Having problems with G3 MP3 director lagging issues on 500k speed network (only 2nd season using it)

[GriswoldStyle]

A BUNCH of details here crammed into one post but all are related to the mp3 director... I have been searching this morning but have not been able to find anything regarding the actual read speeds for sd cards on the G3 mp3 director. Curious what the director is capable of for read speeds. I have 2 kingston select 32gb sd cards that just cant seem to keep up. I also had a Kingston 16gb from last year that I tried and it was worse! Songs are lagging at fast parts on the pixel tree. Now keep in mind I only have a 16x50 pixel tree and it is running on 500k aux A enhanced.. I have been having trouble with the network this year when I set everything up for Christmas. For starters, I had a g3 controller on the Aux A network with the pixie 16. The g3 kept having problems where things would get stuck shimmering or flashing on different channels. I changed out all the cat5e cables for brand new ones and it still had the same problem. So I figured it was the sd card. Still had problems. Although I eliminated them to a degree by removing the g3 controller from Aux A and running it back on regular lor network in my channel config with my other ac controllers, Now the pixel tree is lagging when words come on it. Like a motion lag where everything is a second or two behind then speeds up super fast to catch up. Highly visible and everyone noticed it last night. Not every song, but certainly a couple songs it does it to which are larger sequences. Then last night in middle of the show I just happened to be out there and the entire show froze out of nowhere. Lights got stuck on and the pixel tree froze mid sequence. In order to turn the lights off after several minutes of the freeze, I had to unplug the cat5 cable from the first controller to kill power to the mp3 director... 

So I'm trying to figure out the read speeds of the G3 director so I can purchase a better card. Also, How can I get rid of the lag? It doesn't seem like it should be an issue with only 800 pixels on one 500k network. But I want to get all these kinks worked out. I'm wondering if I should look into the firmware. Would that be a possible cause?

2020 Is for the birds. I got past a few issues only to have another. Everything seems to be a mess this year when it all worked fine for halloween. Go figure..

[k6ccc]

Just for a test, can you try to run the show from a computer.  That would determine if the director is at fault or something else.

800 pixels on a 500K enhanced network should be OK.

 

[GriswoldStyle]

24 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Just for a test, can you try to run the show from a computer.  That would determine if the director is at fault or something else.

800 pixels on a 500K enhanced network should be OK.

 

I have never run it from the actual computer. Other than to just test channels in the hardware utility. I do have the red dongle however. Do I need to change any settings in the computer to run a test of the pixel tree through the red dongle? I would assume I just have to adjust the network speed in the lor utility on the computer itself and run it directly from the sequence editor is that correct?

[hasslerk]

I added an 8x50 matrix using a Pixie8 as well as a Pixcon16 running four channels for some new Boscoyo singing bulbs off my Aux A side (Network 2) of my G3-MP3 this Halloween with no issues.  I will be adding to that network this weekend my leaping arches (Pixie4) and a new 16x50 Pixel tree using a Pixie16.  I will update here when my testing is complete (good or bad).  As for SD cards, there are opinions out here that brand matters.  I have never had any problem that has traced back to the SD card, and I have some in my lineup that are just generic no names, although all are UHS-1/Class 10 (10MB/s) or better.  I did have firmware issues when I upgraded to S5, which at the very first I thought was the Director's fault, but after updating the firmware on every controller all was good.  Update: Note that your high speed network has to connect to Network 2 on your director (see page 10 on http://www1.lightorama.com/Documents/G3-MP3_Man_Web.pdf), and the user manual states a Class 4 or higher SD card.  Update 2: The maximum SD card size is 8GB, page 43 of same document; you stated you were using a 32GB card.

Edited November 20, 2020 by hasslerk
Added update 2

[GriswoldStyle]

45 minutes ago, hasslerk said:

 Update 2: The maximum SD card size is 8GB, page 43 of same document; you stated you were using a 32GB card.

The 8gb are the ones that had serious lag.

The 16 and 32 I bought seem to work great. But only on two songs the pixel tree lags. I'm going to try to look into the firmware and see what it shows that might very well be a problem. None of my controllers or anything has ever been updated on firmware. I was under the idea of if it ain't broke don't fix it. I will check back on that shortly.

[hasslerk]

On 11/20/2020 at 7:16 PM, GriswoldStyle said:

The 8gb are the ones that had serious lag.

The 16 and 32 I bought seem to work great. But only on two songs the pixel tree lags. I'm going to try to look into the firmware and see what it shows that might very well be a problem. None of my controllers or anything has ever been updated on firmware. I was under the idea of if it ain't broke don't fix it. I will check back on that shortly.

Sorry, I thought I selected to follow this thread.  Anyways I have had no issues updating firmware on any controller (AC or Pixies), and is pretty straight forward in HU.  You do one box at a time, with only it being connected to your PC and HU.  Agree on the "ain't broke" approach, but S5 made me dive in.