MP3 dirrector will not stop show

[Lakecomo]

I have a LOR with factory installed MP3 dirrector(and one other WOWlights 16channel box), total of 32 channels. My problem is with the show timing, as in start and stop time.

System ran fine at Halloween, and the first night of Christmas show (three nights ago), came on exactly on time and went off on time.

But the day before yesterday the system started on time, but never shut down, found it running the show in the morning. Note: had quite a bit of ran that night, but the box where I have all the LOR hardware was dry. I turned it off, and restarted, and up came the show. Now basically anytime the LOR is on and the SD card inserted the show is running, 24hours.

I have reset the clock via the hardware utlity several times, and the hardware utility tells me that the time has been successfully reset. Also via a time code on the SD card via the hardware utlity. No help. Anytime the SD card is in and the unit turned on the show starts. (The show it's self is running fine)

I suspect that something may be mis set in the hardware utilty. That the clock is OK, but somehow the system is being told to run the show continuoulsy.

I'm using the simple show creator to program the SD card for the MP3 dirrector.

I'm open to suggestions.

Gerald

[George Cotton]

You can read through this thread as I had exactly the same problem:

http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum76/21043.html

Bottom line was to rotate the selector switch on the MP3 several times back and forth all the way around. Press the reset button. Seems something is amiss that casuses the SSB to not work and sometimes the Hardware Utility would not work. But after this, it seemed to solve the problem for me. I suspect there is some small difference in the cfg file created in the SSB and the one created by the HU.

Perhaps this will work for you as well.

You might also want to do this on your CTB16's if they are the deluxe versions with two rotary switches. I had a problem there as well.

Let us know.

[Lakecomo]

Thanks for the idea, will try it presently. My secound controler, from Wowlights, is not a deluxe, no dials.

I had unplugged the CAT cable to the 2nd controler, and the reset with no luck.

Will rotate the dials next and report back.

I have this display set up at our community's pool area, lots of great comments, until the all night show! People in the area called me in the morning complaining about the lights being on all night and music all night! Seems Wizards in Winter is not compatable with trying to sleep!

Gerald

[Lakecomo]

The fix worked! One rotation of the selector switch and a reset and all it well. The show started on time and ended on time.

Thanks!

Gerald

[George Cotton]

OK. It happened again tonight. I got home about 12:15am (Friday) and as I turned the corner, I saw my lights running which they should NOT have been. After several days of starting and stopping as expected, it again failed to stop the show and it just kept re-running apparently on the half hour.

The SD card in the MP3 was created by SSB. When I removed and replaced the SSB SD card, the show began immediately. I then followed my previous suggestion that worked the last time, rotated the selector and reset the MP3. This time that had no effect on the SSB card. I then inserted the HU SD card and the show did NOT start. I might should have tried that before reseting the MP3.

I checked the onboard clock and found it correct. I reset it anyway. I remade the SD cards using both SSB and HU and both worked as expected -- no show started.

I have "locked" the SD cards just in case something is rewriting the cfg file to see if it goes crazy again. And there is no evidence of any power loss to the LOR system or my digital clocks.

[-klb-]

Do you have more than one show on the card? Is one possibly set up with a schedule, and one without? This way a dirty selector switch could be causing the unscheduled (always running) show to run by mistake.

It might not hurt to copy everything off the card, clear it, and set up a new show from scratch, as the only thing on the card.

[George Cotton]

Even though I only have one show, the SSB always creates 2 shows, one for Sun-Thu (show01) and one for Fri-Sat (show02). Regarless, they both start at 5:30pm and stop at 11:00pm. Last show actually ends at 10:52pm.

As I said, I again rotated the selector switch a couple of times all the way around and then back to the "A" and pressed "reset". This did NOT solve the problem this time for the SSB. I recreated the show using SSB and HU and then they worked.

Also, I did even reformat (FAT) both SD cards before putting new data on them.

My question still remains, why all of the sudden after days of normal operation does it decide to reschedule the shows to EVERY half hour regardless of the hour of day?

I leave the SSB SD card in the unit on purpose as it seems to be the failure prone format. The only change this time is that I have "locked" the SD card which should prevent any corruption of data.

[Lakecomo]

It happened to me again too. Ran fine for two days then went 24hour.

I tried rotating the mp3 selector, didn't fix it this time.

I brought the SD card in and reprogrammed it, cleared it completely and used the SSB to create a new show. Only one show this time (or rather I didn't chose a different start/stop for Friday and Saturday, just Sunday - Saturday. When you are at the scheduling point in SSB, unselect the Weekend hours, and select all the Regular hours, bingo, only one show.).

It worked! The system was off for several hours, maybe that helped? A overheating issue? Was ready to place a timer on the power supllies!

But once again it was a rainy night when it went 24hr.

Will see how it does tonight and tommrrow night.

[George Cotton]

Just an update:

I just got home (again just before 12am Saturday) from a trip out of town and all appears to have stopped at 10:52p Friday night as my landscape lights are set to go off 1 hour after the last show and they did that just as I entered the driveway at about 11:53p. I use a channel to turn on a nightlight with a red 4w bulb in it to trick the photocell to turn them off during the show and then turn the nightlight off at the end so the photocell works as it should before the first show and after each show runs.

I do show a call from my neighbor across the street on my caller ID. I'll have to see what he says in the morning. He always likes my lights and even Halloween night, he tuned his stereo to my FM broadcast for his grandkids and the trick or treaters that came to his door.

[Lakecomo]

So far so good here. Lights went on and off on time. The reprograming of the SD card seems to have worked.

Will keep checking up on it.

Gerald

[George Cotton]

Interesting finding. The "Lock" on most of my SD cards -- DON"T LOCK data read or write. I realized it this afternoon when I made a slight modification in a sequence. I did a SSB and HU load without ever moving the lock switch off of what should be lock. So, I tried it again in the other position and even did a format and all worked no matter the lock switch position.

Having done that, when I put in the new SSB card about 10 minutes before my 5:30 scheduled start time, the show started. However, the HU card still was in a standby mode.

So, I waited until 5:30 and put in the SSB card. It has been playing right on time all night. Now I can't wait to see what happens at 11:00p. Should be NOTHING, but who knows. This is getting a bit frustrating as it seems that the DC_MP3 has a mind of it's own of late.

[Lakecomo]

So far so good here, two days and the show has started and more importantly stopped on time.