Intermittent freezing of pixel matrix

[Wonko]

Hi all,

Can anyone suggest some reason why my pixel matrix may freeze intermittently? It usually happens during a sequence just before the peak of a song when there’s a lot going on (like snow flakes streaming down the screen or something). It really seems to be random, as the show will play great for a whole show (or whole night), and then randomly freeze during a sequence. A few times, it’s happened when I’ve forgotten to turn off wifi on my laptop. But recently, it’s just happened randomly during a show.

For reference, my RGB arches are powered by a Sandevices 4-channel controller into a HolidayCoro 16-channel controller (which controls my pixel matrix). I don’t have a switch or router, the laptop handles all the traffic. The Sandevices controller is run in multicast, as I’ve had some issues that I couldn’t resolve with that one.

Do you think that could be overwhelming the port w/ traffic periodically?

Please let me know what to try to do.

Thanks!
 

[k6ccc]

15 minutes ago, Wonko said:

For reference, my RGB arches are powered by a Sandevices 4-channel controller into a HolidayCoro 16-channel controller (which controls my pixel matrix).  I don’t have a switch ...

Say what?  I assume you mean a SanDevice E6804 four port (not channel) pixel controller, and then into some unspecified Holiday Coro 16 port (again, not channel) controller.  If I read that right, you are going from the laptop to the E6804 and then to the HC controller.  How are you doing that?  The E6804 only has one Ethernet port.  Or did I read that wrong.

Now with that said, how large is your matrix?

22 minutes ago, Wonko said:

The Sandevices controller is run in multicast,

The E6804 will be happier in Unicast.

22 minutes ago, Wonko said:

Do you think that could be overwhelming the port w/ traffic periodically?

Not likely unless one of those devices is forcing the Ethernet to 10Mb/s.

 

[wbaker4]

Power supply issue?  You should see the statistics on the 6804's web page getting reset as a result of the controller resetting.

[Wonko]

Hi all - apologies for my errors in nomenclature. 

Correct - my Sandevices 4-port E6804 (which runs my RGB leaping arches) is plugged into my HolidayCoro 16-port controller (this one: https://www.holidaycoro.com/1012-pixel-Matrix-Panel-Kit-p/781.htm?utm_source=vextras-workflows&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rgb_pixel_information_thu_aug_13_2020_309_pm) which has 2 Ethernet ports, and then directly into my laptop. The arches don’t seem to have any problems, but the pixel matrix (46X22) freezes periodically.

The guy from Sandevices told me over the phone to run the E6804 in multicast, as he couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working in unicast.

If it’s a power supply issue of the E6804, wouldn’t I expect to see the arches freeze/turn off instead of the pixel matrix?

Any thoughts on how I could verify if the sequence is pushing the Ethernet port over 10MB/s?

thanks for your help, all!

[basis21b]

Here is what I would do if it was my display.

1. Assign a static IP address to the HolidayCoro device making sure the IP address would never collide with another
2. Acquire an inexpensive switch and relieve the HolidayCoro board from being tasked with doing switching 
3. Assign the universes that are destined to the HolidayCoro device to be Unicast and associate the IP address of the HolidayCoro device with those universes

[Wonko]

Thanks - I’ll try that. The HolidayCoro is running in unicast on its default ip, but I’m wondering if the E6804 in multicast is interfering with it. I’ll setup a switch and see if that helps. So you have home-runs of cat 5/6 from each e1.31 controller back to your switch/laptop? 

[basis21b]

My show computer is taken off the home network for the display season.  I set up a network from the computer and have runs to the various E1.31 controllers.  One flat ethernet cable goes from the computer out the window to the switch and then the network is extended from there to the E1.31 controllers.

 

  

[k6ccc]

1 hour ago, Wonko said:

Thanks - I’ll try that. The HolidayCoro is running in unicast on its default ip, but I’m wondering if the E6804 in multicast is interfering with it.

Shouldn't be.