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lights not flashing


dakotasbub

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ok I'm in the process of sequencing sleigh ride by the boston pops and on the initial opening quick notes i have two colors/channels alternating on those notes. When i have my controller inside and hooked up with the lights around it it flashes those notes and the coresponding lights properly, but when i took the setup outside to see what it looked like in the locaton i had planned, the quick alternating flash became somewhat stuttered, ultimately looking terrible and everytime i repeated playing it it still did it. so long story short are there any and what factors can lead to this stuttering effect, which is like out of say 6 alternating flashes the 2nd and 5th flashes never happen.

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Sounds to me like your communications may be likely cause. From what you write, I am assuming the only thing that changes is the cable connecting between the controller and the computer.

With the controller in the location you want to try outside. I would do a controller reset. You can find the procedure for your particular controller in the manual. After the reset, see if it works properly.

What adapter are you using? What is the cable distance in both cases?

Chuck

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Some more thoughts to add to this.

I presume that when the controller is inside, the temperature is about 70. What was the temperature like outside? If there is about 30 degrees or more difference. And the controller had time to cool down to that lower temperature. There is a slight possibility that there is a bad solder joint, even if this was not a kit you put together. Though I would first run with the cable suggestion that cmoore60 gave to you.



Max

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When you have the controller connected outside, do you use two supplies. If so, are they off the same phase? If you use different phases for the two halves of the board, I believe the results can be interesting.

Regards,

Alan.

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ok for the communications i'm using 10 and 14 ft cat 5's coupled in the middle, and the rs485 usb adapter, but when i brought it back inside it worked again with the same wire.

the temp was close to the same or no more than 5 degrees different prob 75 in the house and 70 to 75 outside

and for supply inside i have both power wire plugged into the same outlet and outside i just ran an extension cord out to the controller. only testing on about 800 lights so wasnt worried about overloading.

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I, too, am thinking communication. Can you eliminate the coupler? Do you have a different cat 5 cable to try?

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I'd also recheck inside on the same power cord then recheck on the same outlet, if it was different..

Most US residential power is single phase, where the two "phases" are really taps into one phase, and thus 180 degrees out from each other.. LOR can handle this just fine. What messes it up is three phase power, where each phase is separated 120 degrees... Note that three phase delta 4 wire service has a portion of the service that replicates residential service, with the service neutral being a center tap into the leg between two phases...

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This is definitely a communication issue in my mind. Are you making your own cables? Are the both wired as either an A or a B? Sometimes if one is wired as and A and one a B, you can have communication mix ups. I would also try the to change the communication speed in the SE.

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