Strange conductor behavior

[brandonj]

I have had some strange behavior with my conductor.  Most of the time it doesn't work, but then it will suddenly start working.  Last night I messed with it for over an hour - resetting the switch and conductor, reformatting the card rebuilding it, etc.
Then all of the sudden after a reboot, it started working.  I let it run overnight, and it was still going strong in the morning.

I then powercycled it, and it stopped working.  I have been messing with it for over an hour now and still no luck.  Continue reading for more details:

When I say "not working", the Green light on the ethernet port comes on for a couple seconds, then turns off. it does this forever.

I have had wireshark running through the entire process, and every time I plug in the power to the conductor, i get a single packet.  (just when i plug in the power, not every time the green light comes on like others have seen).  The data I get in wireshark is this:

0000  ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 04  a3 b2 44 45 08 00 45 00   ........ ..DE..E.
0010  00 24 00 01 00 00 64 11  94 85 c0 a8 01 9b ff ff   .$....d. ........
0020  ff ff 0b 2c 15 c0 00 10  71 f4 55 55 55 55 00 00   ...,.... q.UUUU..
0030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00               ........ ....   

Now, when I unplug the CF card, and powercycle, I get two packets.  The one above, and then this one:

0000  ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 04  a3 b2 44 45 08 00 45 00   ........ ..DE..E.
0010  00 3d 00 02 00 00 64 11  94 6b c0 a8 01 9b ff ff   .=....d. .k......
0020  ff ff 0b 2c 15 c0 00 29  c9 07 55 aa 98 55 65 65   ...,...) ..U..Uee
0030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........ ........
0040  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00                  ........ ...     

I assume this is the card error packet that gets sent out, and the lynx control panel does in fact show the card error message.  I get these two packets only one time, even though the green light is going on and off.

As far as the CF card goes, I have been formatting it as fat32, and setting the password, creating the shows, and creating the schedule. filenames are 8.3, and as I have said before, I have been able to get it working at one point, so I am pretty sure my CF card is built up correctly.

I have reflashed the firmware more than once.  I've even taken the firmware back to just the ETD firmware, and that worked for me.  So i am guessing it's the conductor side of things.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions as to what I might try?

[Ron]

This probably isn't the issue since you say it works fine as an Etd, but have you tried with it directly connected to your PC?

[rrowan]

I had a problem with losing the green led on the etherdongle and found out I had a short on the power pins of the conductor.

Sounds like to me a cold solder joint that works sometimes but not all of the time. Check for solder bridges and reflow the solder joints.

Rick R.

[brandonj]

This probably isn't the issue since you say it works fine as an Etd, but have you tried with it directly connected to your PC?

I assume you mean connecting the ethernet from the conductor directly to the ethernet on my computer, bypassing the switch? Yes I have done that, with the same result.

[dpitts]

The Ethernet port lights looping on and off seems to be that the conductor is not passing the boot up tests and restarting. The conductor sends a few error packet s and resets again and again. My conductor had a bad RTC  module. Usually the control panel will report what is wrong. Check card socket connector again.

[brandonj]

Sounds like to me a cold solder joint that works sometimes but not all of the time. Check for solder bridges and reflow the solder joints.

Rick R.

Well, I did that and it did the reboot thing a few times and then came on.  It's currently working now, so hopefully I can get it to stay that way

Thanks for your help.  I'll report back if I run into the problem again

-Brandon

[dcwehw99]

Sounds like you have a pin on the CF connector that's not soldered.  If that's the case it will fail again.  I had this happen to me also.  I found one pin not soldered.

Denny