rmturner54 Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 After testing earlier today of my DMX lights before I added the props to the show. BTW testing went good. I re-inserted my show SD, it initialized and my all day music continued to play. I wanted to monitor the start up so i waited and waited. Show never statrted. Removed SD card, coild not get any response from the buttons. Unplugged and let it cool some, never the same indication. I would have the display lit one time and then not the next. When the mode button would respond, could not change the time nor would it initialize. So back to the computer for the show for now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 6 minutes ago, rmturner54 said: After testing earlier today of my DMX lights before I added the props to the show. BTW testing went good. I re-inserted my show SD, it initialized and my all day music continued to play. I wanted to monitor the start up so i waited and waited. Show never statrted. Removed SD card, coild not get any response from the buttons. Unplugged and let it cool some, never the same indication. I would have the display lit one time and then not the next. When the mode button would respond, could not change the time nor would it initialize. So back to the computer for the show for now How is it powered? Did you check the voltage arriving at the director? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted December 11, 2021 Author Share Posted December 11, 2021 With the controller. Did not check volts. It was dark and I did well to get computer up to run show for now That's on my list for tomorrow. May try outside volt source too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted December 11, 2021 Author Share Posted December 11, 2021 UPDATE -The problem must be heat related. Ambient was around 80F yesterday, this morning 47F. I have always had my FM xmitter outside in a small cooler with a hole big enough for the antenna to stick out. This being first year with director I just put it inside the cooler for ease of install. This morning I rigged up the director and all was good. For now I will leave it out. It is on my porch out of the weather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 42 minutes ago, rmturner54 said: UPDATE -The problem must be heat related. Ambient was around 80F yesterday, this morning 47F. I have always had my FM xmitter outside in a small cooler with a hole big enough for the antenna to stick out. This being first year with director I just put it inside the cooler for ease of install. This morning I rigged up the director and all was good. For now I will leave it out. It is on my porch out of the weather. That's very strange. I keep my director in an enclosed weatherproof box, and it can get upwards to 90+ here in Florida, even in the winter months. My N4-G4 has been ion the same location now for 2 years, gets a lot of the direct sun in the early to late afternoon, the ambient temp inside the box has gotten to be well over 110+ degrees F in the box, and it's still going strong. What FW is in your Director? I updated mine to the latest version, and so far, haven't had a single problem any with heat related issues. However, I did "lock it up" once, and that was because I didn't think the SD Card was inserted fully, and I ended up removing it during the initialization stage, nothing worked, buttons locked up just as you described, waited a couple of minutes and re-inserted the SD card fully, Director worked fine. But it wouldn't when I thought the card was not inserted, removed it and pushed it back in immediately. But when I removed it, and waited about 2 minutes, everything went back to normal. Not saying this is what you might have done, but it is something that can lock a director up, and how to, hopefully, get it unlocked if you might happen to do this using one. At least that worked for me, may not work for everyone. But something to check and possibly do, if it does lock up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted December 12, 2021 Author Share Posted December 12, 2021 So it played my all day music ok. This evening at 610 the show did not start. We had to leave and came home 2 hours later. The display was on, no show. Many attempts with SD card. Reprogrammed another SD card and show started. I have no idea when it quit, but it did like it was locked up. Iam going back to the computer for now. Will be calling g LoR Monday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightzilla Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 Sometimes the problem is with the SD card. My older SD cards work better than some of the newer ones. Some of my newer SD cards may play one or 2 songs & stop. I have 11 songs on my older SD card & all play. In fact this year I am using my older mini director & it is running really smooth. That includes running AC channels & smart pixel lights at 57.6. I don't get fancy with my pixel trees. Some spinning moves, Splits, up and down effect. I would try an older SD card and see. Update firmware if necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted December 12, 2021 Author Share Posted December 12, 2021 The SD card I am using are the old ones I had just laying around. I've reformatted. Everything but a firmware update. I even tested the operation with a outside power source. By itself the director powered on and would try to initialize when SD is inserted. When hooked to network using aux power it wouldn't even power up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted December 13, 2021 Author Share Posted December 13, 2021 Help desk is sending me a new Director. Using computer for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted December 16, 2021 Author Share Posted December 16, 2021 Rcvd my new Director and so far no issues. It's playing my all day music as I write this. Will know more tonight and the weekend. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsusie Posted December 16, 2021 Share Posted December 16, 2021 I came home tonight to find my show not running. Turns out the director (N4-G4 MP3) had no power. I changed the connector in the controller that powers it to the other connector. The lights connected to it came on when it was plugged into both connectors but no power at the director. Seems the director has had some sort of problem occur. It's been running for a couple weeks nightly and all last year wiht no problems. tonight it is not getting power. I tried switching the connector inside the director ot make sure it wasn't that - made no difference. Is there some sort of fuse/circuit breaker that I can replace or reset? I didn't want to take it down now as it is dark and I didn't want to chance dropping screws on the ground. I can take it down in the morning tomorrow if needed. Or is it something more serious and I need to contact the help desk. Not sure if under warranty or not - might be. Any suggestions? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 16, 2021 Share Posted December 16, 2021 7 minutes ago, tomsusie said: I came home tonight to find my show not running. Turns out the director (N4-G4 MP3) had no power. I changed the connector in the controller that powers it to the other connector. The lights connected to it came on when it was plugged into both connectors but no power at the director. Seems the director has had some sort of problem occur. It's been running for a couple weeks nightly and all last year wiht no problems. tonight it is not getting power. I tried switching the connector inside the director ot make sure it wasn't that - made no difference. Is there some sort of fuse/circuit breaker that I can replace or reset? I didn't want to take it down now as it is dark and I didn't want to chance dropping screws on the ground. I can take it down in the morning tomorrow if needed. Or is it something more serious and I need to contact the help desk. Not sure if under warranty or not - might be. Any suggestions? Thanks! Are you powering from a Wall Wort or from the nearest controller over CAT5 (remember 25' is the longest cable approved)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsusie Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 power coming from nearby controller - less than 10 feet distance. Same configuration used last year with it and for the past couple weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 31 minutes ago, tomsusie said: power coming from nearby controller - less than 10 feet distance. Same configuration used last year with it and for the past couple weeks. Good to hear. I assume the controller has a blinking status LED (proves it is alive) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 17 hours ago, TheDucks said: Are you powering from a Wall Wort or from the nearest controller over CAT5 (remember 25' is the longest cable approved)? Actually, I believe that might be 100' via Cat5 from the first controller. I've used a 100' Cat5 cable from my first CTB16PC {G1V2} controller to my Director for years with no problems at all. This is the FIRST year, that length is less than 20'. But with the original DC-MP3 Director{now deceased}, and last year, 2020, my N4-G4 was almost 100' away from the 1st Controller that powered it. I never had any issues using a 100' Cat5 cable run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 (edited) Check your cat5 jacks in the controller powering your Director, make sure they are NOT loose, if they are, chances are the loose jack{s} is causing the power loss to the Director. My Director went dead like that a couple of weeks ago, checked the controller, it showed power, blinking LED, but the jack that the Director cable was plugged into was very loose and caused the Director to turn off, shutting down the show, I thought, crap, my Director had died or has some sort of issue, plugged in an adapter and show ran, but NOT the controller it was plugged into, nothing on that controller worked, found out both jacks in it are loose. So, I just made a quick temporary repair to keep the jacks secured in place until after the season, then I'll take that controller down, take it apart, and re-flow the solder {and add some more solder to it} on those Cat5 jack pins. Put it back together and put it back into service. This is a possible issue that could be creating your problem. If you connect the Director to any other source of power {external adapter} or to a different Controller that can supply Aux power to it via Cat5, does it power up? If it does, it's either a loose Cat5 jack or, even possibly a bad Cat5 cable that is creating your issues. If it doesn't power up, then it's time to contact the Help Desk at LOR, as then there is definitely something wrong in the Director itself. Edited December 17, 2021 by Orville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted December 17, 2021 Author Share Posted December 17, 2021 (edited) AFter all day music show ran fine my LOR show which was scheduled for 6PM did not come on. I checked the clock on the director it showed 603PM so I forced the show to start bo removing and re-inserting the SD card, all was good, now my all day music playing. I will find out at 6PM this evening what happens Edited December 17, 2021 by rmturner54 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 19 hours ago, rmturner54 said: AFter all day music show ran fine my LOR show which was scheduled for 6PM did not come on. I checked the clock on the director it showed 603PM so I forced the show to start bo removing and re-inserting the SD card, all was good, now my all day music playing. I will find out at 6PM this evening what happens Hmmm, that sounds like you may have accidentally created an overlap of scheduling on the time when you created your shows. U know if I accidentally overlap my time, start my main show at the exact same time the 1st show {my day time music ends}, if the day time music overlaps into the main shows time, the Director may SKIP the next show settings and go into wait mode for the next show to start, which in my case would be at 10pm or 11pm depending on day of week. When you day time music ended, did the Director shut down completely, as with no power at all, or did the display show "wait"? If it showed "wait", then chances are its a conflict with the end and start times of your day show and your main show. If turning off completely, as with no power at all {display dark/off}, then chances are it could either be a bad cat5 cable or loose jacks on the controller it is connected to and getting its power from. Other than these, if all checks out good, the unit would have to have some other issue, and that would need a ticket into the LOR Help Desk, as some other issue is going on. Oh, one other thing to check {I almost forgot about this one}, what type of SD Card are you using? That is brand name and size, if it's NOT a Kingston SD Card, you may have constant issues with it. The newer G3/G4 Directors seem to prefer a Kingston SD Card, others may work, but they may also work sporadically, if they work at all. So if you're using another brand of SD Card, get a Kingston and redo your show. If that one works and everything runs as it should, then you know the SD Card you've been using has an issue. Remember the newer G3 and G4 Directors should be able to use up to a 32GB SD Card, but check your manual that came with your Director, as some are limited to only a 16GB maximum card in the G3 family of Directors, if I recall correctly. Older Directors might be able to use up to a 2GB maximum SD Card.{just for reference}. Hopefully, it's something as simple as an SD Card brand switch, and not something really wrong with your Director. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted December 18, 2021 Author Share Posted December 18, 2021 (edited) Once the all day music was done (scheduled stop time 530P) the director never lost power, it just showed the current clock time. THe SD card is the one that came with the director. Kingston, 16GB, 100mmb/s. I am going to double check my SD card set up this morning to make sure I did not miss a step Update-verfied programming was correct, no overlaps etc. I guess another nite of suspense!!! Edited December 18, 2021 by rmturner54 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 5 hours ago, rmturner54 said: Once the all day music was done (scheduled stop time 530P) the director never lost power, it just showed the current clock time. THe SD card is the one that came with the director. Kingston, 16GB, 100mmb/s. I am going to double check my SD card set up this morning to make sure I did not miss a step Update-verfied programming was correct, no overlaps etc. I guess another nite of suspense!!! Sometimes even a new SD Card can have issues. I bought 2 54GB SD Cards for my wife's cell phone, one as a backup, formatted them, installed them, and one worked for a few days and failed, the other didn't work at all. If you have a spare SD Card {and you should have at least 1 or 2 in reserve}, try a different card, there may be something going on with the current SD Card, but the only way to verify if it is the SD card, is by having a spare one to try, if it works, then there is something wrong with the SD Card itself. You might want to try cleaning the SD Card contacts, sometimes a buggy SD Card with dirty contacts can cause all kinds of issues too. Just clean them with a soft pink pencil eraser, do it very gently, and wipe off with a soft, clean, lint free, dry cloth. Or a very soft small paintbrush. Good luck on keeping that show running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now