ScottA Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 We have 3 control boxes. Everything was working fine. We attempted to hook a projector up by usb to computer and speakers up to hdmi to computer no lights or sound worked. We went back to the original set up wo projector and now we just get sound and no light show. We are using the test utility and it can't find any units. We tested each unit one at a time and none can be found and the hardware utility hangs. If we can fix that I would love to know how to get the projector to work and how to,hook it up. We have the advanced version of light o Rama. The com ports are working. Any help would be appreciated. Scott and Toni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 If I were to guess, in your switching things around, the comm port that Windows assigns for the LOR USB to RS-485 adapter changed. My recommendation is to open the Windows Device Manager and look at the section for ports to determine what comm port number is assigned to the LOR adapter. Then look at the LOR Network Preferences to confirm that the same comm port number is being used by LOR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottA Posted December 9, 2016 Author Share Posted December 9, 2016 The network preferences and device manager agree - COM3. We have ordered a new 485 adapter. Any other ideas? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 If you have the Hardware Utility up and Comm3 selected, are the status lights on the controllers solid or flashing? If flashing, check for a cable or connector problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottA Posted December 12, 2016 Author Share Posted December 12, 2016 The network preferences and device manager agree - COM3. We have ordered a new 485 adapter. Any other ideas? Thank you! the light in the boxes are blinking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msturtz Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 (edited) ScottA -- The light in the box flashing means it isn't talking to the LOR software. This can happen if the LOR software (Control Panel, Hardware Utility, or others depending on settings) aren't running on the PC, even if all the hardware is working correctly, or it can mean you have the wrong port selected, or it can mean you have a cabling problem, or even a bad adaptor. If you start Hardware Utility, and select COM3, and then click Refresh (make sure you have the max units setting high enough), do you see your controllers? Does the light in the control box stop blinking unless/until you close Hardware Utility? Are they *ALL* blinking, or just some of them? Double- and triple-check you have the correct serial port selected -- if you have more than one USB-SERIAL device connected, it may be hard to tell which one is right. There's a button in hardware utility to scan the available serial ports, but make sure you have at least one controller connected and powered on. Pick up a controller and physically place it right next to the PC, if you have to (or if you're like me, the show PC is a laptop, so maybe you can take it to the controller easier than bringing the controller). Use a known-good Ethernet cable, and connect to just that one controller. You need the light to be on, not flashing. Try a different cable, try a different USB cable, try a different USB port. Don't move beyond this point until the light is on-steady, not flashing. You could do this with each controller individually, if you suspect the controllers themselves. Now you should have one controller working, so you can trust the USB adaptor, the COM port, and the Ethernet cable. Start putting it back together, one piece at a time, making sure to click "refresh" in the hardware utility between each one. Let it scan the network, and make sure it can see the controllers you think it should see -- no more, no less. My guess is you have a bad cable somewhere that is breaking the network. I had this problem when I connected a new controller this year -- everything worked without that controller, but totally freaked out (lights flashing at random, even without the PC connected) when plugging in the new controller. Sounds like a bad controller? Me too. But it turns out I had a bad Ethernet cable, on the completely other end of my network. I have no idea how the network worked before, and adding this controller caused the network to freak out -- but I promise that's what happened. -msturtz Edited December 12, 2016 by msturtz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottA Posted December 12, 2016 Author Share Posted December 12, 2016 mstutz, Thank you for the information. Refresh in the hardware utility shows 0 found units. When the units are on, the lights just blink. We have tried retesting each individually - still 0 units found. The show with 3 controllers worked fine until we tried to add in a projection/video. when that didn't work - I powered off the projector which caused a hard reboot on the show laptop and may have caused a surge? When you say connect an Ethernet cable - just a regular Ethernet from the laptop Ethernet port to the control box? Or are you meaning a USB-serial cable? Thank you, scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philnuffer Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 (edited) Thru the 485 adapter, Scott. Don't hook any controller to the computer without the adapter. Make sure that when you are hooked to the controller that you are using a 6 pin cable, not the 4 pin ones. The 4 pin will work with 1 controller, when hooked to the Left side smaller connector in the controller, but again thru the RS485. Edited December 12, 2016 by philnuffer Additional info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msturtz Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 1 hour ago, ScottA said: Refresh in the hardware utility shows 0 found units. When the units are on, the lights just blink. We have tried retesting each individually - still 0 units found. The show with 3 controllers worked fine until we tried to add in a projection/video. when that didn't work - I powered off the projector which caused a hard reboot on the show laptop and may have caused a surge? When you say connect an Ethernet cable - just a regular Ethernet from the laptop Ethernet port to the control box? Or are you meaning a USB-serial cable? Yeah, it sure sounds like a hardware issue. Do this: Try that USB port with some other device. Anything, but something that doesn't require its own power. Keyboard/mouse, USB thumb drive, etc. Try the USB RS485 adaptor on another PC, and see if it detects it. If it does, maybe try loading LOR software on there, and see if it can talk to your controllers -- you're allowed up to 5 installs. My thought here is to isolate the issue in either the PC, the serial adaptor, or the controller(s). The PC is expensive, but for most people I would think a replacement is readily available, given LOR can run on some really old PC's. The adaptors are cheap, but most people don't keep extras around. The other part might be the 'comm chip'on the controller, which on some of them is replicable, but it isn't a part you'll find at Radio Shack. As far as the cable, yes, I mean an *Ethernet cable*, but it connects from the serial adaptor to the controller, it does not actually carry Ethernet, and you can't connect it to Ethernet. It's RS485 serial data. What I'm suggesting is to make sure this cable is good, by testing it with a different one. -Matt- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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