Loss of DMX on Eithernet and USB dongles. Ugh!

[onesmoothhead]

Hello all I could use your help.

I have two usb dongles proven over three years and one Ethernet dongle over the last year on my test bed.  Both were working on this years show.  As of tonight I am not getting a DMX signal our of either. Interesting enough I was running my show on TX/RX to 10 LE and an FS. I have since direct connected to a proven three year old LE on my test bed. The loss of DMX seems to have happened in an instance.  I have reprogrammed both of my dongles and LE pics. I have restarted everything.  I am using an older XP machine, but the same machine for the last three years of shows.  Does any body have an idea of why I am not getting DMX out of either dongle.  I have used Xlights to test, Lynx DMX deck through the USB dongle and even a test project in Vixen on both.  I am at a loss.  I would guess the problem is in my computer some where. I am not sure where to go from here.

No Pixel in any of my show this year.  Everything is full DMX on the PICs.

In advance I want to thank you for chiming in and helping.

 

Regards,

Kevin

[onesmoothhead]

I should have also added I am getting a DMX light on my LE from both dongles, but no LED movement on the LE and the LE test lights I have connect to each channel do not light.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[tbone321]

It sounds like the only common issue you have here is the PC.  If you have another PC, I would load Xlights on it and run some test channels to see what happens.

[onesmoothhead]

I am going to try a windows 7 machine, but I may just get my conductor up and running. Very discouraging for me. All was great for two seasons.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[tbone321]

It could be an issue with the USB ports of your current machine.  If the Win 7 machine works, I would try going into the hardware manager of the older XP machine and remove the USB ports and then let XP reinstall them.  That may wake them back up if that's the issue.

[onesmoothhead]

I thought about that USB port issue, but it does it on the Ethernet also. Not knowing if the port problem could effect the ether port?



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[tbone321]

What software are you using

[onesmoothhead]

I am using Vixen for the show.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[rrowan]

check your profile and make sure the output plugins are correct

if its the scheduler than make sure it properly setup there

Rick R.

[jnealand]

Every now and then USB ports seem to go into never, never land.  An interesting trick I learned is to shut down the machine and remove all power from the machine.  You must unplug from the wall or any battery backup units.  Wait at least 2 minutes, plug everything back in and try again.  This has worked on a number of client computers whose usb devices just disappeared.  Removing all power for a period causes the USB ports to lose any memory of what was plugged into them at the time.  The drivers are still there, so a simple restart of the computer after removing all power has done the trick for me multiple times.  A restart alone will not do the job.

[onesmoothhead]

Rick, I did check the outputs. I will try to power down for the system. Thanks again for help.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[onesmoothhead]

Ok here is the latest. I did the power down of all including the removal of power supply on the CPU. I have moved all files and I am going to reinstall my Xperia on the machine. Clean slate and we will see what happens. I could not kick the 15 year old daughter off the win 7 machine tonight. She was doing the pre AP English assignment at the last minute. Proud dad, but am sad about my show. Thank you again to everyone.

Kevin


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[bcstuff]

Might be a silly question but did you try a different cat5 cable?

The reason I ask is you said you have 2 usb dongles and an Etherdongle. Since the Etherdongle uses the network, no usb, the only common variable I can think is a cat5 cable.

You also tried different programs which would limit the possibility of a specific program problem.

Hope you get it worked out.

[onesmoothhead]

I did use a different cat5 for both the ether and USB. I would not think both would be bad. However, I have seen this before in other applications. I will change them tomorrow. Great call on cables. They have many hours and connects/disconnects on them.

 Anything I try will let me learn even more.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[onesmoothhead]

I did change the cables and have the same issue.  One part I forgot to address in my opening statement is the Data light on the LE is on when I connect either the USB or ethernet dongle.  I just do not have blinky on the LE board or test lights.  This is only a show computer and I am going to reload XP and go back to factory. unless you all have another idea.

Kevin