DiyLightAnimation

Hardware => Lynx EtherDongle => Lynx Conductor => Topic started by: twooly on November 27, 2013,

Title: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 27, 2013,
I have a strange one and looking for suggestions.  Updated my conductor to v69 of the firmware and running v3 of the control panel.  At random times in a sequence and on random sequences in a show light output just completely stops, the conductor itself is still going because the music is  still going.  When it finishes that sequence and moves to the next  it proceeds as it normally would.

I'm not sure what to do/look at besides reflashing the pic.  I don't think its the sequences because it can play it just fine the next run through, and since its totally random (sequence and timing in the sequence).

So example.  I have 7  sequences, first time through it may stop output on sequence 2 at 45 seconds.  Next time through it can pick sequence 7 at 1:20.

Any ideas?

--Todd
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: keitha43 on November 27, 2013,
Did you do the audio board modification? Are you using a wireless transmitter? If so, what brand? There is a thread about it here- http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=11784.0
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 27, 2013,
Yes I have the board and I'm seeing it just with headphones also.

This was a perfectly working conductor for 3 shows now, using the old version of the firmware and control panel. Just ran my halloween one just fine.   Reason I did the upgrade, I was seeing it stop a show after one sequence even though more were in the show.

Did the reflash and now its even worse, won't even connect anymore.  Put back the old firmware and I'm back to it stopping after a sequence, but at least it connects.  Going to go grab my dad's to see if I see the same stuff.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 27, 2013,
RTC bad maybe?
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 27, 2013,
Tested the battery and its reading 2.9v
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 27, 2013,
So I went and got my dad's conductor.  Works fine with all of my sequences, no issues.  Its something hardware wise on mine.  Going to flash back to etherdongle to just make sure that part still works ok.

Any other ideas out there?
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: tbone321 on November 27, 2013,
You could have a bad connection on the card socket.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 28, 2013,
Spoke too soon did the exact same thing on my dad's conductor, just randomly stops.  Guess I'm going back to xlights.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 28, 2013,
I scheduled a show and let it run for an hour.

7 sequences in the show and it stopped light output 4 times.  4 different sequences and all different timing in the respective sequence. 

Started ran through 3 sequences fine and then the fourth it stopped light output, 5 started like normal.
Ran through 2 more times without an issue on any of the 7 sequences
Ran another time 5 ran ok, 6th it stopped, 7th started and then stopped also.

I've now seen this on 2 different etherdongles/conductors.  Along with a conductor that ran fine the night before for a test, left it didn't touch anything and the next day it was saying not connected and power cycling got me back to a connected state.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 29, 2013,
Did a reflash of my conductor and its back alive, I can connect/play songs again.  So I hooked up a string of lights inside and Ill see how it works tonight and see if I get the original problem of light output just randomly stopping.

Was talking and wandering if maybe the temperature is maybe causing the issue.  It has been colder than what it ever saw last year.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 30, 2013,
Ran the conductor and a string of lights indoors and still saw the issue.  Looking at the specs for the RTC is only goes down to 0 c (32 F) and I can tell you it was in temps lower than that.  Wandering if maybe the RTC is now bad because it went past the operating temp range.  We have another conductor that hasn't been outside so I'm going to give it a try when I get some time to play again, family weekend :)
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: RJ on November 30, 2013,
The RTC will not get damaged by being cold. It just does not operate within specs. I do not think that is your issue. Just make sure you are on the latest firmware.

RJ
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 30, 2013,
Yep I have the latest firmware and I'm seeing it on two conductors now one being used during the beta testing of the new firmware.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 30, 2013,
Just built our spare conductor and tested with that one, same issue. 
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: rrowan on November 30, 2013,
Are you using the same CF card or different one in each conductor?

Rick R.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on November 30, 2013,
I've tried two cards now.  I'm going to place my Halloween sequences back on it and see how it goes since those ran fine on the old firmware.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 01, 2013,
So I may be making head way.  Was out and about shopping so I said why not just get a third card and try another one just to rule out the chance of having bad blocks/sectors on two cards.  Ran through the show twice now and it hasn't had the issue.  Going to try a schedule now and let it run for a hour or so and see if it comes back.

Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: chrisatpsu on December 01, 2013,
did you format the original card before putting your files on it?  I think it had to be formatted before you made changes to it. (like adding stuff)
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 01, 2013,
Plenty of times, I can format in my sleep :) 
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: rrowan on December 01, 2013,
any updates?

I really think my conductor problem is my cf

Thanks

Rick R.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 01, 2013,
Its running right now from a schedule start and so far I haven't seen it stop in the 15 mins I've been watching it.  Ill update again here before I go to bed.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: tomwb301 on December 01, 2013,
twooly,

Anything you find out, please post. Mine is doing the same thing. I have checked and rechecked and all seems good. I only seem to lose one light sequence each night, music plays, but no lights. Next sequence, all runs great.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 01, 2013,
I can't say for sure since I've done/tried lots of stuff with 3 different conductors.  What it looks like to me is that we are not past the problem if there is a bad memory flagged on the card and when the conductor tries to read in that bad spot it stops output until it's reset with the next sequence.  All I can say is try more cards and from my tests it looks like you should still be formatting/starting over every time you want to make a change on the card.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: tomwb301 on December 01, 2013,
I'll try that and let you know how I make out. Other then that, the conductor and other equipment is working great. Just lost one sequence lights (random) last 2 nights. Tonight seems ok.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 01, 2013,
So I let it run tonight inside and I watched it through the show 3 times and it didn't have the issue.  I'm going to setup for an actual show but keep it inside another night and see how it runs tomorrow on my test setup.  Another card so far seems to be the trick and doing the formatting whenever I need to change things.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 03, 2013,
Spoke too soon looks like its back and I haven't touched a thing with my test setup inside, doing the exact same thing only doesn't seem to do it as much.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: tomwb301 on December 06, 2013,
Did some observation and I had one sequence that the conductor was stopping or skipping or just playing the music. Reformatted flash card, reloaded and had same results. Reworked sequence in LSP and exported it to conductor. Problem solved. The problem is not in the hardware, it was a glitch in the sequence somewhere.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 06, 2013,
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Did some observation and I had one sequence that the conductor was stopping or skipping or just playing the music. Reformatted flash card, reloaded and had same results. Reworked sequence in LSP and exported it to conductor. Problem solved. The problem is not in the hardware, it was a glitch in the sequence somewhere.

Its happened on every single sequence and the fact that the sequence can play fine other times makes it really odd.  My thought its the filesystem itself,how its read, or that it can't read fast enough.  Thats my 2 cents worth.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 06, 2013,
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Reworked sequence in LSP and exported it to conductor.

To add I'm willing to try things as you can tell.  Can you tell me what reworked means/what you did?  I'm a LSP user myself also.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: tomwb301 on December 06, 2013,
sent PM
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 06, 2013,
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sent PM

Thanks Tom, I've got a couple ideas now.  Ill report back
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: tomwb301 on December 06, 2013,
Hope I have helped
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: RJ on December 06, 2013,
I think you will find it is not a matter of keeping up reading. The system reads the same amount at the same rate at all times. No matter whats in your show. Could you be using excessive quality level in you audio file?

The beta guys really worked the system over. We felt it was solid so not sure what is given you the issues.

Sent from my Charge by Tapatalk

RJ
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 06, 2013,
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I think you will find it is not a matter of keeping up reading. The system reads the same amount at the same rate at all times. No matter whats in your show. Could you be using excessive quality level in you audio file?

The beta guys really worked the system over. We felt it was solid so not sure what is given you the issues.

Sent from my Charge by Tapatalk

RJ

Tom and I were seeing the same symptoms.  After talking to Tom a little we are thinking its something in the LSP export that is sending some strange commands to the conductor thats making it fail.  What I'm not sure. 

Trust me I have one of the beta guys stumped.

Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: keitha43 on December 06, 2013,
If you think it is something caused by LSP's conversion try the light elf tool and see if the problem disappears.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 06, 2013,
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If you think it is something caused by LSP's conversion try the light elf tool and see if the problem disappears.

Yep I'm doing that.  I'm also going to change the sequences just enough that it makes them new files vs just reexporting because I've done that plenty of times now with the same results.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: arw01 on December 06, 2013,
What about going from a light elf conversion?  I am not home but think I saw one of them went to conductor directly and you can eliminate one possible source of the errors.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: tomwb301 on December 07, 2013,
After a little rework of the sequences and a export to conductor my problem is gone. It must have been something in LSP or even my computer. Not sure what though.

Both LSP and Lynx are great products. As complex as each of these products are, I am glad it all works. Most of the problems encountered are usually user / builder error. It's just a matter of working things through, that's why we share on this forum.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: arw01 on December 07, 2013,
So what kinds of tweaks in LSP did you do?  Can you go back to your prior file that exported with issues and just try the light elf export and see if it goes away as well?
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 09, 2013,
Doing just an export with light elft does not fix the issue, still happens.  Guess next I have to tweak something in each sequence to try that.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 10, 2013,
I posted on LSP's site to see if I can get help over there.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: arw01 on December 10, 2013,
Did the log from the light elf conversion show anything interesting?

Alan
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 10, 2013,
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Did the log from the light elf conversion show anything interesting?

Alan

Nope just the normal extact/periods/controller names.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 10, 2013,
There is very little chance that the conversion itself is the source of the problem. If the sequence works once, the conversion was successful and the data in the file is correct. RJ posted the file format of that data stream a year and a half ago, and it is very straightforward. No magic numbers, no gap, just a stream of 0s and 1s that are read from the file and sent to the pixelnet 'network'.
My setup has been working for the past 10 days, is ON 24/7 (but only 'broadcasting from 6pm to 10pm) and had not failed once. I said 'had' because last night it showed the exact same symptoms than yours. First time around 7.30pm, I noticed than the yard was dark, but I could still hear the song being played in my office where I have a radio tuned to my radio channel. I ran outside, checked the first hub, the one connected to the conductor, checked the second one and so forth. All had power and I couldn't see anything wrong. Went back inside, switched the pixelnet cable from the conductor to a etherdongle I have there, launched a playback in LSP and the lights were all working fine. The song on the conductor had changed at that point, and when I reconnected the hub to the conductor, the show was playing correctly. About 2 hours later, the same thing happened. I didn't touch anything that time, and everything came back to normal when it went to the next song. That second failure happened on a different song.
It might be the case that this happened in the past, but I had not seen it up until yesterday.
This is a new conductor that was built this season, and the memory card I am using is not the one coming with a coop, as I could not find it locally. It is a 16Gb CF card, speed 500x from Monster. All the files have been triple checked to be at the correct format, password, schedule and show files are present on the card, and at no time has the conductor showed any signs of problem. I was using another one last season, which wasn't mine, and the new one performed exactly like the old one.
One thing that was done earlier that day and prior to experiencing that issue, was to delete the show file and the schedule file (directly from the card) and rebuild a new set. While doing this, I noticed a 'playlist.dat' which I do not remember seeing before, and, not knowing what it was, I didn't touch it.
What type of CF card are you using, and does anyone know what the expected behavior when the conductor encounters an error in the middle of streaming a .seq file?
Another question, for RJ if he is available, is there a way to set the default output volume value to something else than 214 and have it stick? 214 ends up being extremely low with my conductor, and unless I set it at 254 I can barely hear anything (with the FM transmitter or a headphone directly plugged in the conductor). That isn't too much of a problem to have to set it manually at 254, but the annoying thing is that, when the CPP is relaunched, it always default to 214, regardless of what the previous setting was.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: RJ on December 10, 2013,
Interesting on the volume issue. As I remeber this was a bug that was addressed in the beta and fixed, then tested by the beta guys. It should save your volume setting in the conductor and when the conductor communicates to the CPP it should display the volume correctly.

As far as the quiting It is strange that it would work for 10 days then begin this. When it plays a seq and music file the system works exactly the same time after time. It is a fixed work load device so if it ever plays it should be able to continue to do it everytime. It is clear we will need to research this with the help of those that have seen it in their shows.

RJ
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 10, 2013,
I'm seeing the same thing with the volume, always starts at 214 no matter what I set it to.

I'm glad to give you files/try stuff I can still recreate it in my test setup.  Just let me know how I can help you to try and pin point it. 
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 10, 2013,
RJ,
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As far as the quiting It is strange that it would work for 10 days then begin this. When it plays a seq and music file the system works exactly the same time after time. It is a fixed work load device so if it ever plays it should be able to continue to do it everytime. It is clear we will need to research this with the help of those that have seen it in their shows.
I am assuming that the seq files are not cached in memory when a show is playing. They must be streamed from the card as the sequence is played. Some caching of the next few intervals might be done, but not the whole seq file. As you said, the system works exactly the same time after time, that is why I discarded a bad export from the sequencer software, or a bad file on the card. In both cases, it would be behaving badly time after time. But, if a read error occurs from the 'moving parts', I would be interested to know how and if the system tries to recover. The OS for the card reader might just close the file and keep sending 'File not opened' type of errors to the conductor sequencer. It might retry until it's blue in the face but not get anything out of the card…
I am sure there could be other kind of internal errors that could cause this to happen, but this one, because it actually resume operation when starting the next file (and I assume going through a file open system command) makes sense to me from a software engineer perspective.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: einstein2883 on December 11, 2013,
I remember I had a problem during the beta testing with the volume somehow going back to 214 every time I started a show.  Sounds like 214 is some kind of magic number. The way I got it to work again was to reload the original FW (use control panel ver 1.5, rebuild show files) and run a show and change the volume.  Then reload the v69 FW (use control panel ver 3) onto it.  After doing that the volume holds where I left it.

I also had a seq not play audio and lockup the conductor this season.  In my case it was always a seq after one seq (I don’t remember the names). So for example say I have seq1, seq2, seq3 and seq4 in a show.  In this example the seq3 would play but seq4 would not.  If I reordered then 3,1,2,4 then seq1 would have a problem.  I finally got it to work by making copy of seq3 to a different file name (seq5) but leaving the original file on the CF card.  Now my show is 1, 2, 5, 4

So it looks like the problem is not file because I copied my file from the card back to its self and it worked.  It must be a card read error that windows can recover from but not the conductor.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 12, 2013,
Last night I monitored my show for 2 of the 4 hours it is running, and the problem occurred 3 times. The lights went completely dark during random song, at random points in the songs, while the music will keep playing. I had left the control panel attached, and when the problem happened the second time, I went to 'controls' and paused the dark show. The music paused correctly, and the lights were already OFF. When resuming, the music resumed, but the lights stayed dark.
In each cases, when the next song started, the lights came back correctly.
Without more insights into the code, it is difficult to pinpoint what and from where the problem is coming from, but based on the descriptions of how it occurs, it seems that in some instances, the streaming from the CF card of the .seq file stops, and the system keeps sending packets full of zeroes to the HUBs.
It would be helpful if we could get a feedback of the streaming of the .seq file in the control panel, similar to the time information we are getting for the current performance (something like .seq file read pointer at:xxxx out of yyyy, read errors:zzzz. Last read checksum:aaaa). Having a misbehaving system myself, I would/could do extensive testings on this. That would not tell us why it stopped streaming, if it does, but bring us closer to an understanding, and a solution of this problem.
For tonight show, I will do the same manipulation, without having the control panel opened (well without having the etherdongle connected to the network). Just in case random noise on the network ending up 'confusing' the etd/conductor.
If that doesn't work, tomorrow I will try with a reformatted CF card (the formatting is correct on this one, but some files have been erased/replaced) and a brand new set of files.
If that doesn't work, I will use a different scheduler for the rest of the season.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 12, 2013,
Its like there is some error happening on the conductor that it doesn't know how to handle (memory error of some sort?) and just stops sending output and then picks back up after it has a new command to start a new song. 

I'm willing to share/test anything since I'm not using it now because it seemed to do it more often for me, at least one time a loop of a show (7 songs, ~15 min show)
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: rrowan on December 12, 2013,
My conductor does pretty much what fyb2000 posted. RJ already knows that once the show is done my unit is going to him to test with.
I am using Vixen sequences and xLights to convert them for the conductor. Its been doing that since I was on the beta testers I was suppose to send it before December but life got in the way.

Rick R.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: RJ on December 12, 2013,
No one else on the beta team could duplicate ricks issue so we expected he had a hardware issue. So he was planning to send it to me. Since you are seeing it I do not believe it is hardware.

Sent from my Charge by Tapatalk

RJ
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: dcwehw99 on December 12, 2013,
RJ,
Twooly used my Conductor and a spare and saw it on both of them using his sequence and audio files so I would agree that it's not a hardware issue.  Since it's totally random and doesn't always happen in the same song or the same place in a song I would have to guess it's some type of an error condition that's not being anticipated or handled until the next sequence is executed and it resets everything.

Denny
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: keitha43 on December 12, 2013,
Toward the beginning of the post it was mention it ran a Halloween show without malfunctioning with the older firmware. Does the Christmas show run without problems with the older firmware?
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 12, 2013,
Rick,
What kind of CF card are you using? What brand, size and speed if it is not coming from one of the COOP?
Do you have your etd/conductor hooked to the network when the show is running?
Have you made any modifications to the files on the card after the previous install/formatting of the card?
So far I am 22 minutes into tonight's show without any dark interludes. Had to launch the control panel, as the show started with the volume at 214, which is too low for my conductor. So went in and out, changed it to 254 and exited (unplugged from the network). So far so good, fingers crossed. I'll report if it misbehaves tonight.
It's torture to be forced to watch all of my sequencing bugs in a loop for 4 hours. Dinner cannot come fast enough…
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 12, 2013,
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Toward the beginning of the post it was mention it ran a Halloween show without malfunctioning with the older firmware. Does the Christmas show run without problems with the older firmware?

Yes/No.  I never saw this problem with the lights shutting off randomly but I did have one of the known problems on the old firmware where a show would just stop no matter if it was supposed to continue.   That was the main reason I finally did the upgrade.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 13, 2013,
Of course, could be only a big coincidence, but my show went without any issues for the past 4 hours (I missed only 1/2 hour of it to go eat).
Doesn't prove anything one way or the other, but from now on, I won't have the conductor connected to the network during performances.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: RJ on December 13, 2013,
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Of course, could be only a big coincidence, but my show went without any issues for the past 4 hours (I missed only 1/2 hour of it to go eat).
Doesn't prove anything one way or the other, but from now on, I won't have the conductor connected to the network during performances.

These are the kinds of things that really help when I sit down to work on the software. If it keeps working well off the network it could lead me to an issue that fixes the problem. Keep looking for patterns and when the season is over I will have all of you tell me what you saw so I know where to look for the issue.

RJ
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: zwiller on December 13, 2013,
Being on the beta I never saw any issues described here.  Just throwing this one out there.  A few months ago I created a basic sequence and show for my conductor for testing.  For the last few MONTHS I will just plug in conductor and it will run the show perfectly non stop.  Conductor is not connected to network...  Hope it's that simple. 
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 13, 2013,
Looks like I need to test without a network connection since I seem to be the problem person :)
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: arw01 on December 13, 2013,
Is that as simple as pulling the network plug out of the etherdongle/conductor jack on the case?

I opted to not complicate my life more and did not reflash my etherdongle to conductor this year.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: rrowan on December 13, 2013,
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Rick,
What kind of CF card are you using? What brand, size and speed if it is not coming from one of the COOP?
Do you have your etd/conductor hooked to the network when the show is running?
Have you made any modifications to the files on the card after the previous install/formatting of the card?
So far I am 22 minutes into tonight's show without any dark interludes. Had to launch the control panel, as the show started with the volume at 214, which is too low for my conductor. So went in and out, changed it to 254 and exited (unplugged from the network). So far so good, fingers crossed. I'll report if it misbehaves tonight.
It's torture to be forced to watch all of my sequencing bugs in a loop for 4 hours. Dinner cannot come fast enough…

Both the Etherdongle and Conductor were from the first coop for each device.

I will also try dis connecting the network cable tonight to see if that helps

Rick R.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 13, 2013,
It could be that it is as simple as that, time will only tell. That is only the result of one night of observations on a system that has shown the problem in the past. The reason I tried this, before working on the card, was that I am pretty sure that initially I didn't have the conductor plugged in the network during the first few days of the show, and that I had not seen it failed before running a show with the connection ON. When I observed it for the first time, as well as every time after that, the etd/conductor was connected to the network.
With random bugs like this one, there might be more than one source, and even if being connected to the network while a show is playing, is one of them (which it might not), other parts of the system might be aggravating it.
Nevertheless, I am happy that the show went without problems last night, and I will keep the system as is for the next few shows, while keeping a close eye on it.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 13, 2013,
I might be on something there. Today I had to change the show to add a small interlude. Reformatted the card, brought all the files back and created show, schedule, password and so forth. It was one minute to six when I was almost done, so had the schedule start at 6.05 rather than 6. Wrote everything on the card, software ejected the card then physically ejected from the card writer, inserted it in the conductor. At connection, changed the volume to 254, and ran outside to see the beginning of the show. It started on time at 6.05 and went through the first song without problem. Started the second one and lights went dark in the middle of it. Lights resumed with the next song. Went back inside and disconnected the conductor from the network.
No other black out since then...
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: keitha43 on December 14, 2013,
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I might be on something there. Today I had to change the show to add a small interlude. Reformatted the card, brought all the files back and created show, schedule, password and so forth. It was one minute to six when I was almost done, so had the schedule start at 6.05 rather than 6. Wrote everything on the card, software ejected the card then physically ejected from the card writer, inserted it in the conductor. At connection, changed the volume to 254, and ran outside to see the beginning of the show. It started on time at 6.05 and went through the first song without problem. Started the second one and lights went dark in the middle of it. Lights resumed with the next song. Went back inside and disconnected the conductor from the network.
No other black out since then...
I am curious. Are you connected directly to the computer or through a network switch/router? The reason I ask is back when I worked at a company that sold copiers that could be used as printers, the large universities used switches that occasionally would query anything connected to them. If it didn't get a response it would terminate the connection I guess to free up network resources. This query caused copiers to start printing garbage because it couldn't understand the query. New firmware was developed for the copiers to stop that. Maybe something similar is being built into hardware today. The randomness of this problem reminded me of the old copier issue. Just a thought.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 14, 2013,
It is connected to the computer, or a router. I have a lot of choices on my system. I have seen it happen both ways though. But last night was directly to the computer.
It worked fine last night after I unplugged it and I will keep it going that way from now on.
It looks like this is might be one of the conditions (if there are more than one) that does make the bug happen. 
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 14, 2013,
Mine is connected to a switch, I'll try pulling the network and see how it goes on my test bench.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 16, 2013,
So I think we are on to something.  I've been sitting here watching on my test bench for the last half hour and it has not stopped once where it would have once if not twice by now.  Network port is unplugged.  Going to test some more of plugging it in but leaving the control panel closed and then with the control panel open to see if it comes back.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 16, 2013,
Since finding out that it might be related to being connected to the network, I have not had a single black out while running the show with the conductor not connected to the local network. Glad it seems to be working for you too. Enjoy.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: RJ on December 17, 2013,
If this holds the fix will be simple I am sure. Glad you guys might have a pattern going lets cross our fingers it holds out.

RJ
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: zwiller on December 17, 2013,
Thanks for your work on this one guys.  I am so far behind that if I had to deal with this I would be not be having a show.   <res.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: twooly on December 17, 2013,
More information/testing I did.  Note this is for one loop of a show (7 sequences ~20 mins).  Normally I would see this problem happen once or more on each loop.

Ran without issue with the network cable unplugged.
Ran without issue with the network cable plugged in but control panel closed.
Issue came back with network cable plugged in and control panel open on the computer.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: fyb2000 on December 18, 2013,
I would not keep the network cable plugged. My show just went dark for the first time in 5 days, while I had the network cable plugged AND the control panel closed (closed not minimized, it was simply not running).
It had been 5 days without a problem when the network cable was not plugged.
Title: Re: Light Output Stops
Post by: tomwb301 on December 21, 2013,
Since I reworked my sequences and re-exported them I have had no trouble. The conductor has a network cable plugged into a wireless access point Cisco and has been doing fine. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.