billy1776 Posted December 3, 2018 Share Posted December 3, 2018 I have a setup of 5 CTB16PC controllers and controllers 2 and 3 will not connect. The LED on the board blinks green. Controllers 4-5 do work fine, though. I've swapped out all the cables, and even swapped out the controllers and the problem persists. Controllers 1,4,5 work fine, but 2 and 3 won't connect. Any ideas what could be causing this? Could it be the show? The problem occurs for all sequences. I've tested the channels on the two problem controllers and they test fine using the hardware utility. Thanks, BIll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 3, 2018 Share Posted December 3, 2018 Blinking LED ones should NOT be found with the HU. Are all FIVE of these Gen 3's?, You cant run Gen 2's faster than 115K speed (also the Max for a Black dongle) What is the Daisy chain order? C-># ,#, #, #, # Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy1776 Posted December 3, 2018 Author Share Posted December 3, 2018 14 minutes ago, TheDucks said: Blinking LED ones should NOT be found with the HU. Are all FIVE of these Gen 3's?, You cant run Gen 2's faster than 115K speed (also the Max for a Black dongle) What is the Daisy chain order? C-># ,#, #, #, # The order is 1,2,3,4,5. They are a mix of generations: 1 - Gen 3, v5 2 - Gen 2, v4 3 - Gen 3, v5 4 & 5 - Gen 3, v5 I have a Gen 3, v5 spare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy1776 Posted December 3, 2018 Author Share Posted December 3, 2018 And I confirmed my setting is 57k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 3, 2018 Share Posted December 3, 2018 1 hour ago, billy1776 said: And I confirmed my setting is 57k The 2 that don't work are in the middle , that rules out cable and connections. Speed is within acceptable limits. Power? I don't think the 9V on the CAT5 can phantom power the board enough to light the LED. JUMPERS 😮 Are the LOR-DMX in the correct places Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy1776 Posted December 3, 2018 Author Share Posted December 3, 2018 21 minutes ago, TheDucks said: The 2 that don't work are in the middle , that rules out cable and connections. Speed is within acceptable limits. Power? I don't think the 9V on the CAT5 can phantom power the board enough to light the LED. JUMPERS 😮 Are the LOR-DMX in the correct places Yes both are powered separately. I'll check jumpers, now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy1776 Posted December 3, 2018 Author Share Posted December 3, 2018 Still blinking LEDs. On one sequence, I do get some random channels firing on controller 2. Reset 2 and 3 to factory settings, then set the unit IDs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a31ford Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 (edited) I'm gona go out on a limb.... Ironically, I have seen cables where the are not normal, NOR are they crossover, they are wired like a handset for a phone. DO THIS > TAKE EACH CABLE note BOTH ends of each cable, and VERIFY that the same code is used at EACH END of "That" cable... the code does NOT matter, for any ONE cable, AS LONG AS IT IS THE SAME, at BOTH ends of "that" cable. ( This is RS-485, NOT Ethernet ). Look at each end the same way (generally tang away from you, and contacts facing up), do all ends of each cable the same way. Like I said, as long as the same code is on the SAME pair of ends on the same cable..... cables them-self, can be different from one to the other, as long as the same pair of ends have the same code on any one cable. I cannot overstate this, too many times i have seen one cable, with ends wired differently. WORSE, if one is wired weird, it is quite possible that the 10-Volt DC or the ground is being placed on the RS-485 SIGNAL wires (centre 2 in the cable). The above condition would explain the exact issue you are having..... Greg Edited December 6, 2018 by a31ford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a31ford Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 I'm gona add to my statement above... RS-485 uses a differential voltage system, NOT the same as RS-232's on-off method, the 2 wires of 485 have an op-amp at every station on the 2-wire network, it' looks at ALL signal transitions, if for some reason there is a bias voltage (example the 10V DC), it will "somewhat" see the differential transitions, randomly (like what is happening here). As the length of the cable continues, away from the centre area, the SWR on the cable, will mitigate the problems at both ends (player end and far controller end) causing them to effectively work 99% correctly.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eholden79 Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 I had a similar issue occur and it was a bad cat 5 / network cable downstream. I have a CTB16 PC gen3 which is the 2nd controller in line and it would not control the lights and the LED was blinking not solid on The controller immediately after it (controller 3/ pixicon 16)was not working correctly either. But 1 controller before 5 controllers after them seemed to work fine. I found a damaged cable (small area of insulation stripped, copper exposed) between controllers 3 and 4. I replaced it and now everything works fine. I'd check the cable between 3 and 4. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy1776 Posted December 6, 2018 Author Share Posted December 6, 2018 Thanks, everyone. It ended up being the cable connecting controllers 4-5. I don't know if it was bad (both controllers worked fine), but when I swapped out the cable, controllers 2 and 3 went solid and connected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a31ford Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 Thank you for the update. Your post will help others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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