Lights Not Staying On During Show

[CypressLights]

I have upgraded to S2 and everything...EVERYTHING has worked fine until last night.

I have one CTB-16D board set to unit 01. I have sequences called 22, 22-s, 21, 21-s, etc.. The controller is running my countdown (http://www.cypresslights.com/pics_10_2007.htm second row down). The sequence is a 3 minute song with no timing (so the channels are either on or off).

Here's my trouble. Each day the scheduler runs the appropriate show. The show has one musical sequence...the sequence turns on the channels to make the number for the number of days left...

Until yesterday, the coundown has worked everyday for the last week. Yesterday, I added an outlet to channel 16 that would turn on a 60 watt spot light to illuminate the sign at night.

When I ran the new sequence that turned on the spot light to 50%, it worked just fine. When I made a new show that was to run the 22-s (22 days with spotlight) my problems started.

The scheduler started the show as it should. The music started playing and the countdown lit and so did the spot light. After 3 seconds the lights simply went off (as if they were commanded to.)

The sequence is fine. Channel settings are correct. The whole rows are indicating they should be turning the channels on........

At one point, after many-many restarts, the show run just fine and I left it until tonight. I unplugged the controller to add a couple more outlets (not hooked up to anything yet)...and the problem has come back!

I read some threads and have rebooted the controller and restarted the PC and so on.

Is there something I have missed? Can someone help ease my frustration

Matthew-

[CypressLights]

Update:

So I left the music playing and about half hour later the song restarted again but the lights 'magically' decided they were going to start working again. now they've been looping fine for the last 15 minutes.

What the heck???!!!??? :shock:

[LightORamaDan]

Not exactly sure what the problem is but I do have some guesses.

Something may be happening on the PC that causes things to "stall" for a couple of seconds. In that couple of seconds, the controller thinks the PC has crashed and shuts itself down. The PC resumes and the controller is happy again BUT the channel that was on steady is now off.

Now I do not know if that is the problem but if it is there is something that may help out. To get things to recover, you can change the sequence a little. With your sequence, have the intensity change from 100% to 99% for 1/10 of a second out of every second. That will constantly force commands to the controller and if there is a time where the controller shuts down it will automatically recover because there is a constant stream of commands to it. You will most likely not see the difference in 100% and 99% so it will look like the light is steady on.

Dan

[CypressLights]

That makes sense, but the channels that are on are at 60%. Wouldn't that cause a constant refresh?

I wonder if I have to have timings. Currently when I made the sequence I used a song that was about 3 minutes long. The menu came up asking about timing and I said no timing (so I just had to click one piece of a row to turn a channel either on, off or 60%, etc.)

But then I come back to why does it start to run, then go off, then a few songs later it starts back up and runs fine.




Attached files H_22-s.lms

[cmoore60]

Is the spotlight an incadescent light? You did not mention this. People have had problems the florescnet lights causing noice on the LOR network. With the sequence running that you want to run, try unplugging the spotlight to see if all works fine or not. Just a hunch, but why not try.

Chuck

[rwertz]

m@thelightaddict wrote:

Wouldn't that cause a constant refresh?

I believe that is exactly what Dan was trying to accomplish. After the command is sent it will be lost if your computer fails to consistently send the “heartbeat” signal. The same thing happens if you unplug the CAT5 cable after turning on the lights between songs.

Changing the intensity 1% would force new commands to be sent throughout the song. That way the intensity command would be “refreshed” if it was lost due to unexpected communication lags.

(If you are running at 60% intensity you would temporarily go to 59%)

[CypressLights]

The spot light is incandescent. The sign lights are regular clear c7's. I get it now. Maybe the initiall signal is being sent and the lights go on, but then since no other signals follow the controller says "oh, no more signals, I'll just turn off and wait". But them a few minutes later the song restarts and another signal is sent so the controller says "there's another signal, time to turn on"

I think maybe there are not enough signals being sent. I'll change the sequence to have a few timing marks in it. Maybe the controller just doesn't get enough kicks in the pants to get going with only one quick command.

[rwertz]

Don’t forget, along with adding timing marks, you’ll need to slightly vary the intensity. I don’t believe the LOR software will send a new command unless the channel state changes.

[CypressLights]

Okay, now I'm rethinking this again. All last year I rean this countdown the same way. Until the other day when I added the channel for this years spotlight, that's when this problem arose. I use the same sequence, but just turned channel 16 on to 60% for the spot light.

Pos 1 Pos 2

222 222
1 3 1 3
1 3 1 3
1 3 1 3
1 3 1 3
555 555
4 6 4 6
4 6 4 6 /
4 6 4 6 /
4 5 4 6 /
777 777 SPOT

CH:

06 1-3
07 1-6
08 1-2 + 1-4 + 1-5 + 1-7
09 2-1
10 2-2
11 2-3
12 2-4
13 2-5
14 2-6
15 2-7
16 Spot Light

The configuration above uses 12 conductor wire and lets me run a 29 day count. The sequence is a musical sequence with 16 channels, all set to LOR controller unit 01.x.

When I first made the sequence file (H_26) I chose the option "No Timing Marks" and I did not have the spot light up. It had channels: 1-3 + 1-8 to make the '2' and it had 2-(1+2+4+5+6+7) to make the '6'. I use the intensity option at 60% and clicked in the sequence on each channel to turn it on. I saved this as H (for Halloween) and 26 (for 26 days). Then I removed channel 2-6 to make a '5' and saved that one, then did 24, 23, 22, 21, 20...

I made shows with the respective day file set as a music sequence, then saved the show with the same name. Then I use the scheduler to turn on the day file from 12 am to 12 am.

On day number 22, I finally added the spot light. It's a two-wire base with a 60 watt incandescent light bulb in it (that I used last year for the same purpose).

I opened the sequence for day 22 and turned on channel 16 to 60% and saved the sequence. From there I changed the days for 21, 20, 19... and made a second sequence that would run the same days but with out the spot light.

Ever since I added the spot light, it does not run properly...but it eventually would. Last night, I added channels 2 and 3 for two other lights to run. When I enabled the shows, all lihghts came on for 3 seconds then went off. As the song reset, all lights came on and then stayed on, and have been on all night.

Why would it not work the first time it is turned on, but when the sequence loops to the same file it suddenly goes on and stays on. When I run the sequence file direct from the editor, it works just fine.

Now I'm really confused

[LightORamaDan]

In your show is there only one sequence, the sequence in the Musical Section?

Please post a copy of the sequence.

[rwertz]

He has a sequence attached to his post from Sat Oct 11th, 2008 11:20 am.

[CypressLights]

One of the original sequences that worked without problem...

Attached files H_25.lss

[CypressLights]

...and here is the show that drove it...

Attached files H_25.lss

[CypressLights]

Here is a sequence that does not work right...

Attached files H_20-s.lms

[CypressLights]

...and here's the show for it...

Attached files H_20.lss

[CypressLights]

Tonight I made a complete new sequence from scratch. When it plays, the lights light for 3 seconds then the lights go off but the music still plays. When it gets to the end and starts over again, the lights go on and stay on for the rest of the show.

Looks like the problem is originating during the first run of the show before it loops.

The new sequence I made has timing marks throughout at 0.04 seconds. I even run channel 1 with a 5 watt light (single C7). I turned it on for a few seconds with sparkle, then a few more seconds with twinkle then faded it... so basically I was sending multiple commands to the controller the whole time.

Help...my Halloween show starts on the 24th (12 days) :?

[LightORamaDan]

m@thelightaddict wrote:

Tonight I made a complete new sequence from scratch. When it plays, the lights light for 3 seconds then the lights go off but the music still plays. When it gets to the end and starts over again, the lights go on and stay on for the rest of the show.

Looks like the problem is originating during the first run of the show before it loops.

The new sequence I made has timing marks throughout at 0.04 seconds. I even run channel 1 with a 5 watt light (single C7). I turned it on for a few seconds with sparkle, then a few more seconds with twinkle then faded it... so basically I was sending multiple commands to the controller the whole time.

Help...my Halloween show starts on the 24th (12 days) :?

We will look a little deeper into the issue here but I still believe that if you pulse an intensity change to those channels it will eleminate the problem. They may flicker off briefly at that 3 second point but will stay on. Send a command every 1 second that reduces the intensity by 1% for the .04 seconds you have in your grid. You can copy that first second then do a "Paste Multiple" to have it repeated for the entire seqeunce. It will take minute to try this.

Dan

[bob]

I wonder if I have to have timings.

No, there's no need for timings.

[bossgroove]

Just thinking. Have you tried exporting the channel line up again from the sequence that works, and then importing the same channel line up again to the ones that aren't working?

[schristi69]

Hve you ruled out that it is not a computer issue? Is this a dedicated machine? Any other software running in the background? Tried running your sequences on a different computer? Programs like Outlook, Norton Antivirus, etc sometimes decide to take all of the CPU cycles for whatever they ar doing. This might interrrupt your signals.