How do I use the 60% off program to upgrade my ailing controller to a new one?

[jeffostroff]

Dan:



After sending my sequence files from my LOR1602WMP3 Show Director controller to a few other guys who have the same controller but purchased this year or last year, (i.e. newer than my 2006 model) no one else can duplicate the 1 second delay issue I'm seeing on 5 of my 30 songs.

I think it's because my controller is old from 2006, it has a BLUE circuit board controller, with a green MP3 card. The newer controllers have green boards, so maybe the hardware is of a better design revision, not sure. All I know is that all 5 of my shorter songs, which are less than 2 minutes long, start off with a 1 second delay, and it corrects itself about a minute into the song. My longer 5 minute songs which are more complex have no issue!

So I emailed guys at Lightorama 2 days ago at the support@lightorama.com address, to inquire how to take advantage of the trade up policy which gives us 60% discount and they send us a new unit, and we send the old one back to them. I have not heard back from them yet.

Does Anyone know how to take advantage of this program? Maybe someone has already done this and knows what to do.

I need to get a new LOR1602WMP3 controller in my yard ASAP!

...

[-klb-]

Have you upgraded the firmware on your DC-MP3 in the last month or so? DC-MP3 firmware version 3.3 addresses this very issue if I remember correctly. It should be included with the 2.6.0 version of S2, and is documented in the new features for 2.6.0

http://lightorama.com/help/index.html

[jeffostroff]

All my units were upgraded to the latest bios this week. Most were already at 4.1 anyway, I just brought them all up to the same level.

To my knoweledge, I have not seen any comments from Lightorama about this fixing that particular issue. Where did you read that?

[-klb-]

The firmware on the MP3 Director is separate from the firmware on the controller. As far as I remember, the firmware upgrade for the MP3 director was only announced as part of the change log (or what's new) for S2 version 2.6.0. If you have 2.6.0 (or newer) installed (I don't) you can go to help-What's new, scroll or link down to 2.6.0 and read about what the new firmware fixes. If you don't have it installed, you can start a the help file link above, and do the same.

The way I read it, your issue is one of the bugs it addresses. I believe they also added a feature to 2.6.0 so that it can read the firmware level installed on the MP3 director. Upgrading the firmware is about the only thing you do to the MP3 Director with it attached to the computer.

[LightORamaDan]

I agree with klb... I would make sure that the firmware on the DC-MP3 is up to 3.3 ... The DC-MP3 card has not changed between the one you would purchase today and the one you already have.

You should not need to replace the controller! It should continue to work for years to come. If you continue to have the problem send it in for repair.

For the specific sequences in question, if you send the Audio File and Sequence File to support@lightorama.com they can test it out however I believe the latest firmware should solve the problem.

If you do need to replace a unit with the %60 lifetime replacement (lightning hit or some other catastrophic problem) then you can contact orders@lightorama.com and they will help you.

Dan

[jeffostroff]

I already mentioned earlier I have already upgraded the bios.

I can't send it in for repair, I need a swapout. I think the MP3 card is bad, because when I play it through the PC to the controller it works perfectly. I can't use my PC to run the show permenantly, I have to use the SD card, I have ot ge tthis resovled now. What do I do?

[-klb-]

You took specific action to upgrade the MP3 director card separate from the controller? While it may share the same housing, it is a totally separate piece of hardware, and will not be upgraded by installing the correct CTB16D firmware to the rest of the controller.

It looks like 2.6.0 and MP3 Director version 3.3 firmware was released November 4th. Here is a direct link to the forum post announcing 2.6.0, and the change log for for this release:

http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum55/20281.html

LOR wrote:

Now, a brief summary of the changes:

• 
  
• ...snip....
  
• The Hardware Utility can now display the firmware version of a connected MP3 director.
  
• A new version of the DC-MP3 firmware is included, which adds one feature and fixes two bugs:
  
  • 
    
  • Output #8, which was previously unused, will now be high (+5 volts) if a show is active, and zero otherwise.
    
  • In some rare cases, when a sequence started playing (on the DC-MP3), the music and lights would start off significantly out of sync with each other.
    
  • A bug caused triggers #6 and #3 to interact in some cases.

If you have not upgraded since early November, and you have not specifically upgraded the MP3 director card as a separate item than the controller as a whole, you do not have this firmware installed on your director.

[LightORamaDan]

jeffostroff wrote:

I already mentioned earlier I have already upgraded the bios.

I can't send it in for repair, I need a swapout. I think the MP3 card is bad, because when I play it through the PC to the controller it works perfectly. I can't use my PC to run the show permenantly, I have to use the SD card, I have ot ge tthis resovled now. What do I do?

I think that you may have updated the firmware in early october. There was a firmware update in mid November that specifically addresses some sequences that can be out of sync.

The out of sync problem was realted to a combination of the number of channels, the specific MP3 file and the type of SD card used.

If you have not upgraded to version 3.3 FileName: DC_MP3_V3-3.lhx please try it.

Dan

[-klb-]

Here is the link to the user guide for the DC-MP3 card that is contained within the 1602 MP3 system:

http://www.lightorama.com/Documents/DC-MP3_Man_Web.pdf

The firmware upgrade directions start on the bottom page 23 according to the PDF page count.

[Guest wbottomley]

This happened to me one time.

Do not check the lock step feature during the card programming--which maybe fixed by now.

[jeffostroff]

Why do I keep hearing "do not check lock step" from some people while others say you must check it off? Either way I have tried both lock step and without lockstep in the past and it makes no difference. Besides hardware controller software says it's recommended, so why would you not use something that LOR tells you to use?

[jeffostroff]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

PROBLEM SOLVED!

PROBLEM SOLVED!

That fixed it dudes! Dan you are correct, in October at your suggestion, I did download the 3.2 bios into my DCMP3 card, and that did not fix the synching problem at that time. I had no idea that 2 weeks later you released another bios version 3.3 that did fix the issue. So I downloaded it tonight at your advice once again, took me all of 30 seconds, and AMEN BROTHERS, all my songs are in sync now! Praise God!

I do however have a small complaint about the Lightorama support page. When you guys add new firmware, you should put a date next to it and the version number on the support page. Sites like Microsoft and Dell list dates next to their versions so we know what to get. You should do the same. Takes 2 seconds.

Also, when I click on the firmware file to see the comments section, it does not tell me the version, it simply says this:

##############################################################################
# #
# Light-O-Rama #
# #
# Download Version 0.00 for the LOR MP3 Player. Any alterations to #
# this file will most likely render light controllers inoperative #
# #
# #


See what I mean? I highly doubt what I downloaded tonight was Version 0.0! LOL! Also, the harware controller program doest not display the bios version of the DCMP3, only the controllers. So I have to try to figure out some cryptic series of blinks on the LEDs and can never seem to get it right.



NOW..... onto my next problem, now that this one is solved.

Dan, sometimes, about 1 in 20 times or so, when my 1602WMP3 controller powers up, it does not start playing, it just sits there, with the status LED blinking, waiting for instructions from the MP3 player that never come.

Sometimes I will then cycle power a couple of times, and it works, sometimes it just won't jumpstart itself. Sometimes I solve it by pulling out the SD card and sliding it back in. Then it jumpstarts and begins playing. I can't have this, what if I'm not around to jumpstart it when it fails to start up on it's own?

Any ideas on what causes this? This has always done this to me since the day I bought it, and no bios version to data has apparently solved this issue.

But it does seem to be an issue of the MP3 card not sending the instructions to the main card. I've tried numerous SD cards, all reocmmended brands, formatted properly, can't be anything I'm doing wrong, because the card worked last night, shut down with the timer, then would not power back up tonight.