N4-G4 MPS director

[Lightnewbie]

Hi all,

I have a CTB16PC, 2 cosmic color ribbons with 2 old CCR controllers, advanced software level and a usb-rs485 with a filtered usb cable. I also have a fm transmitter. I plan to buy a N4-G4 mp3 to play my show.  
 

My question is do I need anything else to make the N4-G4 work. 
 

[BluMan]

7 minutes ago, Lightnewbie said:

My question is do I need anything else to make the N4-G4 work.

Since the director merely replaces using a PC to run a show, if you can run all of that now with a PC, then you will have no problems running the show with the director.  When you use the HUB to create your show, it will walk you though all the steps and then tell you what port to plug what you have in to.  By using a director, you actually don't use the USB-RS485 attachments.

[k6ccc]

52 minutes ago, Lightnewbie said:

I have a CTB16PC, 2 cosmic color ribbons with 2 old CCR controllers, advanced software level

Please update your forum profile to reflect your higher license.  Frequently answers to questions depend on the license level and software version.

 

[Orville]

1 hour ago, Lightnewbie said:

Hi all,

I have a CTB16PC, 2 cosmic color ribbons with 2 old CCR controllers, advanced software level and a usb-rs485 with a filtered usb cable. I also have a fm transmitter. I plan to buy a N4-G4 mp3 to play my show.  
 

My question is do I need anything else to make the N4-G4 work. 
 

The only thing I see missing in your question is an audio cable, you'll need that to go from the N4-G4 output to your FM Transmitter audio input.  If you can, put your N4-G4 and FM Transmitter inside the same enclosure, this way you can use a very short audio cable, usually not more than 6" to 1 foot long, but if they each have their own enclosure, try and place them as close together as possible, and use an audio cable of not more than 5 to 10 feet long between the two, and keep that audio cable away from any Cat5 or power supply lines.   Audio cables are notorious for picking up stray RF from electrical cords and cat5 cables, which can cause a slight hum from your transmitter when being received on a radio.   And keep your controllers at least 10 to 20 feet away from the Transmitter and N4-G4, as they too Controllers can also cause a hum in your FM Transmitter {found this out the hard way one year! LOL}.  And trying to find the culprit can be quite maddening, trying to trace where it's coming from to fix.

As others have said, running from the N4-G4 you don't need any USB485 adapters, the N4-G4 takes care of that for you.  You only need the USB485 adapter if running a show from a computer or setting up Controller ID's {changing}, or testing Controllers outputs or ports with lights {or running a sequence to see if it works as expected}, updating firmware in Controllers or MP3 Directors.  Other than that, no need for any USB485 adapters at all using the N4-G4 Director.

[Lightnewbie]

1 hour ago, Orville said:

The only thing I see missing in your question is an audio cable, you'll need that to go from the N4-G4 output to your FM Transmitter audio input.  If you can, put your N4-G4 and FM Transmitter inside the same enclosure, this way you can use a very short audio cable, usually not more than 6" to 1 foot long, but if they each have their own enclosure, try and place them as close together as possible, and use an audio cable of not more than 5 to 10 feet long between the two, and keep that audio cable away from any Cat5 or power supply lines.   Audio cables are notorious for picking up stray RF from electrical cords and cat5 cables, which can cause a slight hum from your transmitter when being received on a radio.   And keep your controllers at least 10 to 20 feet away from the Transmitter and N4-G4, as they too Controllers can also cause a hum in your FM Transmitter {found this out the hard way one year! LOL}.  And trying to find the culprit can be quite maddening, trying to trace where it's coming from to fix.

As others have said, running from the N4-G4 you don't need any USB485 adapters, the N4-G4 takes care of that for you.  You only need the USB485 adapter if running a show from a computer or setting up Controller ID's {changing}, or testing Controllers outputs or ports with lights {or running a sequence to see if it works as expected}, updating firmware in Controllers or MP3 Directors.  Other than that, no need for any USB485 adapters at all using the N4-G4 Director.

So if I need to set my unit IDs on my brand new CTB16PC do I still need to USB485? Or can the N4G4 do that? Or do I even need to set my unit ids at all if I only have one controller? 

[k6ccc]

Yes, you will need to set the ID using the computer.  The only exception is if it happens to come factory default to the Unit ID you are going to use.  I assume the default is 01, but I have no idea is that is correct.

 

[Lightnewbie]

Just now, k6ccc said:

Yes, you will need to set the ID using the computer.  The only exception is if it happens to come factory default to the Unit ID you are going to use.  I assume the default is 01, but I have no idea is that is correct.

 

Yes it has come factory default to 01 which is what I will use. But I do have 2 old CCR controllers. And I assume those I will need to change those IDs. So then I do need my USB 485….correct? 

[k6ccc]

2 minutes ago, Lightnewbie said:

Yes it has come factory default to 01 which is what I will use. But I do have 2 old CCR controllers. And I assume those I will need to change those IDs. So then I do need my USB 485….correct? 

Correct.

 

[Orville]

12 hours ago, Lightnewbie said:

So if I need to set my unit IDs on my brand new CTB16PC do I still need to USB485? Or can the N4G4 do that? Or do I even need to set my unit ids at all if I only have one controller? 

Answer to question #1: Yes, Hardware Utility is usually ALWAYS used to set Controller ID numbers, but some have rotary or dip switches and can be set with those, all depends on type of Controller.   Question #2: The N4-G4 is just a director, it has no way of setting a Controllers ID number, so the answer is No, the N4-G4 can't do that.  Question #3: If you only have one controller, the factory default ID of 1 would be what to use.  Additional Controllers, you usually will need the HU and USB485 connected to each controller in turn, to set their ID numbers.  Never try and do more than one controller at a time when NEW with factory ID of 01, if you connected say 3 new controllers, and all had the factory default of 01, and you had all 3 attached at the same time, as soon as you changed the 01 to any other ID number, every controller connected would have that same ID number.   However, once controllers IDs are set, you can do multiple controller ID changes, but you have to be careful you don't ID a controller with an Existing ID unit, or, again you'll have 2 or more controllers holding the same ID number.   This is why it's always recommended doing ID changes on each controller individually.  Just helps from ending up with multiple controllers with the same ID, it's an easy fix to correct if it happens {I've done it when I started in the hobby}, just remove them, and do them individually to reset their ID numbers to what you want them to be.

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Orville