did you change each one with no other controllers connected? Sent from my Droid Turbo via Tapatalk, so blame any typos or spelling errors on Android Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 That second one was supposed to start: When you changed the unit IDs... Sometimes I hate auto correct! Sent from my Droid Turbo via Tapatalk, so blame any typos or spelling errors on Android Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownTown Posted November 1, 2016 Share Posted November 1, 2016 Afilocamo, Let's start with the basics and verify that the communications are good downstream. k6ccc asked about the status lights on the remaining controllers. Can you tell us if those lights are on solid (good) or flashing (bad)? If your status lights are flashing on the other controllers, maybe it's time to test the cable that goes from the first CCB to the second one. A bad cable here could be causing your entire problem. On the other hand, if the remaining controllers downstream have status lights that are on solid, then I think it's time to bring a controller (one of the ones that aren't working) back to your PC (or to the location of the first controller), and plug it in. Make sure it's the only controller on the LOR network, and then run HU to see if it will find it. If it does find it, check to verify that the address on the controller is something other than 1 (assuming the the currently working controller is numbered 1). Just want to verify here that the unit ID is what you think it's supposed to be, and that it's something different than what the working controller is. Let us know about those status lights, and try these basic tests to help isolate where your problem is. Keep us posted. D.T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afilocamo Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 Thank you all for your responses and feedback. Appeared that the CAT5 cable i was using to daisy chain each controller was faulty. I replaced the wire and TADA! everything seems to be functioning appropriately now. Thanks all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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