At a Loss With Freezing Props

[c7williams]

Hi All, 

I am hoping one of you can help me out. I have been doing shows for about 10 years now and introduced pixels a few years back. My show currently has 12 networks with over 64,000 lights with 23,000 of those lights being pixels.

 

This year I just cannot figure out why my props are freezing. By freezing I am referring to props getting stuck on an effect and staying stuck until a new effect comes across and clears the last one. My pixel networks are as follows

Network	Pixel Count
Aux A	2012
Aux B	2720
Aux C	1936
Aux D	1937
Aux E	1894
Aux F	2040
Aux G	2023
Aux H	2192
Aux I	2243
Aux J	2286
Aux L	1920

 

At first I was thinking the networks on which the props were freezing (Aux A & Aux G) had too much data on the network so I moved some props around to take some load off the network. Once this was done I noticed less props freezing but some still did. Then I moved around some more props and noticed props from a completely different network were now freezing. I then double checked that all my networks were running on the enhanced 1000k speed (with the HS adapters) and they all were. My next troubleshooting attempt was to move one of the problematic networks off the USB hub and into a direct port in the show laptop thinking the hub was having issues passing through all that data. Once again, no luck.

 

I am running the second last release of S6. I am extremely confused and frustrated at this point. Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Don]

Few things off the top of my head...

There have been multiple small bug fixes in recent versions. And in 6.2.18 there were some more bug fixes, so trying the latest version might help.
On the last Pixie on each network,  install jumper on J4 to connect 120Ω termination resistor.

As a *VERY* last resort, check the firmware version on each controller.

[c7williams]

4 minutes ago, Don said:

Few things off the top of my head...

There have been multiple small bug fixes in recent versions. And in 6.2.18 there were some more bug fixes, so trying the latest version might help.
On the last Pixie on each network,  install jumper on J4 to connect 120Ω termination resistor.

As a *VERY* last resort, check the firmware version on each controller.

Hi Don, 

 

I read the release notes on 6.2.18 and didn't see anything related to my issue so I did not bother to update but its worth a shot. Will update now.

Can you expand on "On the last Pixie on each network,  install jumper on J4 to connect 120Ω termination resistor."? Each network on has one pixie16. What would the jumper on J4 do?

[TheDucks]

20 minutes ago, c7williams said:

Hi Don, 

 

I read the release notes on 6.2.18 and didn't see anything related to my issue so I did not bother to update but its worth a shot. Will update now.

Can you expand on "On the last Pixie on each network,  install jumper on J4 to connect 120Ω termination resistor."? Each network on has one pixie16. What would the jumper on J4 do?

that is the last controller then.

RS485 is supposed to be terminated to keep the data square waves square.  With slower rate in the past, we just got away breaking the rules.

[k6ccc]

Like Don, somewhat grasping at some straws...

Depending on how busy those networks are (as in how complex the sequencing is), they could be getting choked.  However since there is only one Pixie per network, you can't move controllers around...

You said you are using a USB hub for most of the networks.  Is that a powered hub (has a external power supply), or is it powered entirely from the USB port on the computer?  Trying to power the hub and a dozen RS-485 adapters off of a single USB port may be resulting in lack of power.  A powered hub solves that problem.

You said you moved one USB to a direct port on the computer (and off the hub).  Did that help that one network?

How many USB ports are available on that laptop?  Can you get another powered USB hub and move some of the networks to another hub that is plugged into the computer?

 

[c7williams]

Hey Guys!

 

So I took your recommendations and tried them over the past week. 

 

I upgraded to the latest version of the software suite. I also added the jumper to J4 on the last pixie of the networks that were experiencing freezing.

 

@k6ccc my USB hub is a powered hub (which has an external power supply). When I moved one of the networks off the USB hub to a direct port on the PC it did not help. I ordered another hub. It will be delivered tomorrow. Im hoping that will fix the issue. Maybe just too much data out that USB port....

[c7williams]

Update. Second powered USB did not help either.