Ouch!! crash and burn, system down and I need help please

[LENNY RUEL]

Well, we went live Tuesday and as I said yesterday in a thread other than Siberian Sleigh ride playing music through the system but with out lights we thought it went well. Not so as it seems as I had a chance last night to stand outside and watch a while. Not only Siberian Sleigh Ride but 7 of the first eight songs that I just turned on a few channels of lights had music but no lights.
We start with 5 songs sync'd with the lights and music both, fully animated. Siberian Sleigh ride is the second song and the rest all play fine. Then I have 16 songs that we just turned on a few different channels worth of lights for each song for some variation. I watched 8 of those before we had to leave and only one actually had light come on. I have 5 more different songs then fully animated and then 16 more new ones after those that again have a few different channels lit.
Anyway we get home at about 8:30 which would be in time to catch the second round of fully animated songs. Had the radio on also when we turned in our court.
DEAD AIR !! turned the corner and no lights either, just a little hiss over the radio and the outside speakers. Went downstairs and the computer was locked up.

Hers are my Questions, and there are several I need help with from the pros on here.

First when we first loaded the original program and my wife started playing around with some of the testing and playing with sequencing while I was still hanging lights she commented that the computer had locked up a couple times. We have downloaded LOR2 since then and I noticed once in a while while I was putting on some channels for those 32 non animated songs that it locked up on me. I think three or four times for those 32 songs. Then the big one last night in the middle of the program.
Where is this coming from? We have a newer E machine and when we checked this morning for capacity open it's over half available yet.

Next: All 42 songs we had the music off CD's we had and ripped them to 192 Kbps
and filed them. The 10 fully animated songs we got from someone and mated the music the same way so I don't know why Siberian Sleigh Ride isn't lighting. I don't know yet about the last set of 5 since it locked up last night, but I'm know for sure one of them works because it was my test run song, Christmas Eve Serajevo.

Then most of the other songs 32 from what I've seen so far play the music but not the lights.
I did everyone the same way.

A Brought up Sequence Editor
B Clicked on open file-new file- musical sequences and picked the song, which brought up the screen with all the squares
C Clicked on Edit File- Media File and picked the same song.

Test play on the screen for the animated ones, made any adjustments (Sleigh Ride was the only one I tweaked and that was just a copy and paste of channel 7 to 6)
and went to File- save as, and typed in the song name and put a "2" behind it.

For the other 32 songs I would do the same thing except decide what channels I wanted on. Clicked the on box and dragged the length of the channels I wanted on.
Saved the same way when done. I know at least the second one of the 8 I watched lighted up.

Last night when We did get home and I restarted the computer, I pulled up Seq Editor and test ran Holly Jolly and had lights outside. Went and test ran Siberian and no lights. They both look the same on the seq. editor though when you play them.

Any ideas?

I do know when we went to the Simple Show Buider and set it up, each song had two entires when we opened up "all files" to pull from that left hand box. It would show the title and then the exact same thing with my "2" after it, which is the ones we added to the right hand box for the show.

So between the lock ups and then no lights, I'm pretty dissapointed today. It looks really awesome when it's running. Last night when it first came on and I was watching the first batch of animated songs ANY car that came up the street just crawled. Pretty neat. I knew that ahead of time though from videos I've seen of some of you guys work, back to Carson Palmer and the Miller Light commercial. It's different though when it's your own. I knew back then it was something I had to do.
I also knew you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to do it.
But, thoroughly frustrated right now.

Thanks up front again for any help.

Lenny

[iresq]

Wow Lenny. That's a lot to chew on.

How many controllers? Can you control them via Hardware Utility?

If so then it appears to be a configuration issue.

A good place to start is with the channel property grid (under tools). Make sure that all channels are properly assigned. You have to do this for every sequence.

Are you importing and exporting the channel configurations? This will save a ton of time. This has to be done in a very specific way so let us know if you need help.

I can't help with simple show builder as I use the Show editor.

[LENNY RUEL]

1 16 channel controller. New at this and at $300+ each I need to go the one at a time route.
All we used Hardware Utility for was to run the tests for initializing the system when we installed the disc etc. All that was fine then. Had the flashing red LED at the controller, plugged a string in to each channel to runt the tests, etc.

Don't understand the assignment on channels though you talk about.
When i pull up Seq editor and go to the file-new-musical the grid comes up with channels 1-16 down the left side and my 1/10 second boxes for each channel the length of the song.
Then we went to the edit-media and imported the same song so we could play it and assign some lights.

Lenny

[dstevens]

Lenny,

After reading your posts, it does sound like your channels are not configured in the sequence editor. You have to configure each channel with the controller type, unit #, and channel #. Since you got your animated songs from someone else, the channel configurations will match their system, not yours. That would explain why some work and others don't.

[iresq]

Well, you should have had a solid LED. Just so long as I am clear, you can control each channel with the Hardware Utility, correct?

If so, the problem is probably configuration.

Open a sequence.
Click on tools, channel property grid.
Every channel should have user defined name (like icicle lights, candy canes, etc). Device type should be Light-O-Rama Controller. Unit Number would be whatever you assigned to the controller. Probably 01. Then select each circuit. So when you are done, you should have 16 channels, all with the same unit number and unique circuit numbers.

Please advise on above and we will move to the next step.

[LENNY RUEL]

I think I'm understanding the configuration thing. Now that I think about it the Siberian Sleigh Ride was a download from LOR sequences. The others where all from one member with 16 channels also except Where Are you Christmas? which was another 16 channel and those work. Siberian was like 45 or 48 channels so the config. may be off. But what about the 32 songs that I start from scratch with just turning on a few channels the length of the song. With just the one controller I still need to configure them forevery song even though they say channel1-channel 16 down the left column. With the bigger Siberian could that have changed the configs? Also any clue on the lock ups? I know we have 50 % of our capacity used and of that the LOR related stuff is like 27%. I thought I've seen others on here talk about the same lock up issues.

Lenny

[iresq]

Not sure about the lock up issues but lets get your show going.

Each sequence has its own unique configuration. So one sequence will not change the configuration of any others.

Here is the semi-easy way to correct your configurations across all sequences.

First, make sure each sequence has only 16 channels and the channels are all aligned the same way. For example, channel 1 is the same set of lights for every sequence. If you have sequences with more than 16 channels, delete the unused channels. You many want to rename the new sequence if you want to keep the original.

Once that is done, open one of the sequences and use the channel property grid to make sure all your assignments are correct.

All correct? Good. Export the configuration edit - export configuration. Choose a name like 16 channel or whatever. Open the next sequence, import the configuration (edit-import configuration). Save. Move on to the next one, etc. Do this for all sequences (animation and musical).

When you create a new sequence, just import the configuration. As you add more controllers, you can do the same process. Add 16 channels to one sequence. Make assignments. Export configuration. Re-import to the rest of your sequences. The key is to make sure all your channels are in the same order across all the sequences.

[LENNY RUEL]

Dave, I'll need to check that when i get home. I've seen all that info on my imported sequences. But on the simple lights on for the 32 songs that are not fully annimated I know it just says channel 1 thru channel 16 down the left column. I did not assign colors or titles since I figured I didn't need to. It's just 1 contoller out of the box so I kind a figured once we set the little switches in the unit it self to 0 and 1 that I didn't need to worry about anyplace else until we added more controllers. I do know the Hardware utility does show contoller 01 in the one box.

Lenny

[iresq]

You don't technically need to assign names and colors. But you do have to assign the channels to your controllers. The assignments follow the sequences which is why you see them on the imported files and not the ones you created.

Good luck.

[LENNY RUEL]

Dave:
It also seemed the USB line between the PC and Booster is a very common problem with the lockups so I have the new one coming.
A question though is once I get home and reconfigure the channels for all the songs are they automatically updated in the actual show file or will I have to build a new show from scratch? Or is there an easy way to update them?

Thanks again.

Lenny

[iresq]

Provided the sequence names do not change, you should be good to go.

[LENNY RUEL]

Dave:
Thanks again. Went as easy as you said on the configurations. It took about 30 minutes to do all 42 songs. Where are you Christmas ? even though it came to me as a 16 channel, the channels where all moved around. The member that I got it from did a great job on it and when I imported my configuration it really looked better yet outside. Even the 32 channel Siberian Sleigh Ride, once I deleted the channels I wasn't using and brought over my config. I'll be able to do some changes pretty easily. I have a couple of blank channels that I can do some copy and paste off other ones to fill it in nicely. Big snowstorm up here today but I think UPS is running so my new USB cable should get here. System stayed on last night and there is no sure bet the cable will fix the lock ups, but it seems to be a pretty common thread with others having that same problem. The fun begins all over next year when I ad at least one more contoller. I might even try setting Christmas Canon yet this year. I have some ideas for it that I think will look good and I didn't see any I could download and modify easy enough.

Lenny

[iresq]

Cool :cool:

[doug petschke]

Please enlighten me on what you mean by christmas cannon?

[iresq]

I believe he means to sequence Christmas Canon, by TSO.

[doug petschke]

ahhhh thanks.. I got to thinking hmmm this may be possible ...creating an animation scene