George Cotton Posted December 4, 2009 Posted December 4, 2009 After running continuously for a couple of months (Halloween and now Christmas), my DC-MP3 has a developed a quirk.Shows are scheduled to run from 5:30p to 11:00p every night. The last regularly scheduled show ran at 10:30p last night (Thursday) as expected, of course nothing after 10:52p (end of sequences). I went to bed a little after midnight and no lights came back on.For some reason I awoke a bit before 3:00a today (Friday) and was about to drop back off to sleep and I noticed the light show started right at 3:00a according to the talking clock on the computer. I got up and ejected the SD card to stop the show.This afternoon, I download the show open which is 30 seconds, a 2 minute song and the close of about 30 seconds to the SD card by itself using the Simple Show Builder. When I put the SD card in, the show started and played the open, one song, close and then went dark as expected. At the top and bottom of each hour thereafter, it played this short show again.So I unplugged the whole system, plugged it back in, pressed the reset button on the DC-MP3 and put the short sequence card back in. Same thing at the top and bottom of the hour. It is now in its 3rd unscheduled replay. It's like the unit is just ignoring the hour part of the command and going with top and bottom of EVERY hour not paying attention to the hours it is supposed to run.Yes, the DC-MP3 clock is set right, at least the Hardware Utulity says it is.I have been using the SSB exclusively for programming as I don't use triggers or anything else that can't be done with SSB.CTB16DV6 (x2) - 4.32 firmwareDC-MP3 - 3.3 firmwareLOR Software - 2.6.2 (today download)
Guest wbottomley Posted December 5, 2009 Posted December 5, 2009 George Cotton wrote: After running continuously for a couple of months (Halloween and now Christmas), my DC-MP3 has a developed a quirk.Shows are scheduled to run from 5:30p to 11:00p every night. The last regularly scheduled show ran at 10:30p last night (Thursday) as expected, of course nothing after 10:52p (end of sequences). I went to bed a little after midnight and no lights came back on.For some reason I awoke a bit before 3:00a today (Friday) and was about to drop back off to sleep and I noticed the light show started right at 3:00a according to the talking clock on the computer. I got up and ejected the SD card to stop the show.This afternoon, I download the show open which is 30 seconds, a 2 minute song and the close of about 30 seconds to the SD card by itself using the Simple Show Builder. When I put the SD card in, the show started and played the open, one song, close and then went dark as expected. At the top and bottom of each hour thereafter, it played this short show again.So I unplugged the whole system, plugged it back in, pressed the reset button on the DC-MP3 and put the short sequence card back in. Same thing at the top and bottom of the hour. It is now in its 3rd unscheduled replay. It's like the unit is just ignoring the hour part of the command and going with top and bottom of EVERY hour not paying attention to the hours it is supposed to run.Yes, the DC-MP3 clock is set right, at least the Hardware Utulity says it is.I have been using the SSB exclusively for programming as I don't use triggers or anything else that can't be done with SSB.CTB16DV6 (x2) - 4.32 firmwareDC-MP3 - 3.3 firmwareLOR Software - 2.6.2 (today download)Try scheduling your shows in the hardware utility by clicking on the LOR MP3 tab.
George Cotton Posted December 5, 2009 Author Posted December 5, 2009 Did use Hardware Utility and had the same result. Instant show start and then ran top and bottom of hour.Over the course of the afternoon I did a couple more power down and reboot/resets. Changed the clock on the computer to a different time and sent it to the MP3 and then reset computer clock and resent to MP3.Used SSB and Hardware Utility to recreate the short show and even put the time on the SD card. Had same results all afternoon. Then about 5pm, just before 5:30 start, I did one last SD card insert and the show did NOT start and the board indicated it was waiting on a show to start. That was the first time I had seen that all afternoon. After it played the short show a couple time, I put back the regular show and all seemed to be back to normal.After the scheduled show start time, and the scheduled end time passed last night (Friday), things somehow got back in order. The last show finished at 10:52p and to my knowledge, nothing restarted all night. Now, I did not stay up and watch and did not wake up at 3am again, so I'm not positive, but for the couple of hours I've been up this morning, so far it hasn't run its own unscheduled schedule yet.After I get back from my errands, I've got to finish putting up my display. Then tonight I'm going to play with it to see if I can make it screw up again as I'm sure I will find something that doesn't "look" right once everything is in place.
Guest wbottomley Posted December 5, 2009 Posted December 5, 2009 To help trouble shoot....I need you to list every step taken in building your show in the hardware utility.
George Cotton Posted December 6, 2009 Author Posted December 6, 2009 I'm using the same 8 sequences for all of these tests. I have not powered down or reset the units since they ran Friday night on a sequence created in the Hardware Utility.Using the HU on Saturday afternoon I reloaded the SD card and put it in the MP3. After the boot up sequence, the yellow LED began flashing once every couple of seconds. The show did NOT start immediately as it had been doing. So, I decided to try something. Remember its mid afternoon, well before the scheduled show time.I used SSB and created the exact same show as I had been doing without a problem until mid week. This show was modified using 2.6.0 software earlier in the week and had been working fine until mid week when it decided to run its own schedule. When I put the SSB version SD card in and after the boot up, the yellow LED blinked twice, then once more about a second later and the show started immediately instead of the double yellow flash I had seen for several weeks when using the SSB to make changes before show time. Remember the unscheduled operation happened to a sequence created BEFORE I upgraded to 2.6.2 software, 3.3 firmware and with same to a card that had not been out of the unit in several days.I took the SD card and used the Hardware Utility to create the show exactly as I had done in SSB and it did NOT start. Just the yellow flash every couple of seconds. I then created the show again in SSB and it ran immediately. Created it again in the HU and went into standby for show time.Since I was not sure if the firmware in the MP3 was a problem, I rolled it back to 3.2 and it failed with SSB and succeeded with HU sequence creation using 2.6.2. I doubt the 2.6.0 to 2.6.2 software had any effect one way or the other as the original show was definitely created on 2.6.0 and failed without the card being removed and before 2.6.2 was loaded.Questions:1) Why did the MP3 suddenly decide to ignore the hour on an existing SSB sequence that had been running properly and not been removed from the unit in a few days?2) Why is the MP3 not understanding the schedule time correctly now on those created with SSB but is with HU?LOR - 2.6.2MP3 - 3.3CTB16DV6 - 4.32
Guest wbottomley Posted December 6, 2009 Posted December 6, 2009 The selector dial on the card.... what is it set at?
Guest wbottomley Posted December 6, 2009 Posted December 6, 2009 George Cotton wrote: It appears to be on "A".Rotate it a couple of times and come back to "A" then reset it.When you build the show from the HU, do you click on "plays during scheduled time."Then, when a window pops open, do you set the correct time?
George Cotton Posted December 6, 2009 Author Posted December 6, 2009 Yes, in the HU I set the proper days, times, half hour, lights off and the Lock on the create page.Seems I would have remembered the switch problem from just a couple of weeks ago when I had problems with the switches on my latest DIY board construction. Initially I set it to 02 and could not find it when scanning 5 units. I finally found it after scanning 50 units. It was being read as unit 12 I think (or something x2) even though the switches were indicating 02. So I rotated both switches a few times back and forth and then it was recognized correctly as 02.For some reason, I never related the CTB16D switch problem to the MP3 card. When my last show just finished about 45min ago, I rotated the switch a few times back and forth and reset it as well as unpluging and causing a reboot of the MP3 only. It now recognizes both the SSB and HU programing correctly. I never checked. :XI will mess with is tomorrow before show time and see if I can find a position that recreates the problem since I again have SSB and HU working SD cards. Sounds like the switches may have some excessive grease on them that keeps it from making solid logic contact and last week, it just decided to pick another or no valid position.I have put extra details in this thread just in case somebody else runs into the same problem. But, I won't be 100% sure until it runs for 2-3 years without a problem. Thanks.
George Cotton Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 See the last entry on the link below for descripton of a new occurance:http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum76/21128.htmlIt happened again.
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