filetme Posted October 25, 2020 Author Share Posted October 25, 2020 45 minutes ago, TheDucks said: There should be +12 on the Port + to Neg at the board PSU in. BTW is com Listener running (the CL icon is on the taskbar) Yes. The com listener is fine. I have tried switching power sources. I have tried various RS485s. I have tried multiple CAT5 cables. All with the same result. Even if the problem was between a port and the controller ... shouldn't the LED be blinking? The fact that NOTHING is happening at LED1 ... does that mean that the controller card is bad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 Have you preformed the Board Reset (Hold the button while applying power. The LED should flash fast ,then you can release the button)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filetme Posted October 25, 2020 Author Share Posted October 25, 2020 6 hours ago, TheDucks said: Have you preformed the Board Reset (Hold the button while applying power. The LED should flash fast ,then you can release the button)? Yes, I have tried that. Holding the reset button does not seem to do anything ... neither when power cycling nor during regular operation. The LED1 does not light up at ANY time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filetme Posted October 25, 2020 Author Share Posted October 25, 2020 6 hours ago, TheDucks said: Have you preformed the Board Reset (Hold the button while applying power. The LED should flash fast ,then you can release the button)? Yes, I have tried that. Holding the reset button does not seem to do anything ... neither when power cycling nor during regular operation. The LED1 does not light up at ANY time. This morning the HU is now finding 0 units so overnight the Pixie has become completely unresponsive. I am pretty sure the board has gone bad but how could one even know if this is the case? Unfortunately my show starts tomorrow night so this is pretty rotten timing for the board to die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filetme Posted October 25, 2020 Author Share Posted October 25, 2020 I have a technician looking at the board right now and he believes that the voltage regulator VR2 is loaded or shorted. He is looking for the schematics does anyone know where they can be found? The manual is not really that helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibblejr Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Helping a loot of people with pixies. Some times when it finds a unit ID and unknown device you have antivirus running. I just helped someone two days ago with this again. He said he had nothing but after all else failed a reboot showed Windows Defender has blocked the HU. Once he quit Defender all was well. The other problem I have seen as well, user connects the pcb directly to Ethernet port on computer- instantly fried the pixie16. Since you have no status indicator light this is my opinion. JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 23 hours ago, Don said: Not flashing or solid? To me that would indicate either a fatal problem with the board, or a fuse somewhere that's loose/blown. 4 hours ago, filetme said: I have a technician looking at the board right now and he believes that the voltage regulator VR2 is loaded or shorted. Sounds like something fatal with the board. I'm about 95%ish sure that you will need to contact LOR and work out a replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filetme Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 10 hours ago, Don said: Sounds like something fatal with the board. I'm about 95%ish sure that you will need to contact LOR and work out a replacement. .Yea by the end of the day he had pretty much narrowed it down to issues in the PIC DSPIC33EP512MU810-I/PT Not much I can do about that :S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 2 hours ago, filetme said: .Yea by the end of the day he had pretty much narrowed it down to issues in the PIC DSPIC33EP512MU810-I/PT Not much I can do about that :S Ouch! You can't just go anyplace for a PIC (configured). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filetme Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 Just now, TheDucks said: Ouch! You can't just go anyplace for a PIC (configured). That was going to be my next question ... I we purchased a PIC replacement (because you can buy them almost anywhere) ... how do we load the Pixie config/code onto it? Has anyone every done that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 22 minutes ago, filetme said: That was going to be my next question ... I we purchased a PIC replacement (because you can buy them almost anywhere) ... how do we load the Pixie config/code onto it? Has anyone every done that? LOR is NOT going to give you the code (and they probably blew the copy fuse). Then, you would need the interface JIG they use (if not pre programmed). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filetme Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 1 hour ago, TheDucks said: LOR is NOT going to give you the code (and they probably blew the copy fuse). Then, you would need the interface JIG they use (if not pre programmed). That makes sense. We are talking an emergency replacement with LOR. Man talk about some bad timing. Thanks for all the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 LOR understands that almost everyone is on a deadline this time of the year. They are almost amazing on dealing with problems like this. They will take care of you. In the longer term, think about what is critical in your show that maybe you should have spares in your inventory. One of the most important (and people forget about) is at least one spare USB to RS-485 adapter. You have one of those fail, and your show (or a portion of it if you have multiple networks) goes dark. Very handy for testing, and they are fairly inexpensive (always buy the Red high speed ones). Spare controllers are obvious and cost more, but over time, it's not that hard to acquire some spares. And yes, I put my money where my mouth is - I have at least one spare for every controller type in my show, a red USB adapter, and even another computer that COULD run my show (it does for 10 months out of the year). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 And extra CAT5 (or materials to make your own) Cable. Usually, those cables are strung out and not in conduit or other protected areas. cuts or crushing is possible. Got Pixies? A spare PSU for each voltage/type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 2 minutes ago, TheDucks said: And extra CAT5 (or materials to make your own) Cable. Usually, those cables are strung out and not in conduit or other protected areas. cuts or crushing is possible. Yep. Most of mine is in conduit, but I usually have at least a half mile of cat-5 in stock. And bags full of connectors. 3 minutes ago, TheDucks said: Got Pixies? A spare PSU for each voltage/type. Lots of them. In fact over the weekend, I ended up using one of my many spare 350 watt 12 volt power supplies to power a single Wifi access point - talk about overkill, but it was handy. That will get cleaned up so the AP is on the battery system, but it worked for now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. P Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 My problem isn't spares, I have enough spare controllers and adapters that I could run an entire second show. My problem is I keep running out of lights. 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 40 minutes ago, Mr. P said: My problem isn't spares, I have enough spare controllers and adapters that I could run an entire second show. My problem is I keep running out of lights. 🤣 Yup! Know that one. I have another HC order coming in Wed. I really should get another Pixie4 for the new location (many of my Controller cases have a CCMB24 and a Pixie. I robbed the Pixie from a standalone and added it to my standalone CMB24. Now I have this case with PSU and no boards 😲) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filetme Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 Thanks all.... I can tell you that LOR has most definitely taken care of me ... I will have my new controller by night 3 of the event. I will most definitely petition some funding for spare components. It makes a lot of sense and I never want to be in this situation again ... talk about stress. Thanks all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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