alchrisr01 Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 Hi folks and Merry Christmas! On several occasions I have seen one of my controllers locked in some strange mode or something. It is a CTB16pc I have had for many years with an LOR box and inside of another container as well. It is used to control 2 arches made up of 800 incan lights each using 8 channels each. What I see is that the arches are not functioning and two channels, 1 and 7, are randomly flashing. This just seems to start randomly and stop just as randomly and work just fine. It does not happen on the same songs each time. Sometimes it may take a song or three to get back in line. When I see this happen, I have tried to power down the controller to give it a reset while the show is running, but that has no effect. Today I opened up the controller to check for varmints and it was clean as could be. I unplugged the cat5 cables to make sure I had solid connections and they seemed OK. This is not the last box on the network, there are two behind it, and those have not failed to work properly. While I was checking it over, I left it unplugged for a few minutes to see if that would reset any network comm issue. I am at a loss and wondered if anyone else has seen this happen? Thanks, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchrisr01 Posted December 2, 2017 Author Share Posted December 2, 2017 I posted this last year and found the same thing happening last night. I unplugged the power to the controller and it reset and it started working fine again. This unit is the next to the last 2 controllers on the network. It is a CTB16PC in a LOR enclosure and additionally put inside of another box. The last 2 controllers run the mini trees and they work with no issue, so I think that means there are no cable/signal issues? Sometimes it goes for days with no issue the it just hits. Any ideas? Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 13 minutes ago, alchrisr01 said: I posted this last year and found the same thing happening last night. I unplugged the power to the controller and it reset and it started working fine again. This unit is the next to the last 2 controllers on the network. It is a CTB16PC in a LOR enclosure and additionally put inside of another box. The last 2 controllers run the mini trees and they work with no issue, so I think that means there are no cable/signal issues? Sometimes it goes for days with no issue the it just hits. Any ideas? Chris Inside another box? Maybe it is overheating. Folk may not realize the the box surface is part of the cooling. You just added a layer of insulation. What kind of lights are you driving with this box? (Amps per channel? total Amps, all on) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfuller8400 Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 What generation is the CTB16? You might check to see if there is a firmware update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchrisr01 Posted December 2, 2017 Author Share Posted December 2, 2017 Thanks for the replies. CTB16PC V2 ver 4.40 (latest firmware) Arch controller - 800 incans if all on pulling 5.18 amps All my controllers are in those red plastic light storage boxes sold by the box stores. I cut 4 u-shaped access holes to feed all the wires through and all the connections are inside making for a bit neater look. The mini tree box has two of these assemblies inside, three others only have one including the unit in question. I suppose i could shoot it with the infrared when the problem occurs and check the temp. Overheat was my first thought as well. It could be a weak solder joint on the board that just got weaker over time (this board has been in use since 2010 and this started last year). I have a pic but can't seem to get it to post. chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 28 minutes ago, alchrisr01 said: Thanks for the replies. CTB16PC V2 ver 4.40 (latest firmware) Arch controller - 800 incans if all on pulling 5.18 amps All my controllers are in those red plastic light storage boxes sold by the box stores. I cut 4 u-shaped access holes to feed all the wires through and all the connections are inside making for a bit neater look. The mini tree box has two of these assemblies inside, three others only have one including the unit in question. I suppose i could shoot it with the infrared when the problem occurs and check the temp. Overheat was my first thought as well. It could be a weak solder joint on the board that just got weaker over time (this board has been in use since 2010 and this started last year). I have a pic but can't seem to get it to post. chris I would not expect 5A of loads to heat much. Toss that idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchrisr01 Posted December 3, 2017 Author Share Posted December 3, 2017 I found the master reset instructions on the LOR support page and will give that a shot tomorrow. I just looked out and saw it going nuts again. Unplug it, plug back in and it works fine again....for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prevue12 Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 (edited) I have had similar issues, and if you have both controllers plugged into the same extension cord, try powering the problem controller from different one (not a "T" but straight from an outlet if you can). It solved my issues (and I chased everything for days until someone told me to try this). Edited December 3, 2017 by prevue12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little_b Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 Having the same problem here. I was seeing it across all the controllers. I turned the network speed down from 500k to 57.6k and the problem went away, except the initial controller that started all this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchrisr01 Posted December 6, 2017 Author Share Posted December 6, 2017 I did the master re-set Sunday and so far so good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchrisr01 Posted December 10, 2017 Author Share Posted December 10, 2017 Just to update - even with snow in Alabama everything still works! It has been a week since the reset of the arch controller and no issues as yet. Keep that solution in mind if you have an issue. It is simple and quick. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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