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Lights Not Working


ericg2000

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not sure where this should be posted... my lights are working.  i am trying to test my halloween show and it's not working.  i can load hardware utility and turn the light on and test rgb, when i play a sequence, nothing happens.  i am running S5, and 16 ch controller and a pixie 2.  i have the control panel loaded, and i have control lights selected in the sequencer and nothing happens.  i've tested before inside my living room and the rgb strings worked.  i haven't changed anything and now it's all dark.  i must be missing something, and ideas?

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Dumb question.  When  you say that you have Control Lights checked, do you mean the menu item under View, or the pullout tab on the right side?

 

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Talking about simple. I pulled my hair out until I found the one stupid cat5 cable that wasn’t all the way seated in. After I heard the click - bamm - show’s on!

so check your cables and connectors. 

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Problem #1 - relying on HU as an indicator that your light will work during a show- HU is as I refer to it, a back door that as long as the Unit ID is set and your lights are good, it WILL work.

Problem #2 - you need to check the pixie unit ID in HU and ensure it remained as you set it. I imagine it has been reset to unit ID 1 due to not setting the dip switches (if it has them)

Problem #3 - Check you Network Config that's probably not set correctly

Im no help with S5 though - but you really need to start with those 3 above in that order. 

JR

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i didn't even think to check the unit id, i have three of the pixie 2 controllers but only using one for halloween.  when i messed with them a while back i set it with the dip switches then i reset them and set the id in HU.  i will verify that today and report back.  thanks.

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i don't know what's going on... i've checked controller id names and they are correct.  in HU i can see all 4 controllers, and turn on and off the lights connected to the ctb 16 units, but the pixie 2 will not turn on.  when i had the pixie 2 by itself the lights worked in both HU and in the sequence.  so i am guessing i need to run the regular 16 ch controllers on my com 3 with the low speed dongle, and the pixie on com 4 with the high speed dongle?  i was under the impression i could run it all on the high speed dongle, am i right or totally wrong? 

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If your 16 channel AC controllers are Gen 3, then they can be run on a 500K and / or enhanced network.  Please give up a fairly detailed description of your network.  Something like this:

Com3 = Regular Network - 56K non-enhanced > CTB16 unit 01 > CTB16 unit 02 > CTB16 Unit 03

Com4 = AuxA Network - 500K Enhanced > Pixie2 unit 11 > Pixie4 Unit 13 > Pixie2  Unit 12

Or if you are really fancy, a drawing like this:

 

LOR_Network_2016-07-19.jpg

Yea, I know that on the forum, the drawing is a bit hard to read, b ut if you go to it directly, it is better:

http://www.newburghlights.org/IMAGES/LOR_Network_2016-07-19.jpg

 

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i tried this earlier i think, with no luck.  i've messed with so much this evening, i can't really say if it was this exactly or not.  but here is what i just configured.  i have all Gen 3 AC 16 controllers. 

Reg Network: Com 3, 57.6K enhanced (black dongle)

Aux A: Com 4, 500K enhanced (red dongle)

my AC controllers are Unit ID 01, 02 and 04.  my pixie 2 (new ordered in spring sale) is Unit ID 0B, set by the dip switches.  i noticed you have your pixie 2 labeled as 11 ans 12.  is that my problem, how it's named? 

this is why i do a halloween show... yes my neighborhood (which is a court) gets too many kids to count, and we block all thru traffic so everyone can safely walk in the street, and everyone likes the lights, and to test my new hardware, so i have the bugs worked out for christmas. 

 

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7 minutes ago, ericg2000 said:

i tried this earlier i think, with no luck.  i've messed with so much this evening, i can't really say if it was this exactly or not.  but here is what i just configured.  i have all Gen 3 AC 16 controllers. 

Reg Network: Com 3, 57.6K enhanced (black dongle)

Aux A: Com 4, 500K enhanced (red dongle)

my AC controllers are Unit ID 01, 02 and 04.  my pixie 2 (new ordered in spring sale) is Unit ID 0B, set by the dip switches.  i noticed you have your pixie 2 labeled as 11 ans 12.  is that my problem, how it's named? 

this is why i do a halloween show... yes my neighborhood (which is a court) gets too many kids to count, and we block all thru traffic so everyone can safely walk in the street, and everyone likes the lights, and to test my new hardware, so i have the bugs worked out for christmas. 

 

1- the black adapter cannot be set for 500K or enhanced only 57.6 K so that needs to be your LOR Regular network - if you feel you need two networks, but seriously you will be good with only one.

2- Keep it simple, you do not need more than 1 network with what you are running.

Use the red adapter in LOR reg, and set the speed to 500K enhanced.

Set your pixie IDs consecutive (not required) but easier to remember. They will use 2 unit ID's each so if you have Units 1,2 and 3 AC controllers, your first pixie would be 4 and 5. second pixie 6 and 7, third 7 and 8

Daisy chain them and you are golden once the unit ID's are set properly. Remember you only set the first ID of each unit and the system will set the second ID.

JR

Edited by dibblejr
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so i dont need to use the binary number, i can use regular numbers for naming?  that makes is easier right there.  and as for two networks, i've tried it and a single network, no luck.  i will mess with it again tomorrow and report back

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19 minutes ago, ericg2000 said:

i tried this earlier i think, with no luck.  i've messed with so much this evening, i can't really say if it was this exactly or not.  but here is what i just configured.  i have all Gen 3 AC 16 controllers. 

Reg Network: Com 3, 57.6K enhanced (black dongle)

Aux A: Com 4, 500K enhanced (red dongle)

my AC controllers are Unit ID 01, 02 and 04.  my pixie 2 (new ordered in spring sale) is Unit ID 0B, set by the dip switches.  i noticed you have your pixie 2 labeled as 11 ans 12.  is that my problem, how it's named? 

this is why i do a halloween show... yes my neighborhood (which is a court) gets too many kids to count, and we block all thru traffic so everyone can safely walk in the street, and everyone likes the lights, and to test my new hardware, so i have the bugs worked out for christmas. 

 

Relooking I missed your unit ID #'s so this is what 

 

6 minutes ago, ericg2000 said:

so i dont need to use the binary number, i can use regular numbers for naming?  that makes is easier right there.  and as for two networks, i've tried it and a single network, no luck.  i will mess with it again tomorrow and report back

You don't need 2 networks.

Heres what to do.

Your AC units are 1,2,4.

Set your pixies to all dip switches off, allows you to manuall set the unit ID. Make the first pixie2 unit 6 it will assign units (6 and 7). 2nd pixie 8 ( 8 and 9) and third 11 (11 and 12) or you could keep them in order and use 0A (0A and 0B) daisy chain all together.

The only reason this would not work is the black adapter- it is not capable of high speeds. Only the red. Best to get at least 1 spare red adapter since it can be used either way. Or your network internally is not set correctly. Once again forget about testing in HU. It really only tells you if your lights are wired correctly. IMO

JR

Edited by dibblejr
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22 minutes ago, ericg2000 said:

so i dont need to use the binary number, i can use regular numbers for naming?  that makes is easier right there.  and as for two networks, i've tried it and a single network, no luck.  i will mess with it again tomorrow and report back

Naming?  Unit ID is an  device address

Unit ID's are Hexadecimal (0-9A-F). The pulldown in the HU is that way.  You can skip ID's if you license level (count) is high enough. I chose to follow LOR's mapping they list as part of their canned shows they have in the store (just in case ;) )

 

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so still no luck.  i turned all the pixie dip switches off and renamed it.  i checked all the other unit ID names again an they are good.  i changed one questionable network cable, checked all connections and everything is good. 

i turned enhanced off, and one sequence played and controlled the lights.  i tried another and it gave an error saying it needed to be enhanced, so i turned it back on and nothing worked again.  so i'm guessing it has to do with that setting. 

my controllers are as follows:

01-16PC-G3 ver 1.06, 02-16PC-G3 ver 1.06, 04-16-PC-G3 ver 1.06 and 0A-Pixie 2 ver 1.03

Network Config: COM4, 500k LOR Fastest, enhanced,  com listener port 4

what should i check?  why will enhanced work on one sequence and not another?  i assume because of the motion effect.  is it a firmware issue in my controllers?

i have it wired from the dongle to #4, #2, #1 then pixie 2

pro license, and it's registered on the show laptop

 

 

 

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Just now, dibblejr said:

Shoot me your cell and I will call you

JR

 

Just now, dibblejr said:

Shoot me your cell and I will call you

JR

Or call me. I may be wrong but wasn’t we in the middle of setting this up?

JR

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I’m not sure about the motion effect because o don’t use S5.

Fid you install firmware update?

I don’t know why the forum is separating my posts tonight

I am on my phone so maybe it has something to do with it

JR

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i have not updated firmware yet in the controllers.  i stopped for now to watch the baseball game.  what else is missing from the network settings?

 

 

 

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i don't know what the deal is.  i got a spare pc16 controller and another pixie2, made a test program threw in some effects and it worked.  i traded out the pixie controllers, made a new program tried it on my display and nothing.  i guess tomorrow i'm going to start swapping boxes one my one and try each time.  i just don't see why it worked on the test and not outside on the lights. 

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