How to deal with power outage?

[mitch09]

I'm looking for ideas on how to deal with power outages. This year I left town for a few days starting Christmas day. I left my show running using Xlights to schedule. We had a heavy windstorm that nicked out my power during the day. Therefore when people came to look at the lights Christmas night they only saw a few random xhannels on my LEs. Any suggestions on how to deal with this? My power is usually only out 30 min or so. I think a UPS would solve the computer issue but what about the LEs. The also needed a reset.

Ryan

[Jeffl]

I would probably consider a laptop for a computer to cover that.  An added UPS would also give you plenty of run time.  I know I have never had an issues with the LOR controllers but I may have had an issue with and LE during a breaker flip.

You would have to test it but I think the LE's would be much happier if there was a live DMX signal when they come up.  At a minimum it's nice if the PC will start after a power failure.  Some desktops have this option in the BIOS.

As for the random lights maybe "on".  This is one feature that I wish RJ could add to the LE firmware.  If the LE has lights on when the DMX signal goes down, it just keeps doing what it was, even when there is no future signal.  It would be nice if it would turn everything off if it had not received a signal in a certain amount of time.

I notice this the most when I do a "Disable Show Immediately" in the LOR software as it does not send a "all off" signal to the DMX adapter, which leaves lights on.  Sometimes this could be bad if you had a lot of lights on and they hung that way.

[dmaccole]

I have always had my show computer on a lamp timer ... this year I switched to an Intermatic DT620, which has its own battery ... a typical power outage isn't going to drain that battery, so the show computer would come on at the correct time every day.

Also, I use Windows XP's Scheduled Tasks ... creating one for "when my computer starts." With Vixen that wasn't a lot of help if the power went out during the show, but now that I'm using xLights, it will restart the show if the power goes out and comes back during the show times.

Personally, I don't think the controllers would need to be reset.

And another plug for xLights -- ran the show flawlessly for three weeks, started on time, ended on time, no freezes. Vixen had been another story entirely.

HTH.

\dmc

[jnealand]

My show computer is on a ups, but I have also configured the bios to automatically power on after a power outage and I have the computer automatically logon as me.  I also use vixen and its scheduler - no problems for me.   I have vixen in the startup programs and the show runs all the time as scheduled whether I am home or not.  I also doubt whether the LEs would need to be reset.  I am using 10 LEs and have been using LEs for 3 years now.  I think I have only reset one or two in that whole time period - power outages or not.

[Dennis Cherry]

Le's have a power on reset as most electronic devices.

[chrisatpsu]

2 Rack mounted UPS.     total power outage, i'm still on the internet.    wow, where are my priorities?   

[tbone321]

I know that many are looking at Notebooks and UPS's but the problem with that is many notebooks draw considerable power, even when idle and unless you have a really big and expensive UPS, you may get a few hours but not the better part of a day.  The simple answer here would be the EtherDongle with the Conductor daughter board (when it comes out). 

[Jeffl]

A laptop with a good battery should get you a few hours. Add a UPS and you should get a good chunk of time.  If you have power outages for more than 6-8 hours your going to have bigger problems than your show running.

[chrisatpsu]

most UPS devices (depending on model) run a short amount of time.  if you run a 1watt light bulb, or it you have a heavy load computer running on it, they generally run 15-30min

the laptop battery would outlast the UPS

[combustionmark]

I have an old IBM ups that runs my laptop for about 10 hours. The laptop battery only lasts about 3 minutes. The problem is short outages seams to scramble the lights in the yard. I have a switched output on the ups that remain es off for 5 minutes after power is restored, I am thinking that this could be used to turn on the expresses in the yard. Haven't tryed it.