Hardware utility not recognizing boxes

[jgcorl]

So I just upped my light show this year by incorporating 1 pixie 8 controller, 2 pixie 4 controllers, and 4 of the pixie 2 controllers (pre-loaded).  I realize this isn't much, but for my budget show, it was a big step.  Now I went through the hardware utility naming all the controllers.  My pixie 2 controllers are 1, 3, 5, 7.  My pixie 8 is 9, my pixie 4s are 11 (some weird numbering of 0A, 0B, etc through 10) and 15, and then I have my traditional 16 port controller labeled as #19. 

I set up my show, connected all controllers, the show wasn't running so I brought up the hardware utility again and it only recognized 2 of the pixie 2 controllers, both pixie 4 controllers, and the old 16 port box.  Whenever I tried to test the lights on those controllers though, it randomly lit up different parts of strings on different boxes.

I am stumped with this one.  Should I go back and relabel all the boxes again 1 by 1 (would like to avoid this), or is there something simple I could be missing?  

Long story short, light show won't work and the hardware utility was not detecting my boxes correctly on my light show.  Please help!

[TheDucks]

1) Pixies need to be on their own RED (485HS) adapter

2) The numbering is HEX 0-9,A-F

I prefer the Block approach to IDs. 01-0F  Dumb controllers (as needed). 20-2F first Pixie group, 30-3F send pixie group

KISS: while valid, don't span groups  2A-39 Makes spotting errors hard (and blocks make assignment easy)

Put the dumb stuff on the Black adapter (if you have that, else, just get RED)

Once you get past 16 pixie ports (of 100 nodes), think about putting the rest on another network. Simple shows can push the number of nodes a bi, but not a really active display.

[k6ccc]

First of all, don't get too excited about the HU failing to see all the controllers.  That's pretty common.  Do the scan several times and you will likely get different results.  Look at each controller and verify if the status light is solid or flashing.  You did not mention the wiring order of the controllers (NO, they do NOT need to be in Unit ID order).  Could all the controllers that are not responding be at the end of the network?  That would indicate a cable problem or a bad jack on a controller.

 

[jgcorl]

21 hours ago, TheDucks said:

1) Pixies need to be on their own RED (485HS) adapter

2) The numbering is HEX 0-9,A-F

I prefer the Block approach to IDs. 01-0F  Dumb controllers (as needed). 20-2F first Pixie group, 30-3F send pixie group

KISS: while valid, don't span groups  2A-39 Makes spotting errors hard (and blocks make assignment easy)

Put the dumb stuff on the Black adapter (if you have that, else, just get RED)

Once you get past 16 pixie ports (of 100 nodes), think about putting the rest on another network. Simple shows can push the number of nodes a bi, but not a really active display.

So what if I am running through the mini mp3 director?  I bought it about 5 years ago and keep getting spotty lights showing up through my songs.  Could this be the same issue?  For example, my CCR tree only has 3 strands lighting up a little bit.  It's like it isnt reading correctly.  I tested my lights and unit ID's individually and everything checks out.  

[TheDucks]

55 minutes ago, jgcorl said:

So what if I am running through the mini mp3 director?  I bought it about 5 years ago and keep getting spotty lights showing up through my songs.  Could this be the same issue?  For example, my CCR tree only has 3 strands lighting up a little bit.  It's like it isnt reading correctly.  I tested my lights and unit ID's individually and everything checks out.  

Sorry, no experience with a Director..  But I thing Netork SPEED has a lot to do with this. Pixies take speed.  LOR site does have a chart about speed vs models.  5 years is ancient for some of this hardware.  IIRC 2016 my G3 AC was hot stuff. We are on Gen 2 Pixies (2018).