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Setting up a LOR show in a field


PaulL

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I wanted to post this to see what others have experienced with running a LOR light show in an open field along a street without any buildings nearby.  In past years, I decorated my house using LOR controllers alongside pixel controllers all driven LOR software.  My laptop controlled both the RS485 and E1.31 networks from my garage with two ethernet cables passed through my wall..  I never had any problems with this setup.

 

We moved this past summer and my wife and I decided not to run a light show at our new house.  Instead, we teamed up with the neighborhood developer and HOA, and they installed power along the road frontage in a common area spanning approximately 1300 feet.  We set up the displays real quickly for the 2020 season with a portion as a musical display using both LOR controllers and pixel controllers, ran by LOR software.  However, the twist is there is no shelter to house a computer, so I purchased the following mini-computer and housed it in a nearby enclosure https://www.amazon.com/Windows-x5-Z8350-Desktop-1000Mbps-Computer/dp/B07LC5WV9W/ref=asc_df_B07LC5WV9W/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=319955522114&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18400051281324002095&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1013042&hvtargid=pla-623530249830&psc=1.  The computer is completely standalone (running Windows 10 pro) with no monitor, keyboard, or mouse.  To access the computer, I can remote desktop from my laptop by connecting an ethernet port directly to the network switch also in the enclosure.

 

The LOR software seems to work fine, and a lot of days this season it worked smoothly.  However, I have experienced a few hiccups including:

 

1.  Days it won't turn on until I reboot the PC.

2.  Sometimes the control lights program disappears and only the LOR controllers work.

3.  Sometimes the computer will crash mid-town.

 

These have been challenges this season and I would like to mitigate these issues.  Maybe I need a better outdoor computer system.  There is a clubhouse within the easy light linker range, but the ELL won't do pixels.  I can't run ethernet cables to the clubhouse because there are walking/ATV trails that are in between.  If you have any suggestions or experiences, I would love to hear them.

 

Meanwhile, I am working on a method to turn on/off all lights in the field using LOR controllers, ELL, and input pup.

 

Thanks!

 

 

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I think your problems stem from the mini-computer.  This year I 'upgraded' my show pc from an old HP Centrino laptop to a Core 2 Quad desktop.  Ran it the same way (no monitor, keyboard, or mouse) and remoted into it with Teamviewer.  It ran perfectly all season long with no hiccups.  

I would make sure you set all of the standard stuff in windows - defer windows updates as long as possible, set power management to not turn things off, etc.  If you still have problems/issues, I would replace the mini with something Intel based.  The show PC doesn't have to be all that powerful so you could easily get something off the used market for not much $$.

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I'm with jfuller on the computer.  The entertaining part is for the second time in a couple hours, I am going to suggest today's Woot in the computer section:

https://www.woot.com/category/computers?ref=w_ngh_cp_5

I also have my show computer headless and normally access it via TeamViewer.  Obviously that requires internet access.

 

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I agree with the recommendation on the  Director.  I've been using one in a similar situation for a number of years.  The Director has been rock solid for eight Minnesota winters.

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2 hours ago, Mr. P said:

This is exactly where the Directors come in to play, for setups exactly like this.

Remember he said he was running E1.31.  Do the Directors have an Ethernet jack and E1.31 support?   I don't know as I've never used a Director.  I've only used a PC to run my show.

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I've never even seen a director, but my understanding (and a VERY fast read of the manual) is that none of the directors support E1.31.

 

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The director won't work running many pixels.  You can only control 3 DMX universes with the director and I have way more than that.

 

Any recommendations for a better computer that will fit inside an enclosure?  Obviously the computer needs to be very small or I need a very large enclosure.

Edited by PaulL
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My general recommendation is either the Dell Outlet or TigerDirect.com

I did make a specific recommendation, but that offer expired a minute ago.

 

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8 hours ago, PaulL said:

The director won't work running many pixels.  You can only control 3 DMX universes with the director and I have way more than that.

 

Any recommendations for a better computer that will fit inside an enclosure?  Obviously the computer needs to be very small or I need a very large enclosure.

Actually this is no longer true of the N4-G4 Directors, as you can now link as many N4-G4 directors you need for numerous networks or DMX universes you may need.   The caveat is, the N4-G4 Director to Director link only works in S5.  And I believe it has to be one of the latest versions {not sure which one it starts and works with upoward} to use this option.

But seems multiple Directors in a weatherproof housing might be your best option for your filed display.

 

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14 hours ago, k6ccc said:

I'm with jfuller on the computer.  The entertaining part is for the second time in a couple hours, I am going to suggest today's Woot in the computer section:

https://www.woot.com/category/computers?ref=w_ngh_cp_5

I also have my show computer headless and normally access it via TeamViewer.  Obviously that requires internet access.

 

Amazon has some of those as refurbished for just over $100. The good thing is they come with 10 usb ports.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F9X6WDQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edited by Mr. P
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On 12/27/2020 at 7:10 AM, Orville said:

Actually this is no longer true of the N4-G4 Directors, as you can now link as many N4-G4 directors you need for numerous networks or DMX universes you may need.   The caveat is, the N4-G4 Director to Director link only works in S5.  And I believe it has to be one of the latest versions {not sure which one it starts and works with upoward} to use this option.

But seems multiple Directors in a weatherproof housing might be your best option for your filed display.

 

From my understanding of the directors, you can only control one DMX universe per data network.  This poses two issues for me:

1.  I have multiple DMX universes sent to each pixel controller (i.e. similar to LOR PixCon 16).  I can't send multiple data networks to the same pixel controller.

2.  I would have to buy numerous directors to run a large pixel show, which would cost a lot more money than a top of the line computer.

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And a good part of why I have never used nor expect to ever use any director.  Even my year round landscape show is more E1.31 than LOR networking.

 

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On 12/27/2020 at 7:26 AM, Mr. P said:

Amazon has some of those as refurbished for just over $100. The good thing is they come with 10 usb ports.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F9X6WDQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The current mini computer I am using now, while it has an inferior processor, it is using the same amount of RAM.  I think I may need to up to at least 8 GB.  The laptop I have ran shows from in the past with zero issue is about 6-7 years old with an core i7 processor and 8 GB RAM.

 

The show crashed again last night, and after it crashes, it makes a horrific buzzing sound coming through the speakers and FM modulator.  Since it won't let me remote into the computer when this happens, I decided to bring a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the computer to see if I could see any reason why LOR crashed.  No signal was provided to the monitor, and the keyboard and (optical) mouse was not receiving any power to access.  This leads me to believe that the entire computer crashed.  This doesn't happen every night, but it happens more nights than I would like for it to.

 

I will keep looking at replacement computers as it seems to be the primary culprit.  I may run some additional testing after decorations go down where I run the show with the controllers in my garage but no lights/decorations connected.  Since I am experienced at building computers, I may consider building one (or transporting the guts of an existing one) directly into a weatherproof enclosure.  LOR and pixel controller circuit boards seem to operate just fine directly inside them, and I have weatherproof air vents on them.  I feel like my biggest battle will be heat in warmer weather as it looks like I might have to put together a simple show for 4th of July and Halloween for the community.

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It has been running 5 hours tonight on the original mini computer posted without issue.  Intermittent problems drive me crazy.

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12 minutes ago, PaulL said:

It has been running 5 hours tonight on the original mini computer posted without issue.  Intermittent problems drive me crazy.

That's for damn sure!!!

 

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Update:  Has run three straight nights now (for several hours each night) without any issues.  Ever since I rebooted the computer with a monitor directly hooked up to it (instead of remoting in from my laptop), no issues.  This draws me to two possible conclusions:

 

1.  Either the shows are on the verge of using all the memory, and using a remote session reserves just enough memory to send the show player over the threshold thus crashing the computer.

2.  I noticed another pattern that the issues I had occurred when the evening temperatures were colder (20s/30s).  Now that the problem isn't occurring, the evening temps are back up to the 40s/50s and even low 60s yesterday.  Electronics typically like cooler temps, without going too extreme, so I'm leaning towards conclusion #1.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had a heat pump that would stop working when the temp would go in the 20's  When the service tech got to the house it was out of the 20's and unit was working. Next time it got in the 20's and unit stopped I went out with a hair dryer and warmed up the circuit board.  Unit started working.  They put a new board in and after that the unit still worked when temp got into the 20's .

Moral of story, I could still be problem #2

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