DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx Zeus => Topic started by: duane.mosley on December 01, 2013,
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so I got the zues and mega tree running last night and for the most part it was ok. one string would stay on between songstonight I fired the show up and one channel was flashing white like it was in program mode. power cycled a couple of times and it didn't fix it, there was actually a couple of more that started doing the same thing. I powered the zues off. it was running my sequences last night just fine minus the one channel that kept flashing between songs.
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any ideas? I want to trouble shoot this when I get home from work
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What is the temp outside and how is the board mounted?
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temp was in the 40's and 50's this weekend. the board is mounted on two pieces of pvc sitting in a battery box. here is a link to the picture I shared with another member.
http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=12491.msg166589#msg166589
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Any chance you can hook the string up to a ssc? Wandering if the string itself has issues and may not be the Zeus, just want to rule out one thing at a time.
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Any chance you can hook the string up to a ssc? Wandering if the string itself has issues and may not be the Zeus, just want to rule out one thing at a time.
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I can try that when I get home. It's not just one string and it was on both zues boards. They tested fine on the bench.
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What is the length of wire from the board to the first node. Betting that's probably your problem if you have a longer length.
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What is the length of wire from the board to the first node. Betting that's probably your problem if you have a longer length.
I didn't do an exact measurement but no more than 4'
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Try just a 2' and see how it goes.
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Four feet should be no problem. Sometimes a bad node on a string will cause strange effects like this randomly.
RJ
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The issues I experienced with excessive distance testing for the SSCv4 beta looked nothing like programming start channels. It was more a rainbow look and loss of response/pixel freezing. Seemed quite obvious what it was.
You burn them in?
I would try swapping strings and see if another set of lights acts the same way on the zeus string giving issues and also see if light string that was acting up does so on another zeus string.
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ok, I really don't understand how everything was working Saturday night just fine, but last night have trouble. I didn't power down over night either. zues were powered, as was the rest of my controllers. come home today and did some trouble shooting, swapping pics with known working pics, swapping light strings, same issue with string 7 on zues 1, it will respond to the sequence i am running but flash white in between each pass of a spiral effect and stay lit. 14 wasn't working at all but reflashed the pic and it worked.
zues 2 had the rainbow effect that sam is referring to. when I would power up the zues all the channels would come on with the rainbow effect and not respond to a sequence or xlights. I know my setup is right because i was going threw different effects Saturday when I first got it going and was showing the wife what it could do and why I spent so much time building the tree(well worth it!) I would say the leads to first node are more like 5 feet. some pics on zues 2 would not respond today. . I am pulling them both back in the garage and I am going to do all the pics again and start over. will post back with the results.
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What kind and how many nodes you running per string? Wonder if you have the new high current led and are having issues relating to that. I am not entirely convinced that running too many will just blow a fuse.
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What kind and how many nodes you running per string? Wonder if you have the new high current led and are having issues relating to that. I am not entirely convinced that running too many will just blow a fuse.
i just ordered the regular pixels that are on the wiki. 1809 i believe without looking. 50 nodes per string. 32 strings, 16 strings per zues, 2400 channels per zues, 620watt power supplies running each board which puts me just under 50% usage of the power supply and well under the node count for the pic chips on the zues. the channels that weren't responding worked after flashing the pic. the one channel that keeps flashing does it with a different pic and different string. it is not a pic issue unless the socket itself has issues. i will be going back to the garage at 10 so i will know more in a little bit.
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Remember that power and signal are two separate things here. If the current draw was so great that all of the nodes are under voltage, then it should have blown the fuse. The most likely situation would be that the nodes would work up to the point that the voltage drop is to great and then the nodes from that point would have issues. The signal strength is unaffected by the number of nodes in the string.
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Remember that power and signal are two separate things here. If the current draw was so great that all of the nodes are under voltage, then it should have blown the fuse. The most likely situation would be that the nodes would work up to the point that the voltage drop is to great and then the nodes from that point would have issues. The signal strength is unaffected by the number of nodes in the string.
no blown fuses. the pic24 is all that controls signal per string right? I swapped pics with a known working pic, and swapped strings. definitely a signal issue. it's only one string on one of the zues. the other zues was stuck on with no response in sequence but would flash during programming threw the utility.
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this is how it's set up outside. 8' diameter on the half circle
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Very nice setup there! How long are those cords? They look 3-5' each to me. Should be fine, right?!
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Very nice setup there! How long are those cords? They look 3-5' each to me. Should be fine, right?!
thanks. most are at 5' a couple are 5'4'' or so. the tree was playing just fine Saturday night, so I assume they are ok.
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Maybe check those problem channels for a bad wire to terminal connection to the Zeus. My poor connection on a data wire really resulted in erratic behavior before I realized you could sometimes attach a wire to those terminal connectors incorrectly ...
I also noticed that once you set a channel in 'program' mode that it will blink till you power it off and remove that jumper then turn it back on. You probably already knew that.
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finally found time to trouble shoot one of my zues. I had a couple of bad 3pin connectors, but I also have a dead string. I have swapped pics with a known working pic, no go. i have 12volts so it's not power it is definitely a signal issue. do the mosfets control signal? i checked for solder bridges and there aren't any. i reflowed all the pic socket pins and they are good. what else controls signal to each individual channel. when is the BOM going to be available in the wiki for mouser parts? i want to order some extra fuses and pics for spares.
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Yes, mosfet would be a prime candidate... I suspect it is the same mosfet (same circuit) as SSCv4 so if you have an extra... Would be awesome if that fixed it. Try some careful metering and see if you detect differences between good and bad string channels.
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when is the BOM going to be available in the wiki for mouser parts? i want to order some extra fuses and pics for spares.
The BOM is held up until all the zeus are shipped and the reason they have not shipped is because the PICs are not available. I also am ready to order some misc spare parts and did not order yet because the pics were not available. Thankfully there is nothing I HAVE TO HAVE right now.
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Yes, mosfet would be a prime candidate... I suspect it is the same mosfet (same circuit) as SSCv4 so if you have an extra... Would be awesome if that fixed it. Try some careful metering and see if you detect differences between good and bad string channels.
what steps should i take to check with a meter?
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when is the BOM going to be available in the wiki for mouser parts? i want to order some extra fuses and pics for spares.
The BOM is held up until all the zeus are shipped and the reason they have not shipped is because the PICs are not available. I also am ready to order some misc spare parts and did not order yet because the pics were not available. Thankfully there is nothing I HAVE TO HAVE right now.
the mosfets and pics are the same as the sscv4 right? mouser is showing pics and mosfets in stock. i guess the backup for the zues is on the bulk order.
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I had a ssc v4 that wasn't working and it turned out that I has soldered two pins together on those 3 pin mosfets. I visually could see it, so I just removed the excess solder and then it worked! Seems like that could have happened on a Zeus with all those mosfets ?
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Great idea Scott. Those leads are close. I would start with that. Fingers crossed...
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Went over all the solder joints last night. I will double check but don't think that's my issue
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I am no EE and would just poke around things and compare with Zeus off. I would start with continuity and compare bad and good legs of mosfet. I hope the continuity test shows enough to replace mosfet. Wonder if this one had a bad 3 core connector and got fried. I would also then compare other components and see if I could identify other issues out of whack with the bad string channel.
From there if testing is inconclusive I would defer to suggestions from the more knowledgeable.
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update on mine, turns out the string that was not responding was a connection issue at the screw terminal, which is weird because when taybrynn mentioned to check it, I did and they all seemed fine. I was going to share a string so I ran the screws all the way in with no wire and tested on top of the screws and it was working so I redid the connection and it works. 3 total connectors bad, all mosfets are good.
I seem to have one of them working fine but I had to program one zues at rgb and one of them at gbr. if I left it rgb the colors didn't match up. zues 1 is set to universe 2, start channel 1696. zues 2 is universe 3, start channel 1. 1600 nodes, 4800 channels so I did 2400 at the end of one universe and 2400 at the start of universe 3. it matches up now in xlights so that's what matters.
I still have the flashing string on my other zues but with snow and frigid weather coming, I just shared two strings on one terminal(100 nodes) so I could get it running and work on some other stuff I had to do before the snow comes on Friday. had to finish the roof line. once I get everything going and some sequencing done, I will go back to the zues with the flashing string. people will never know that 2 of the strings are the same.