DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx EtherDongle => Lynx Conductor => Topic started by: sebjsan on November 24, 2012,
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Hi all,I ran my first show tonight. Used the conductor for the lights,but while doing my test found out that my FM transmitter czh-05b interferes with my conductor and won't let it work. Sink have to reflag the etherdongle and used LSP manually to run my show. Any thoughts.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100mW-500mW-Power-adj-76-108Mhz-Home-FM-TRANSMITTER-/330467454757?_trksid=p5197.m1992&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D14%26meid%3D3718564160354709627%26pid%3D100015%26prg%3D1006%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D330467454757%26
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? how far is the transmitter to the conductor as you may need move the transmitter away from the conductor
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At first it was right next to it. Then I pulled it as far as I could with the stick cable. The issue took longer but still occurred in dew time.
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I have been using same transmitter without a problem?
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Dpitts, are you using the stock cord?
What's the distance between the transmitter And cunductor?
Do you have walls between the two?
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You could always wrap the conductor case in aluminum foil and then ground the foil. That should act as a shield and protect it from most of the signal. You might also wamt to plug the transmitter and the Etherdongle into different outlets.
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I had a similar issue. I had to move the FM transmitter to another location and ran a 25ft audio cable between the two. If the FM transmitter was sitting next to the conductor, it would keep restarting and acting really odd.
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Dpitts, are you using the stock cord?
What's the distance between the transmitter And cunductor?
Do you have walls between the two?
I am using a stock audio cable and the units are 2 feet apart at most
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I tried the following:
Changed the audio cables to new. Get issue when i connect the FM transmitter (which is at least 20' away) to the conductor. When not connected the control panel is fine.
Connected the FM transmitter to the pc and broadcased music. Conductor control panel works fine. So dont think its a broadcasting/ radio frequency issue.
At this point im sure its the FM transmitter but im confused as to why it works with others and not me.
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What station are you using? If you power off the FM transmitter, does the EDC work?
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The EDC works when i turn off the FM transmitter. I am using 92.9 FM.
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Getting closer.
Changed the output frequency level from high to low. Now the control panel is stable. Unfotunetly the conductor wont play now. With or without the transmitter connected. Everything is as it should on the control panel. Ill try and reflash, see if that helps.
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2 steps forward and 1 step back. Reflashing the pic fixed the control panel issue.
The control panel doesnt act up like before with the transmitter connected.
I can play a show without the transmitter connected.
Now with the transmitter connectedi select show and select play it acts as if its going to start the show but stops short and wont play the show.
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I am using 87.9. I wonder if that makes any difference.
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I think it does, just went down to 76.0 and it works. Unfotunetly i have a great sign made up for 92.9 :(
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Well..... It seems i wont be able to use the conductor. The only channels it works with is the lower channels which are not available in my area. The lowest i can go is 87.5 in my car and fm stereos and the control panel wont work on anything lower than 78.0 FM. at least this is how my conductor is currently operating. Hopefully i am missing something.
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It sounds like you have a bad transmitter. It seems to be feeding back thru the hookup cable. If you have something that you cn put between them such as a stereo with tape input and output jacks, that should isolate the transmitter from the Conductor and would show if that's the problem.
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what about a ground loop isolator?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/260741338139
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If it were a ground loop condition, I don't think that changing the tranmitt frequency would have much effect. You need a one way connection that can prevent the transmitter from feeding anything back to confirm whether that is the issue or not. If that works, then the transmitter needs to be looked at to find the problem.
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Just guessing, but do you have one of these on the FM transmitter power cord?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3012599
I thought I read something about adding one of these to the audio line too, but not sure.
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a ferret might actually work, they eliminate EM interference in a line carrying signal.
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One more thought, did you twist the audio wires coming from the conductor? Twist them together tightly to help with noise.
I didn't do this on mine, but should.
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The issue seems to be more than just interferece, at least as far as a ferret can eliminate. It looks more like a heavy load at higher frequencies causing the Conductor to shut down. Most people have a stereo or even a boom box that has a AUX and TAPE OUT jacks which can provide the perfect isolation needed to test and debug the system and ac tas a bandaid to get it working if the transmitter is the issue for this seasons light show.
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Just got an old boom box from the inlaws. How can I set it up to debug the issue.
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You have to see if it has any aux inputs and tape outputs. Not all boom boxes have these but some of the bigger ones do. Oherwise, do you hav a stereo receiver?
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Too old of a boom box doesn't have the outputs . Don't own a stereo receiver.
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Long live analog! ;D
Although I have not built my conductor yet I have a tape deck with old school inputs and outputs. I also have the same transmitter of Sebastian and similar target frequency (99.5). I was not really planning on using the conductor this year but I could try and help debug. If this helps, how does the conductor need to be redesigned or fixed?
Sebastian, you give up on the LSP scheduler? I planned to use it at least until I have time to understand the conductor.
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I'm going to try lsp scheduler tonight. Just have to fight my wife for her laptop to run the show until I get this fixed.
Right now I just put the one sequence on loop.
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The issue is not with the Conductor but appears to be with the transmitter. I don't know if it's that make / model of transmitter or his particular transmitter has an issue. The idea was to feed the music output of the conductor into the aux inputs of a stereo unit and use the tape out to feed the transmitter. This would isolate the Conductor output from the transmitter input. If the Conductor works in this situation, then there is an issue with the transmitter and if not, then that Conductor has issues. The second step would be to get another transmitter of the same type an see what it does.
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I think you might need to ground the transmitter. To test this, wrap a piece of wire around the collar of the BNC connector of the antenna (the center pin is connected to the antenna, the shield/collar should be connected to ground inside the transmitter) so that it makes good electrical contact and attach a small metal stake (you can use a large screwdriver for testing) to the other end of the wire and stick the stake in the ground - yup vertical in the dirt. Then fire everything up and see if it works.
If that fixes it, it would be better to have a bigger stake - like 12 to 18 inches. For just Christmas, I think the industry standard 4 foot copper grounding rod would be a little excessive...
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So I had a strange one much like what you are seeing.
I've got the same transmitter, both the transmitter and conductor are on a shelf in my garage about a foot apart with the extra cable wound up between the 2. I've had this same setup running since Friday without issue. I did have my conductor sitting on a spare etherdongle I use to test with.
So today I made a couple tweaks to some sequences. Grab the card to format/put all the sequences back on and since I'm not really testing anymore didn't think I needed to leave my spare etherdongle out there and removed that from the shelf and put the card back in. Tonight lights started up like normal, 10 mins later I walked by a window and noticed the lights were off. Took a peak at the conductor and it was sitting at waiting and next show was tomorrow. Odd. Did a manual play of the show it started up but the music was extremely slow meaning it was like 3 to 4 times slower than normal but the lights were still going at normal speed, it would only play the first sequence also.
So I tried a reformat start over with the card again and this time the show wouldn't even start. After unplugging everything I remembered this post. So I unplugged my audio cable from the conductor and what do you know the lights started. So I moved the audio cable from where it was (just let it hang not touching anything besides the connection points in the conductor and transmitter). Show would play, music was fine and it would play more than one sequence. Very carefully put the cable back up and all seems to be good now.
Very odd is all I can say. Side note I'm on 91.7. I knew I shouldn't have touched anything :)
--Todd
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Hang in there guys. Built mine last but I didn't have the correct card reader to go any further. <fp.
Are there some measurements we can take from the transmitter cable/jack to see if it is indeed feeding back?
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Having an issue with an "RTC Error" with my newly built conductor. I plan to order another RTC unit.
I see other posts about audio/fm interference. Starting to wonder if it could actually be the conductor.
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i knew i saw this thread some where! lol with out use of the conductor, my ED was interfering with my radio in my garage with out any connections of audio to the ED. not sure if it was my ED or the active hub running the smart strings but every time i sent signal to the smart strings, it interfered with the radio.
duane
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Sam , others had that same issue and they re soldered all cf connections and verified all correct files where in. That seemed to solve the problem for them.
Duane, where you using a fm transmitter?
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Duane, where you using a fm transmitter?
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i will be using an fm transmitter in my show, but when i was using the ED, i was just testing my smart strings in the garage. when ever i sent data to the smart string, the radio would pulse with the flash of the nodes.
duane
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Maybe someone else can confirm but my take was that "card error" was due to pins/files but "RTC error" was a bad clock.
Really wish I could get her going so I could use my tape deck to troubleshoot the radio issue.
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have you guys tried wrapping the ed (still in the case) with aluminum foil, then grounding it?
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have you guys tried wrapping the ed (still in the case) with aluminum foil, then grounding it?
Keeps Aliens from reading the Conducters mind as a bonus!
Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk 2.
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I noticed last year that my ss tree interfered with the radio broadcast. Close to the house, i could not hear the interference, but as you got a little further from the house, the interference got louder and the fm range was greatly reduced from 2010 with no changes to the transmitter...
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Ok guys. Replaced my RTC and I am back in the game. Just did a very quick test and unfortunately/fortunately I am not having issues with the audio or FM transmitter stopping my conductor. Station is set to 92.9fm. Will report back tomorrow as I plan to run show with it for first time. That is after I revert to the previous LSP release to get sparkle and shimmer effects back...
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Hmm. I am watching this thread very closely. For now my show is running with LSP Scheduler, i will fiddle around with the conductor after the season.
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Hang in there guys. Built mine last but I didn't have the correct card reader to go any further. <fp.
Are there some measurements we can take from the transmitter cable/jack to see if it is indeed feeding back?
what is the correct card reader to have? i am going to purchase mine today with hopes of having the conductor running by the end of the weekend. i used my laptop for all my sequencing and light show work, but i also use it for work and want the conductor going asap. last night i didn't get home until 7 so my show was down for an hour and a half. go figure, a friend drove 15 miles to come see my show and it wasn't on. :(
duane
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You need a cf (compact flash) reader. I went to best buy and they were like "oooh you need the BIG ONE!?" I suppose it could be fair to say most folks will need to buy a cf card reader to use the conductor since it is not a popular size. I found a combo unit at Target for $20.
A thought I am having about you guys with fm transmitter issues is with regard to soldering the audio jack. I would be absolutely sure it is wired right. I think the instructions are a tad fuzzy and you could wire it wrong. Not entirely sure that it would fix the issue but I have learned well this year the tiniest of mistakes make a world of difference. Not to rub salt on any wounds but my fm transmitter and conductor sit next to one another and I have no issues whatsoever.
Hope you guys get yours working. Don't give up on it.
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What type of wire are you using for the audio jack connections. I am using the 20 awg stranded wire I got from ray.
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I used some cat5 wire like RJ in the manual and twisted it. Another thought. Did you twist the wires?
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My wires are twisted. I'll swap the wires later and see I'd that makes a difference.
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Mine is acting up from the transmitter today. Actually, the conductor is having a bad day. Nothing syncs. All sorts of fun.
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Seb,
You and I are on the same page. Sync and fm transmitter issues continued so I went to LSP scheduler. Except for one big one all 5 songs are solid. Happy I made the move. I didn't expect to run the conductor this year anyway but it was cool for a few days... ;D
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As they say " It was fun while it lasted". Good thing we have a backup, and a back up back up...