trooperblazer Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 Not sure how to word this question so here it goes Tonight while playing my show I noticed something strange. One of my 16 channel controllers is only playing the lights at about 50% power or less. Channels 1-8 are playing correctly but channels 9-16 are playing very dim. After the show was completed tonight I ran the HU program and went through everything. The same channels I had problems with work just fine in the HU So I started the show again just to see if it was just a glitch. Nope same thing again. This is happening throughout the whole show of 16 songs. Any guesses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Pursel Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 Need a little more to go on to venture a solution! How many controllers and what type are we dealing with? Is this the first time for the show this year and have you made any changes to the sequences this year? What happens if you swap channel 1 with channel 9? Does channel 1 now dim to 50%? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 On 11/24/2018 at 10:41 PM, trooperblazer said: Not sure how to word this question so here it goes Tonight while playing my show I noticed something strange. One of my 16 channel controllers is only playing the lights at about 50% power or less. Channels 1-8 are playing correctly but channels 9-16 are playing very dim. After the show was completed tonight I ran the HU program and went through everything. The same channels I had problems with work just fine in the HU So I started the show again just to see if it was just a glitch. Nope same thing again. This is happening throughout the whole show of 16 songs. Any guesses? Guess Something is wrong with your Neutral (white) for that bank (and you have a sneak path to the other bank) (assumes 2 main power cords) If you only use 1 cord, then look at Both JUMPERS FROM BANK 1 TO BANK2 TO BE SURE THEY MATCH THE MANUALS INSTRUCTIONS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooperblazer Posted November 28, 2018 Author Share Posted November 28, 2018 I was running one controller plugged into one extension cord on one outlet. I have no divided that into two extension cords to outlets different circuits. No change. Everything else I’ve checked seems to be working correctly. Is it possible I’m overloading my network? I’ve noticed that when everything is running is when I seem to start having problems. But only on this controller. And this is comptroller ID 01. Everything is on one network as of right now. Enhanced at 5000 K I think it is. I’m at work right now so I don’t remember the speed but it supposed to be the max speed except for pixcon. I am running 8 g3 16 channel controllers 5 pixie 2s 1 pixie 16 1cmb 24 8 cmf50 50 w floods Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 I would say that you are on the high side of a network limit 😜 Put the Pixies and the floods on their own network. (without the physical layout, I can't propose a simpler RS485 cable plan) Depending on node count, that Pixie 16 might even want to be on its own, network. More CAT5 is cheap way to avoid expensive hair transplants Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 1 hour ago, trooperblazer said: I was running one controller plugged into one extension cord on one outlet. I have no divided that into two extension cords to outlets different circuits. No change. If I understand what you did, a huge RED flag just went up (unless you did it right). First I want to explain how the supply wiring for a CTB16 controller is configured. In the controller, there is the left side wiring and the right side wiring. It can be configured with a separate power cord for each or a single cord for both sides. when configured for one supply cord, that one cord is connected to either the right or left side, and there is a black and a white jumper wire between the left and right sides to get power and neutral to the side that does not have the input cord connected. If you hook up a second cord, those jumpers MUST be removed. Failure to remove the jumpers when plugging into two different circuits (as you said you did) can result in GFCI trips or blowing breakers and / or burning up wiring. If you did it right, good for you and you can ignore this paragraph... 2 hours ago, trooperblazer said: Is it possible I’m overloading my network? Maybe - depending on how loaded the Pixie controllers. You have less than 200 channels with the exception of the Pixies. Between the six Pixie controllers, you could have over 2,000 pixels or 6,000 channels if you're maxed out. If you do decide to split into two networks, I would put the Pixie 16 on one and everything elese on the other - but that does depend on how the Pixie controllers are loaded. With all that said, this does not SOUND like a networking loading issue. If you test the lights either with a simple test sequence or the Hardware Utility, does the right half of controller 01 still have low intensity? If the lights are low that way, check and make sure those channels are not using a dimming curve that is messing things up for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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