nmonkman Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Today I started my Halloween show. I was so happy because, I thought for once I wasn't down to the wire. Well, no such luck.I was finished and ready to go at 4:30 leaving 3 hours for little things. I decided to power up the controllers and schedule the show. The controllers would not stop blinking and the hardware utility would not find them.NOTE: They were all fine before I upgraded to version 2.4.First I thought I had a bad CAT5 cable, but it had worked fine just a couple weeks ago. I tried a new cable anyway and still nothing. I thought maybe the first controller was bad, so I tried going to the next one and still nothing.Then I thought the CAT5 to Serial Port adapter was bad so I ran up to radio shack. All they had was a USB to CAT5 so I tried that. Still nothing. I checked all my com ports and they were all working fine. Even tried reinstalling the drivers, but still nothing. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out what happened. I went back to the serial port to CAT5 adapter.I thought maybe it was the upgrade, but I could not roll back to 2.1 because the restore point had been overridden already. I thought maybe I could reassign the controller numbers, but these are the Deluxe kits so they are already set by the dial.Then I removed all the CAT5 cables that were daisy chaining and tried them one at a time. Then it finally recognized Unit 1. I did that for all four controllers that I am using for Halloween, one at a time.After that I was able to get them to all come online okay and the show was ready to go at 7:25 PM with just five minutes to spare. I had to do this a couple times before they would all recognize.Sometimes if it found Unit 1 and I connected to Unit 2 the previous Unit would start blinking again and then go solid when I unplugged Unit 2. It was like the other controllers were throwing it off.Has anyone else experienced this problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 My first thought is that you have a comm issue unrelated to the upgrade. Something might be introducing noise into the network, throwing things off. I've seen that before in my own network... Could be a bad cable, bad jack on one of the controllers, etc.Or I could be way off base Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Do you have any CFL's on the same circuit as your pc or the controllers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 2 things come to mind.1. the serial adapter is not a serial to ethernet. it is serial to 485 and LOR choose to use standard cat 5 cables. So you will not find a compatible unit other than LOR. So your radio shack find is not compatible.2. Do you use any CFL in your display. They have been found to cause interference on the comm line. Granted I have never heard of it keeping the network down. Usually just irratic behavior.Lastly, since you said upgrade to 2.4, I am assuming that if firmware version. You may want to try a reset on all your controllers.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmonkman Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 Okay, I had to Google CFLI know that I don't have the Candadian Football League in the garage and I am pretty sure that my garage in no way is designated as Central Federal Land by the Federal Highway Commission.LOL!So I narrowed it down to Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs. No, don't have any of those on any circuit. All my circuits for controllers are dedicated for that sole purpose. When I upgraded to 400 amp service I added a separate panel box for controllers only.It is working now, so I am going to leave well enough alone. I have a few weeks between Halloween and Christmas to make sure they are all back in sync. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 nmonkman wrote: Okay, I had to Google CFLI know that I don't have the Candadian Football League in the garage and I am pretty sure that my garage in no way is designated as Central Federal Land by the Federal Highway Commission.LOL!So I narrowed it down to Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs. No, don't have any of those on any circuit. All my circuits for controllers are dedicated for that sole purpose. When I upgraded to 400 amp service I added a separate panel box for controllers only.It is working now, so I am going to leave well enough alone. I have a few weeks between Halloween and Christmas to make sure they are all back in sync.LOL!Do you have any CFL's on your controller circuits? As in the display? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Cherry Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 One other thing. Last year several users had communication problems using the USB/485 adapter. Dan worked with many and found out that the USB cable needed to be shielded, not everyone needed a shieded cable but cured several users issues.Might contact LOR support on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 The new USB cable that Dan sell has Ferrite bead on either end. That would not be shielded but would more like be a filtered cable for noise immunity.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmonkman Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 Okay, lets clear the air here so we can focus.Yes I did go out and buy a USB to CAT 5 adapter but when that did not work I went back to the serial port to CAT5 adapter.No more USB adapter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 I was simply stating that the CAT5 on LOR equipment is not ethernet and if you purchased something at Radio Shack or Best Buy that is USB to cat 5....it is not the 485 protocol but ethernet which uses different voltage levels.Years ago someone blew up the LOR board plugging it into ethernet.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmonkman Posted October 19, 2009 Author Share Posted October 19, 2009 Sorry Chuck.After reading my response it DID appear to be a little blunt and rude. Certainly not intended and your input was appreciated.Unfortunately that is the downside of this miracle of internet. It is hard sometimes, without typing a novel to not sound cold.We will figure this out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Mr. Monkman for lack of a better way. No first name i could find.If you believe the usb adapter is bad. I would contact support@lightorama.com and let them know. I had some issues with mine where the contacts were stuck down and were not making good contact to the plug when it was inserted. I contacted support and they sent out parts for me to repair. In my case it was the RJ45 connectors.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed P Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 I am on 2.3.8 for Halloween and experienced something similiar. Laptop running XP HomeI tested lights with Hardware utility, opened from Start menu. Closed out of Hardware.I fired up the LOR contol panel (light bulb in tray) and when I enabled shows I got error that No Com port was found with LOR (something like that).Rebooted computer and LOR control panel started back up automatically and then found everything was fine with show and was enabled.I did this a second time and same thing happened after I closed the Hardware utility, almost seemed like Hardware Utility was not closing out of Com port or something.BUT as long as I reboot computer after using Hardware Utility the LOR control panel controls lights fine.Try a reboot, although I would think you may have tried this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmonkman Posted October 20, 2009 Author Share Posted October 20, 2009 I think what I will try with the rest of my controllers is this, since this is what got controllers 1-4 working again.One at a time, I am going to plug in a controller and refresh the network. Once it recognizes them and I make sure that they all still have the same numbers or re number as needed. Then I will daisy chain them one at a time.Run a test sequence to make sure they are all doing what they are supposed to.Then I will shut the computer down and restart and make sure they all come back online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts