I think my Director just FAILED!!!

[Al S]

I am having similar issues with my G4 MP3 director i purchased in December 2020.  Worked fine last year.   First try at set up yesterday shows Err or no power this year when connected to my LOR 1602W controller.  Controller and cat 5 cable work fine when connected to computer so i don't think Cat 5 cable or Controller issue.

 

SD card is Kingston, worked fine last year and my laptop is having no issues writing and rewriting to it, which i performed several times to check SD card.

Can i trouble shoot by connecting Director to my laptop via CAT 5 cable.  I tried and nothing happened.  Do i need to power Director with separate power supply to troubleshoot?

[rmturner54]

3 hours ago, Al S said:

I am having similar issues with my G4 MP3 director i purchased in December 2020.  Worked fine last year.   First try at set up yesterday shows Err or no power this year when connected to my LOR 1602W controller.  Controller and cat 5 cable work fine when connected to computer so i don't think Cat 5 cable or Controller issue.

 

SD card is Kingston, worked fine last year and my laptop is having no issues writing and rewriting to it, which i performed several times to check SD card.

Can i trouble shoot by connecting Director to my laptop via CAT 5 cable.  I tried and nothing happened.  Do i need to power Director with separate power supply to troubleshoot?

THis is my second director this year. first one had power issues. 2nd one is not having power issues, just wont initialize at the 6PM start time unless I force it. THen it plays until the next evening at 6PM and its groun hog day all over again. I have programmed a brand new SD with the show. Going to give it 1 more try as is, then replace the SD card.

As far as trouble shooting I am not dont think there is anything you can do by hooking to a computer. I would try a seperate power source. THen open a LOR ticket thru the help desk.

Edited December 19, 2021 by rmturner54

[rmturner54]

So I have been in contact with the help desk. Will see what their response to this is.  I waited till 620PM last nite and had to start the show, again perfect after that.  THe other weird thing about this, I came home 2 nites ago after 10PM from working an event and my after show lites were working. I was really excited until my wife told me that the main 6-10PM show never ran. UGH!!!!

IDK-but I am just about had my fill with this director thing. Never ever had any issues using an old wore out XP laptop.

[Orville]

2 hours ago, rmturner54 said:

So I have been in contact with the help desk. Will see what their response to this is.  I waited till 620PM last nite and had to start the show, again perfect after that.  THe other weird thing about this, I came home 2 nites ago after 10PM from working an event and my after show lites were working. I was really excited until my wife told me that the main 6-10PM show never ran. UGH!!!!

IDK-but I am just about had my fill with this director thing. Never ever had any issues using an old wore out XP laptop.

Are you using the Hub to write your shows to the SD Card?   I don't know if S5's HU allows writing a show under the MP3 tab like S4 does.  Just know I have NEVER, not once got the hub to write an SD Card for a show correctly.  I have had nothing but problems with the Hub and I refuse to use it.  If that's the ONLY option in S5 to write out an SD Card, then I may be changing my mind about migrating to it.  I installed S5 on my new Win10 computer, but haven't learned as much as I'd like to know about, as it was too late in the season for me to change over to it this year, but am or was considering.  Now I'm going to have to check out S5's HU and see if the option to write SD cards has been removed, since I heard they were trying to make the Hub the default and get rid of this option in the HU TAT works.  If it's no longer there, then I definitely won't migrate to it and will remove it and install S4 on my Win10 system.   I don't need any issues writing my shows for a Director, and I'm sorry to say, but it seems S5 Director users are having issues with writing their SD Cards for their shows.   If they did remove the option to do this in S5's HU, it needs to be put back, as they say, IF IT WASN'T BROKEN, IT DOESN'T NEED FIXING!   And removing something that works, when the Hub has been so problematic, too me, is just plain stupid.

I have used the HU for years and I have never, not one time, ever had an issue with using it to write out my S Cards for shows, but ever since the Hub came on the scene, for me, it has NEVER WORKED CORRECTLY.  And even in the last version of S4 it {Hub} has a time coding issue, it thinks 12AM Midnight through 12:59AM is supposed to be 12PM {NOON} through 12:59PM, and when I wrote a show that ended at midnight or wanted to start something at Midnight, it always converted the time from 12AM to 12PM, and I brought this up as soon as I found it to LOR {at least a month back, but it was probably longer than that}, but they are now only focusing on S5, so they won't fix this problem with S4.4.16's hub.   And the edit function, something else that has NEVER WORKED, at least not for me.  The ONLY thing I have found the hub good for is looking at the time stamp my HU written cards are using, it shows the correct time when it loads those, but that's all I've found the hub good for.

If S5's HU still allows sequences to be written with the HU, I'd really try that and see what happens, the hub has just been far too unreliable for me to trust it.

 

NOW: As far as testing the MP3 Director, there really is no way to test it using a computer directly, but to know if it is working you need a BLACK USB485B adapter to check that it's working, the RED HS Adapters WILL NOT supply power to a Director, nor will most of the other black adapters, it must be one that can also supply auxiliary power via the Cat5, if it can't, then you'd have to use an external adapter plugged into the Director unit.   If you can open the HU and set the time to the Director under the MP3 tab, and it finds the Director, will show what version FW is in it, then it should be working.  If you can load FW into it, using the latest FW available, and it starts loading and is successful, the Director link via the Cat5 IS working.   But that's about all you can do to verify its working with a computer.

And I can't say if the red HS Adapter can be used to verify a Director using an adapter to power the Director, as I've always plugged mine into my older black USB485B adapter via Cat5 {no external power needed} to make sure mine was functioning {updating FW, set time, verify FW that was in it}.  I've never tried the red HS adapter with it, well I plugged it in once, but no power to the Director, then I realized I plugged it into the wrong adapter.  I didn't know where my external adapter for it was at the time.  So I never tried it that way on the red adapter.  Someone that has tried it on a red HS adapter and external power would have to comment on whether the Director will work with it or not.

I'm still thinking your time start is either somehow not correctly setup somewhere when you created the SD Show or the first sequence the main show is supposed to run may have an issue with either the sequence itself, but more than likely, the MP3 file, if not set correctly, which should be a CBR format {most will say 128K, but I've been using 320K in my N4-G4 for the past 2 years and never have had any issues} and make sure the MP3 file is not VBR, an VBR MP3 might cause this problem.  Usually it would skip the sequence and load the next one in line if it found an issue, but sometimes a bad MP3 or sequence can stop a show dead in its tracks, and even prevent it from running.   I use a FREE program called Mp3Tag to check for this, VBR or CBR, as I've run into a few MP3 files I've downloaded that were NOT in CBR form, and they did cause problems when running a show on a Director, caused issues running from a computer too.  Mp3Tag has allowed me to always verify my MP3's being used are in the correct format, CBR

So, I'd try removing the first sequence from your show, then rewrite the show without that sequence and see if it runs, if it does, then you know there's an issue with that particular sequence or music file preventing the show from running.

Good Luck!

[rmturner54]

Thanks Orville for all the good information. I will eventully give that a try. Right now the help desk has a zipped copy of all the files on my SD card. They are going to test.  As far as running from a computer before and after switching from S4 to S5 my converted sequences, I have not had any issues with the playing or starting on time with the show scheduler. I ran my show for 3 days from my Win 10 desktop w/o issues while waiting on my replacement director. 

[rmturner54]

Here is my update. I got home last nite at approx 1015PM and my after show lights were running.
THis morning I took the new SD card that came with the replacement director, formatted it and created a show with the first seq in my show, set the start time 5 min's ahead of the director clock time. The seq played perfect. So, I did that test with each seq seperately adjusting the start time 5 mins ahead of the current clock time and have had no issues at all.
I then grouped all of my filler seq's on a single show and did the same. Played with no issues.
The SD I have been using for the show came with the first director. I am going to run a short version of the test that I just performed and see what it does.

New test with original SD cardno issues at all. Next test to perform is simulate my setup with 1 all day music file as show 1 and a single show seq as show 2 and see what happens

Edited December 21, 2021 by rmturner54

[Orville]

9 minutes ago, rmturner54 said:

Here is my update. I got home last nite at approx 1015PM and my after show lights were running.
THis morning I took the new SD card that came with the replacement director, formatted it and created a show with the first seq in my show, set the start time 5 min's ahead of the director clock time. The seq played perfect. So, I did that test with each seq seperately adjusting the start time 5 mins ahead of the current clock time and have had no issues at all.
I then grouped all of my filler seq's on a single show and did the same. Played with no issues.
The SD I have been using for the show came with the first director. I am going to run a short version of the test that I just performed and see what it does.

New test with original SD cardno issues at all. Next test to perform is simulate my setup with 1 all day music file as show 1 and a single show seq as show 2 and see what happens

If all that is working correctly and testing out 100%, then there has to be a time conflict either between the music only and the start-up of your main show or a conflict at the end of your main show and start-up of the overnight lighting show.   These are the only things really left that could keep your main show from starting up and running, a time conflict MUST be occurring somewhere between the start or end of the MAIN SHOW.   That's the only thing from what your tests have revealed that could be causing this problem, as least that's the only thing I can conclude to at this point.    I've only run into this with a bad MP3 file, or I accidentally set my times over each other, and they were too close for the Director to handle or something, and the show wouldn't run.   So, a time conflict somewhere seems to be the only logical explanation as to what's happening from your tests and observations thus far.

[rmturner54]

The final test to simulate the actual show worked.   I had 1 music only show, the 10mins later 1 show seq. There is no time conflicts that I can see. There is a 30min dead spot between the end of my music and the first show. My show set up is as follows.

Show1 All day music 10A-530P

Main Show 2 Mon-Wed-Fri 6P-10P

Main Show 3 Tues-Thurs 6P-10P

Main Show 4 Sat-Sun 6P-10P

Show 5 After hours 1002-6A

Show 6 All Lgts Off 10P-1001P 

I am leaning towards a badly formatted SD card in the beginning. Both cards I was using for the these tests were freshly formatte I have reloaded my shows for tonite's run.

Edited December 21, 2021 by rmturner54

[k6ccc]

I don't know about running that schedule on a Director, but with a computer, there is a good chance that your show 6 Lights off will not run.  Example, if the last song starts at 9:59:30 and lasts more than 1:30, it will end after the end of the scheduled time for show 6, so show 6 will not run.

 

[rmturner54]

2 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

I don't know about running that schedule on a Director, but with a computer, there is a good chance that your show 6 Lights off will not run.  Example, if the last song starts at 9:59:30 and lasts more than 1:30, it will end after the end of the scheduled time for show 6, so show 6 will not run.

 

I have never run an all lights off seq using a computer.There has never been a need or situation for it. But from a timing stand poiint you bring up a good point with the director,  but also  the real issue here is after my all day music shuts off at 530P, my main shows never starst at 6P unless I pull the SD card and re-insert, then it will run until the next evening at 6P(then it becomes ground hog day the movie), If I have an issue tonite I may just remove the all lights off show seq.

[rmturner54]

The show started at 6PM......YEAH!!!!

[Orville]

12 hours ago, k6ccc said:

I don't know about running that schedule on a Director, but with a computer, there is a good chance that your show 6 Lights off will not run.  Example, if the last song starts at 9:59:30 and lasts more than 1:30, it will end after the end of the scheduled time for show 6, so show 6 will not run.

 

It will work on a Director Jim.  My Main Show sometimes overlaps for the last main show sequence to run, and my lights off show has always run as soon as the last song starts ENDS, however, it {lights off} WILL NOT run for the full duration, but it runs after my main show ends daily {end time is set at 11pm {for Christmas week}, lights off to clear all main show lights after main show has finished is set for 11:01pm-11:02pm, main show usually ends somewhere between 11:04pm-11:08pm {I recently added a couple of new sequences}, my off lights runs IMMEDIATELY after the main show ends, shuts down any stray lights, but also IMMEDIATELY runs the After Hours{Overnight Lights} show.  It only runs for maybe a few seconds, but that's all it really needs to do what's needed of it.

So yes, his show times all should work fine with a Director, they've been working like that with my N4-G4 Director, and they worked fine for over 4 years on my original DC-MP3 Director.   So I don't see any problems with his time set-up as posted above.

Hopefully, his testing and reformatting the SD Card may have finally resolved his issue.   I **ALWAYS** reformat my SD Cards before every use, and I've not had any show issues like the OP has had, unless I made an error and didn't notice on setting the start/end times somewhere, or a bad MP3 file in the wrong format, or it just became corrupted, so had to find a copy and replace.   I keep several backups in numerous places of everything related to my shows.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Orville

[rmturner54]

Thank you everyone for your help. I know this was a lengthy thread. I hope anyone reading thru this can get some postive and valuable information to help solve their problems. This is my first time with a director so I have learned a lot. And  yes to Orville on the back ups. I always back up my work.....everyone should use that practice.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

[Orville]

3 hours ago, rmturner54 said:

Thank you everyone for your help. I know this was a lengthy thread. I hope anyone reading thru this can get some postive and valuable information to help solve their problems. This is my first time with a director so I have learned a lot. And  yes to Orville on the back ups. I always back up my work.....everyone should use that practice.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Yes, being new to a Director is a new learning experience, I've been using one since the original unit, the older DC-MP3, which after 4 years, did die on me, I started with a director, so when it died, I had never used a computer to run a show, and I had to learn real fast, less than 2 hours how to configure and create a show that way.  Talk about a crash course to learn something new.   I had all kinds of hiccups running my show from a computer, especially since I'd started with a Director and NEVER bothered to learn the computer way of doing it. LOL   And when the original director had died, it was the day before Christmas Eve!   Fortunately for me, I figured it all out very quickly, in or around 2 hours time, again, a major Crash Course.  If only S5 were that easy to learn in that same time span, I'd probably already be using it....maybe.

 

BTW: back to the main topic, so, it sounds like you finally got all the kinks out, and everything is now working correctly with your director.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Orville