Last controller not communicating

[Wayne K]

So tonight I hook up all of my ethernet ( all brand new ones ) cables to all of the controllers and had a bad new cable right off the bat. Could not see any of the 16 controllers on aux b. Went to first controller and thought I had a bad chassis jack. By passed it and still no communication. Got my cable tester out and the cable tested ok from the red adapter to the cable at first controller so plugged back in blinking green led. So then I unplugged to other jack on the board and I got a green solid light and HU could see the first controller, plugged jump cable to next controller in and HU could not see anything. So I grabbed a another new cable and then I could see all of my controllers but the last one. Id 22. I tried pretty much the same thing with swapping cables around and by bypassing the chassis jacks and could not get solid light on 22. decided to pull the unit and take to the shop. Hooked up to shop computer and as soon as I plugged the ethernet cable in I had a solid light. I thought what in the heck is going on here. So I took it back and remounted it and plugged in back in and plugged ethernet cable back in and no solid light. I have 15 foot cable between this and the next one back ID 21. tried swapping jacks, cables and nothing worked. The next unit back is ID 20. I decided to bypass 21 and plug into 20, low and behold I have a solid led and I can see it in HU. So I put controller 21 back in the loop and then ID 22 does not go solid again. So I decided to cycle power on ID 21 and I get solid led on 22. but when I run HU it does not see 22 and it goes back to blinking. So 19, 20,21 are brand new controllers. in my mind I think 21 has some kind of a problem. what do you guys think?

The other thing that is puzzling me is that if I open HU and scan for devices about half way thru I get not all but a vast majority of my display lights coming on the aux b. 

controller order by cable run is 11-12-13-14-15-23-16-27-28-26-17-18-19-20-21-22

controllers  13, 14, 15, 23 are the older CTB16DV7 controllers with manual ID set

Controllers 11, 12, 17, 18, 22 are CTB16PG3 that are 2 years old

Controllers 16, 19, 20, 21 are brand new CTB16PG3

Controllers 26, 27, 28 are CMD24

When I re arranged controllers I updated all controllers to latest firmware.

My aux A north side of house is all fine.

So does having the older controllers in front of all of the newer stuff make any difference? I could re cable if that is an issue

Does anyone have any ideas on these problems?

Thanks

Wayne

 

 

 

[k6ccc]

3 minutes ago, Wayne K said:

So does having the older controllers in front of all of the newer stuff make any difference? I could re cable if that is an issue

Short answer to this part.  Does not make any difference.  The passthrough for the network is completely passive (just traces on the PC board.

 

[Wayne K]

Thanks JIm

That is what I thought also, so it makes no sense to me why controller 22 will not work thru 21 but will thru 20.

Wayne

[TheDucks]

45 minutes ago, Wayne K said:

Thanks JIm

That is what I thought also, so it makes no sense to me why controller 22 will not work thru 21 but will thru 20.

Wayne

Bent or corroded  pins in one of the RJ5 jacks.  They are not high precision, they are fairly cheap and simple, so things can be a bit off.

Are the cables store bought or home built?

[Wayne K]

All new from cables top go.

Woke up this morning with about half of the display on.

So I am going to replace the data jack this morning as I cannot see the pins. Here is why I cant see the pins. I use this Panduit face plate and the jacks are angled down

 

Wayne

[jfuller8400]

Couple of items I would check/do

- Check the pins on the RJ45 jacks on controller 21 to make sure they aren't bent (what @TheDucks) was suggesting.

- Do a factory reset on controller 21

- Add a terminator (120 ohm resistor across pins 4&5) on controller 22 to terminate the data line

 

[Wayne K]

Good news! I changed out the rj45 jack in my wall box and and on the first check with the HU it found all 16 controllers and a recheck and it found them again. So I think all is well now.

All I have to test cables with is a basic ethernet cable tester. It showed all pins connected and no shorts or opens.

Thanks for the help guys.

On a side note the old jack looks fine with no pins out of place. My guess is that there is some oxidation/ corrosion on the pins even though I can't see any thing.

Wayne

Edited November 23, 2021 by Wayne K