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Hardware => Lynx EtherDongle => Topic started by: KevinHolme on December 02, 2015,

Title: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 02, 2015,
Hi all. I am beyond my ability to figure out my problem. I have used an etherdongle for a couple of years. This year I cant get anything to blink.
I have an etherdongle connected through a switch as part of my home network. Output from the dongle goes to a smarthub and then ssc.  I control my show with Light o Rama.

As I say, this all worked last year, network has not changed, router has not changed. The computer has changed, including now running windows 10.

I have checked voltage everywhere and reflashed both the dongle and the hub.
I even changed the Magjack after seeing it come up in a few posts.

The yellow light on the magjack blinks slowly when not playing a show, and is steady on when I do. The green light is on.

I downloaded wireshark but cant make heads or tails of it, opens to a capture using a filter page, and I don't know what filter to use. or if that is the page I want.

I downloaded ArtNetominator and get no response on the port that LOR is sending to or listening on.

When I select Multicast in LOR it assigns 239.255.0.1 through 6 for the 6 E1.31 universes I am using on port 5568 and is listening on 8837

My home network is on 192.168.1.ect so I don't understand how it can communicate with the 239 address, but perhaps that is what multicast is for.

Anyway, HELP. my neighbors are getting restless, I don't have a show up because I have been trying to make this work for two weeks.

Thanks in advance
Kevin
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 02, 2015,
Thought I might add,
tried a laptop, also running windows 10. Direct cable, crossover cable, dedicated network, private switch,  all the same results.

Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: taybrynn on December 02, 2015,
are you using the correct 6v 1000mah power supply for the Etherdongle?  I discovered I was using the wrong one and it was causing the ED to act crazy and nodes would twinkle when everything was supposed to be "off". 

also, any virus software, firewall software, backup software running that coudl be competing with it?
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 02, 2015,
Yes tried multiple power supplies.

My next focus is definately a windows 7 PC. See if that helps.  Win 10 runs well, but they have renamed so many things, I am not sure if I have disabled EVERYTHING I need to.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: taybrynn on December 02, 2015,
You said your network is dedicated ... does that mean you have have one NIC card for internet/home ... and one NIC for the show only?

On my machine, I have a "ROUTE" command that you do once, that directs all the E1.31 traffic to the "show NIC" ... and the rest uses the regular NIC (network interface card).

If you moved machines and previous had this route command in place, you would need to issue it again on the new machine.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 02, 2015,
In the past I have had it both on a dedicated Nic and as part of the house network, Both worked then, both don't work now.  In the last couple weeks I have tried every possible combination of pathways.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: taybrynn on December 02, 2015,
You might want to go into a command prompt window, and type "route print" and see if it shows any persistant routes.

This will dramatically improve performance by making sure the E1.31 traffic goes out your dedicated NIC card and not through the other one.

It could be going to the wrong NIC card by default.

if you know the IP address of both NIC card, post here.   Are you using dynamic or static IP for the dedicated NIC card?

Ideally you would set to to static and give us some IP address thats a bit different from the home IP, which might be dynamic.

THen use the route command to direct all E1.31 traffic to that dedicate NIC card.

Again, if you did this on an old machine (ever) ... it wouldn't be working now, even though everything seems the same to you.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: tbone321 on December 02, 2015,
I would lose the WIN10 machine.  I bet that it is blocking multicast output.  What version of it do you have? 
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 02, 2015,
Ok so here is the latest.

I made one of my computers dual boot with win 7 Ultimate. and win 10.

It makes no difference.

I decided that because the MagJack lights do respond to the program running, I should re flash the etherdongle.  Now I cant find a single computer that will open the Ver1 of the stand alone pickit 3 programmer.   If I reboot the computer it will open once, but cannot connect to the etherdongle.  (Time out error)

The version 3 of the Programmer from 2012 opens, can see the Pickit, but the device list stops in the MX400 range, it says it cant do the 795 chip.

I am ready to hang a string of lights on the garage and get drunk for a month.

And I don't drink.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: tbone321 on December 03, 2015,
That standalone programmer is a piece of crap.  Forget about that and download the newest from Microchip.  What you are looking for is MPLAB IPE not MPLB IDE but I believe that they come together.  Just make sure that after they install you use the IPE version.  This is the programmer version and will allow you to reflash the ETD. 
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 03, 2015,
Thanks for sticking with me.

I have tried that in my desperation.  I get everything set, and then the connection fails. (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86235749/12-3-2015%205-21-18%20AM.png)
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: tbone321 on December 03, 2015,
Are you powering the ETD while attempting to flash it?
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 03, 2015,
Yes .

Ok I managed to flash with the stand alone ver3 after I added the data file as on the wiki.

But I still have no lights.

The orange light on the magjack blinks slowly and randomly when the show is not running, and becomes fully solid on when the show is running, I am thinking that it is getting the signals.

Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: tbone321 on December 03, 2015,
The ETD is seeing a signal but it might not be getting what it needs.  I would try downloading XLights and use it as a test to see if the ETD and the rest of the system is working.  What version SSC are you using?  The problem could be a blown fuse on the hub, a bad controller, a bad node in the string.  If your SSC version has test firmware, I would start with that and make sure that the string and SSC are functioning.  I would start debugging from the string getting power and work backwards from there.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 03, 2015,
I have ssc v4 so no test firmware that I know of. But it did get me thinking about other tests. I tried using the ether dongle to program the start address of a ss and it did not flash, no output at all.

Is there any way to test these? or is it just works or dont.?

I think I have the components for another one, so I could replace anything, just dont know where to start.

Someone put one up for sale today, keep my fingers crossed for that.

Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: tbone321 on December 03, 2015,
Check to make sure that you are getting voltage to the SSC and that your hubs jumpers are still set correctly.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: taybrynn on December 03, 2015,
I bought a little $8 cat5 tester off amazon recently (arrived in like a day or two with prime) and its been nice because it's allowed me to quickly find out when a cat5 is bad on a certain pair.  I've tossed those cables, as I've had a surprising number of problems that were actually just a bad cable ... but very hard to diagnose otherwise.  I also left the reciever end of the tester connected near my controller ... and it was interesting because when I hooked up the other sid to the etherdongle, it was showing LED(s) lighting up on the reciever tester end ... so at least I could tell it was getting data on that end!   That could be handy just to know your getting a signal or not.   

I'd like some more details on your exact setup ... or a picture, because I think others could help you more if they saw a picture of that.  Don't give up.  I understand its extremely frustrating and I've been wanting to quit almost every year at many points ... so we are here to help if we can.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 04, 2015,
Thanks for all the help everyone. I did manage to get another etherdongle from Ron  :)  So that will really help me troubleshoot if that is not the problem.

Is their any other way to program this stuff?  I have a few other programmers from other hobbies that all seem easier to use than the Pickit 3.  Are all of these brand specific?  Or could I also use my Atmel AVR for this, or anything else.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: KevinHolme on December 08, 2015,
Ok I got it working.  I had multiple issues. My network was blocking the Multicast, But very early in the troubleshooting I re flashed both the ETD and the smart Hub.  After I did that, Nothing worked so It became a major frustration.

The Pickit3 is a real problem child in my opinion. I think that as it says in the WIKI the V3 of the stand alone program will allow you to think that everything flashed just fine, but it will not work.

The V1 of the program I could not even get to open, A couple of times I would try to open it, and a half hour later multiple instances of the program would appear on the screen.  wierd

 The MPLAB IPE is indeed the ticket to a real and lasting program, But from reading the threads here I am not the only one who gets a failed to connect message.

So my successful method is

1. Use the V3 version of the stand alone programmer.  Open the program, THEN plug in the Pickit3, After it recognizes it, got to tools, and " revert to mplab mode".  Close the programmer.

2. open the MPLAB IPE.  If it does not recognize the Pickit, move it to another usb port.  Once recognized, it should now connect  and you can actually use it.

Hope this helps someone else.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: jnealand on December 08, 2015,
The key to using the IPE in my opinion is to got to settings, advanced, log in, and then click on power and clcik the supply power button.  Also some devices need to have power applied as in normal operation with the wall wart.
Title: Re: Yet another HELP me with Etherdongle thread.
Post by: taybrynn on December 08, 2015,
THanks Kevin, I agree the pickit3 is a problem child ... I had similar experiences trying to program my ED ... much more problematic than using pickit2 with previous things.  Thanks for sharing what you did.