CONTROLLER NOT DETECTED IN HWU

[bajantechie]

I am no longer seeing one of my controllers in the HWU even though the status LED is solid red. LOR1602W 

Things I have done so far:

Reset the controller - no success 

Change CAT5 cables - no success 

Shut down all other controllers and Plug main CAT5 cable into this controller - no success

All other controllers are working even the ones down stream from the bad one

Any help is appreciated my friends.

Ronald.

P.S. - I have just realized that when I run a sequence the lights on the no show controller is working. (weird) Any ideas why this is happening?

Edited December 28, 2017 by bajantechie

[Mr. P]

Play a sequence and see if they respond. I have had two controllers not show up all season but they still work when I play my show.

[bajantechie]

Thanks Mr. P

I have just realized that exactly. The lights responds to the sequence even though the controller not showing in HWU. (weird though isn't it)

Ronald.

[Bigfrog 59]

I have the same problem, 3 of my controllers do not show up in the HWU but they all work when I run my show. I have a pro license and running ver 4.3.24. ?

[bajantechie]

Wow Bigfrog 59

Surely there must be some reason this is happening. I was hoping someone here may have dealt with this before and had the answer. Guess we will have to talk to LOR to get an answer on this because it's very frustrating not being able to access the unit to make any changes.

Ronald.

[Mr. P]

I personally think that the HU is flakey. I mean I use good quality pure copper cables that I make myself and not that store bought CCA junk. When connected individually they are detected and the only time they become an issue is when I start linking a bunch of them toether. In my case it is my 9th and 11th controller in the line that doesn't show but they play and that is really all that matters to me.

[Santas Helper]

I agree with Mr P on the flakey HU. Because I use Gen1 Controllers, I haven't even opened the HU in years. And yes, I had the same results with HU not seeing all Controllers since 2006. If controllers are working, it's not an issue.

Edited December 28, 2017 by Santas Helper

[bajantechie]

Fair Enough Santas Helper,

But what if you want to change the ID #, or  upgrade the firmware, or run a standalone sequence etc.

 

Ronald.

 

[Mr. P]

50 minutes ago, bajantechie said:

Fair Enough Santas Helper,

But what if you want to change the ID #, or  upgrade the firmware, or run a standalone sequence etc.

 

Ronald.

 

As I stated, I only run into the issue when I link a bunch together. I've never had an issue with just one linked and you are only supposed to have one linked when setting the ID.

[bajantechie]

I Got You Mr. P,

But my problem exist even with only one controller connected. No show...  So we have a flaky HU then?

 

Ronald. 

[TheDucks]

1 minute ago, bajantechie said:

I Got You Mr. P,

But my problem exist even with only one controller connected. No show...  So we have a flaky HU then?

 

Ronald. 

What is the maximum ID set in the upper right corner of HU?  Was this good enough?

[bajantechie]

The Ducks Good Evening

I have 10 controllers and my network is set to 15 Units to save time searching.

Ronald.

[TheDucks]

1 hour ago, bajantechie said:

The Ducks Good Evening

I have 10 controllers and my network is set to 15 Units to save time searching.

Ronald.

Sounds fine as long as they are all controllers for dumb nodes.  

FWIW mine is set to '1F', I have 4 dumb and 2 Pixie4 , so there is a few future spares    (I want another CMB24 for 2018)

[Orville]

Still using older version of LOR Suite 3.8.2, but I have had this happen too, sometimes if I click on the refresh button several times it will finally show up, even had to do this with just one controller connected.  One thing I did and didn't catch and liked to drove me crazy, is I had 2 controllers with the same ID #, and so when you go into the HWU, it would only show me 4 of my 5 controllers.  That liked to drive me insane trying to figure why all the controllers weren't showing up as they should.

Maybe, somehow, one of your controllers got it's ID changed in error and you have two with the same ID?   just a thought and something else to look at. 

BTW: my controller also worked in SE, but it was just mirroring the other controller with the same ID number, but the HWU couldn't locate it, and the HWU isn't smart enough to show you or know there are 2 controllers with the same ID connected, it will only show 1 unit with ID #01 for example if two units share the same ID number, you won't see two separate units with an ID of 01, just one even though 2 are connected and sharing the same number ID, it will only display ONE unit!

  Again, just something you might want to check.

[Al Saunders]

I know this is an older thread but I'm having the same issue. I have a total of 5 controllers on at this time with 3 more about to be connected. I ran the Hardware Utility and it only found #3 and all other 4 controllers were not detected. But the strange thing is for a very short time the undetected controllers flashed through while I was testing the one found controller. The missing controllers are for a mega tree, 3 channel topper and 4 bells. Several channels flashed around the tree and the star flashed a but then stopped. At one point it seemed as though the mega tree was mirroring the found controller. The found controller is the usual metal pro series 16 channel controller and the mega tree is using 3 of them (48 channels) plus 3 channels a 4th one. I'm going to check the "missing" controllers tomorrow evening to make sure their unit id is correct then try running the Hardware Utility again. If it doesn't see all of them I'll try running a sequence to see it they work but don't she in HWU for some reason like above.

Al

[Al Saunders]

In case anyone is wondering, No I was not drunk when I made the above post. LOL

I just read it at work and thought, WOW I made a bunch of grammatical errors!

Sorry if anyone got confused reading it.

Al

[Mr. P]

12 minutes ago, Al Saunders said:

In case anyone is wondering, No I was not drunk when I made the above post. LOL

I just read it at work and thought, WOW I made a bunch of grammatical errors!

Sorry if anyone got confused reading it.

Al

I was drinking when I read it so it sounded perfect to me.  😁

[Orville]

That more than likely sounds like a bad cat5 cable along the chain.  I invested in a Cat Cable tester and wouldn't be without one, as it's nearly impossible to know if a cat cable is bad or not without one.  

Also make sure the connectors{Cat cable jacks on the inside of the controller on the PC Board} on the first controller not being found isn't loose, also check the inside of the cat cable jack for bent pins, this could also cause that problem.  Only other issue could be a possible firmware update is needed.

Other than these not sure what the issue could be causing the problem.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Orville

[Al Saunders]

6 hours ago, Orville said:

That more than likely sounds like a bad cat5 cable along the chain.

Hey Orville,

Thanks for the info! I'll definitely check the cat5 cables. When my electrician brother-in-law and I made one years ago I kinda remember checking it with a multimeter. I think we were checking for continuity per pin. I don't have one of those checking devises so I'll try this old school way.

Thanks again for the great info.

Al

[k6ccc]

14 minutes ago, Al Saunders said:

I don't have one of those checking devises so I'll try this old school way.

Invest the eight bucks:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OUFX38W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Orville]

I agree with Jim.  I bought mine, same one Jim references in the URL when I first started in this hobby, that little gem is not only a time saver, you know at a glance if there's a problem with the cat cable. 

When I got into this you could get those testers for as low as $2.99 if you were lucky, I paid $3.99 for mine when I finally got to ordering one back in 2010.     So a $4.00 jump in price is still cheap, considering that's not a hefty jump in 8 years, unlike other things that have really hiked up in price!

That little device has saved me a lot of grief, far less down time fixing and looking for a bad cat cable than you could even imagine. 

Well worth the low investment cost for one.  Believe us, in this hobby you really do NEED one of those testers for checking cat cables and it also checks telephone cables too.  So double duty device.

[Al Saunders]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the link and great advice. For some reason I thought a tester like that was around $60.?

I just ordered one and will test the cat5 cable in question. I already swapped out the cable in question and checked the connection on the other short run cat5 cables. I didn't have time to hook up my laptop to see if swapping the cable fixed it or not before my wife had dinner ready. You know, priorities right?!

Again, thanks for the help.

Al

5 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Invest the eight bucks:

 

[Orville]

11 hours ago, Al Saunders said:

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the link and great advice. For some reason I thought a tester like that was around $60.?

I just ordered one and will test the cat5 cable in question. I already swapped out the cable in question and checked the connection on the other short run cat5 cables. I didn't have time to hook up my laptop to see if swapping the cable fixed it or not before my wife had dinner ready. You know, priorities right?!

Again, thanks for the help.

Al

 

I know, you think tester and uh oh!, I got to spend a ton of money for something that I may not really need.   Fortunately these testers are really dirt cheap and mine has more than paid for itself the first time I ever used it to find a bad cable.   Especially if you're like me you have a back-stock of all sizes and colors and need to know if it's good or bad when pulling one out to use.  

I've gotten bad ones right out of the bag brand new and never used by being miswired, had one I bought and it was actually missing 3 wires in it!  So even a new cable could have a fault that isn't readily noticeable or if you buy them on line and then get them, a bad one can show up since you can't see the ones you're buying to examine them, like in a retail store that may sell such things.

So mine sure saved me a lot of headaches trying to find issues when a controller wouldn't be found or work for some reason, usually always turned out to be a cat cable that was the culprit, only had one that a critter got inside and blew a fuse on one side.

So if your controllers may be outside where little critters, like lizards especially, could climb inside your controller and cause issues, here's a cheap and inexpensive way to keep them out {they always enter via the Cat5 cable entry/exit port}, go to your local Home Depot or Lowes, buy about 1-2" diameter insulation foam that wraps around PVC pipe to keep it protected and cool, these are about 6' long, not sure what the cost is now, but when I bought mine the cost was like $1.00 for 6-12' length of it{I use the gray colored one}, get that, cut pipe foam into small sections, only about 1/2" in size{maybe 3/4"} and stuff it up around the Cat5 Cables until it's snug around them, {I put it in through the top port access area and also inside from the circuit board access port down to the lower port access point and it meets the other port in the middle by the foam touching}, makes it practically impossible for anything to get inside the controller, it definitely helps keep bugs and critters out of your controller.  Been using this stuff for years now and never have an issue with anything getting inside my controllers.

If a wet lizard gets in there it can actually cause a short and if lucky, just blow a fuse, but it can do even more damage if it touches 2 contacts that can short something and start a fire, or blow a triac, then you have a dead channel or even fry your circuit board inside.  And if a fire would start because of a critter and no one is around to know, smell or see that something is burning, that could be really bad.

So I always recommend to find something and some way to keep critters from getting inside your controllers, just keeps everything safer in doing so.  They also have weather proof cat cable dangles that can be put in those entry/exit ports for cat cables as well.  Those will seal the hole as well, but aren't real cheap, not that expensive, and depending on the type you may have to run very short cat cables from the controllers jacks to the cat cable dangle, some have a short length of cat cable pre-installed and will usually reach the controller cat cable port, then you plug the cat cables into the controller from the outside of the controller into this dangle.  You'd have to buy a dual port one since the controllers need two cat 5 cables one in and one out.  So the cost is a bit more for the dual version, but that's what would be required.

Me I like to try and do things cheaply, but work reliably and safely, and the pipe foam works for me.  Like said, been using it for years and no critters get into my controllers.

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by Orville

[TheDucks]

I already had a Klein VDV Scout (1), from when I wired houses for Voice, Data, and Antenna. In addition to the pair checking, it had ID plugs to attach at the far end that you could read at the punch down (great when yo also have bundles of CAT5), and it had a Toner (you did need the probe end) function.

All handy if yo play with deenergized wires. A little  more Pricy $89 (there is an improved model that combines the ID and pai check in one end piece

[Al Saunders]

1 hour ago, Orville said:

buy about 1-2" diameter insulation foam that wraps around PVC pipe to keep it protected and cool, these are about 6' long

Great idea! I've never stuffed the port at the bottom in previous years but when I checked the controllers last night (all numbered correctly and stating no conn, laptop not connected) I noticed a lady bug in one of them. I flicked her/him out of it. We do have those small lizards in our yard and I just found a tiny black snake the other day that I used a flat shovel to toss it into our woods. So we do have critters.

I have some leftover of that foam pipe insulation from insulating our water treatment pipes in our garage so I'll cut some down and do as suggested in stuffing that opening at the bottom of the case.

Thanks again, really appreciate all the help. I might be able to try the connection tonight.

Al