Prop turns off unexpectedly.

[TheDucks]

Check the USB port POWER settings in Windows Device Manager.  Intel (and probably others) chipsets can turn off USB ports to 'save power'.

[bdwillie]

4 hours ago, TheDucks said:

Check the USB port POWER settings in Windows Device Manager.  Intel (and probably others) chipsets can turn off USB ports to 'save power'.

Thank you sir, but already did that.  If you think of anything else please keep telling me!  I see there is a new version of 6 out this morning.  Will try that before bumping back to S5.  Looking at the what's new, I don't have much hope in that but you never know!

[bdwillie]

I think we have it.  One of 2 things fixed it.  From reading on another thread about 100% items not sending commands because there isn't a change (Thanks Jim!)  I tried modifying the animations.  At first I tried just a 100 to 98 fade down and back up at the beginning of the animations.  That helped some, but still had the issue.  Hung it up for the night.  Installed 6.1.6 this morning AND changed the animations to a 2.5 sec fade down to 98 followed by a 2.5 sec fade up back to 100.  Copied that 5 second block and repeated it throughout the entire 2 minutes, every 5 seconds.

One of those two has done it.  I ran the show through once during the day and the animations never blinked, or shut off.  Worked just like they should have.  SO now the show has been running for 2 hours and so far no issues.  No drop outs, no blinks.  Holding my breath it stays that way, but it hasn't ever made it this far without loosing things.  Thanks to everyone for the suggestions to try, and for putting up with such long frustrated posts.

[MSB]

Your fade works. I had the exact same problem with a 4 channel controller turning static lights on a tree on a background animation. Sometimes they would turn on but mostly they stayed off during the 2 minute sequence. I never used loops. Just turn on the tree for the entire night. so I started the channel at 98%, faded it up to 100% over 2 seconds and back down to 98% over the next 2 seconds. This fade repeats on all 4 channels over the 2 minute sequence and Bang, the lights are on. I'm on 6.1.6 Pro license. Thanks for sharing!!

[bdwillie]

16 hours ago, MSB said:

Your fade works. I had the exact same problem with a 4 channel controller turning static lights on a tree on a background animation. Sometimes they would turn on but mostly they stayed off during the 2 minute sequence. I never used loops. Just turn on the tree for the entire night. so I started the channel at 98%, faded it up to 100% over 2 seconds and back down to 98% over the next 2 seconds. This fade repeats on all 4 channels over the 2 minute sequence and Bang, the lights are on. I'm on 6.1.6 Pro license. Thanks for sharing!!

I can't take the credit!  I found it in another thread from Jim!  So now we can both thank K6ccc Jim!

[MSB]

This also fixed several 16 channel controller issues where the props either never turned on or turned off by themselves. One controller had all 16 channels on 100% twinkle for a row of 16 stars hanging from trees. They would either not turn on or they would turn off for a while and then come back on. All random. I modified this sequence to fade from 30% to 100% and chase back and forth and that problem was solved. Other controllers just had solid on, and they were not reliable so adding the 98% to 100% fixed those issues. This is very time consuming knowing you cannot use an on for a row in a background sequence and count on it turning on. I literally have hundreds of channels that need to be checked