Elden is acting like Jack Sparrow! Pixie 2 Elden Singing Christmas Tree

[Jim Robbins]

My Singing trees worked like a champ last year. Upon set up this year, Elden's left eye does not light up. All other actions work as well as on the other 3 trees. I changed out electrical cords, assuming Elden was not getting enough power. That worked for a while. I fired up this afternoon for preview of the light show and once again Elden's left eye is not working. I just installed a new cat 5 cable to see if that would get Elden'd left eye back - no luck. I traced his electrical connection back to the source and no issues discovered. Any ideas?

[TheDucks]

Eldons Left eye starts at node 154 (on the layout) .  (if the right eye works and the standard layout is followed, then all the Right eye nodes are passing data

How many Ports have you connected to Eldon? The node count is 191. That is way more than 1 port should have. I assume that you have 2 ports of 100 configured

Node 101 is the top of the mouth (Full, Half or closed). does that appear normal?

1) are you using pixel groupings (set in HU)  or individual  selected.

2) what controller. What ports?

[Jim Robbins]

2 ports of 100.

Using pixel groupings

Using Pixie 2 controller.

Following the standard layout.

All other groupings working correctly - tree outline, tree topper, all lip motions.

Thanks!

[TheDucks]

58 minutes ago, Jim Robbins said:

2 ports of 100.

Using pixel groupings

Using Pixie 2 controller.

Following the standard layout.

All other groupings working correctly - tree outline, tree topper, all lip motions.

Thanks!

??? Just to be sure. Left eye looking at the front? Because I  can't figure how the Right would work if there was a bad node in the Left.

Are the strings used 2 of 100 or 4 of 50 (connector at node 51, 151 location?

[strike]Can HU turn on port 2, node 54 [/strike] (HU can only do 50 nodes/port)  🥺  Open the Pixie2 and press the Test/Reset button momentarily.

 

[Jim Robbins]

So I pulled out Elden's pixel schematic. The schematic is done per your question from the backside of the tree. So I am having a problem with the eye that starts at 174 and goes to 191. 

Here are my eye groupings:

3 - Eyes closed: 154-156, 164-165, 174-176, 184-185

4 - Eyes open: 154-171, 174-191

The pixels not working are 174-176, 184-185, 174-191

Everything else is working. I am guessing that I will need to replace the pixels? I will get back out tomorrow and answer your other questions, but I am pretty sure i have 2 strings of 100 each. The trees were put together by LOR. I will try the reset.

Thanks!

[TheDucks]

The only reason for the string Q was whether the connector  might be an issue.

Also double check the Pixie is set for Eldon and not one of the others

[Jim Robbins]

Will do - will let you know!

 

[Orville]

15 hours ago, TheDucks said:

The only reason for the string Q was whether the connector  might be an issue.

Also double check the Pixie is set for Eldon and not one of the others

ROFL.  I did that when I got my 2 Trees from LOR, Ralphie and Zuzu.   I neglected to mark the controllers at the time which controller was for which tree and put Zuzu's controller on Ralphie and Ralphies on Zuzu's controller.   Talk about some weird looking and wrong RGB nodes working and not working.   So I just went into the HU and changed the Controllers to the correct LOR Tree, solved all my problems with them not working correctly.   Also, made sure I used a silver Sharpie and marked each Controller with which tree they belong too.

Of course, this year, I did away with their dedicated Pixie2 Controllers and moved them to my Pixie16.  Got Ralphies ports reversed, and so he was acting very erratic. LOL.  Reversed the ports and Ralphie was back to his normal self.

Some of the simplest errors can cause some very strange lighting effects, especially with RGB Pixels! ROFL

Happens to the best of us.

[Jim Robbins]

Thank you all for your input. I have narrowed down the issue. I find it is important in troubleshooting to first read the manual (I know, I know all of us DIY'ers just do it!). I dug up my schematics for all 4 of the singing trees and confirmed that I have all controllers and tress in their right place. I changed out power cords to Elden and his Cat 5 input cable. I have all the controllers marked as well as my "singers" (they are all mounted to 2x4 pressure treated frames and stands). What confused me in the initial "troubleshooting phase was that Elden and all the other singers worked perfectly last year, their first season. Then we we brought them down from storage in September (we had to set up early this year because I had surgery on my neck in October) Elden's left eye (as viewed from the back of the coro) was not working. This is when I decided maybe he was not getting enough power, so we changed out the electrical cords supplying him power and his eye worked!

This week is week 4 post surgery recovery and we are scheduled to begin our show on Thanksgiving evening. I went out and did a test run of the show - and Elden's left eye was again not working. I had a new Cat 5 cable ready and we preformed a replacement of his incoming Cat 5 cable. Still no luck and thus I posted to the forum. After the kind replies, I looked at the owner's manual and thanks to "TheDucks" I saw the test function! I ran that on Elden this morning and I have a bad node. Good news is I know within 3 pixels where that is. As you look at the back of the coro, the right eye ends at 171. There are 2 unused pixels, 172 and 173, then the left eye starts with pixel 174. So, in the test, everything works up through 171. My quandry is do I replace 171 through 174 - the extra 2 pixel nodes are skipped in the programming? 171 in the right eye is working fine, but I am aware that even though working well it could fail to send. 

[TheDucks]

Doesn't Eldon have 10 unused nodes at the end. There are your replacements, since there is nothing past those.

As to self test, that will tell you if 172 or 173 functions. If they do, then no need to cut out more than needed.  (fails can be Data Out: 173 or fails in 174) assumes 172 was fine and 173 ok