Loosing time

[lonewolf41]

I guess anything is a possibility.  I just don't know enough to be able to troubleshoot it any further.  Like I said, at least I can get around the issue...or at least have been able to so far.  If no other solution comes up, I will just make sure all my MP3's are set to 128kbps or less for next year.  It is just funny how the MP3 bitrate affects how fast the lights are played.

-Keith

[RJ]

Not really because the rate of play of lights is directly tied to the music in the conductor. this is what is suppose to keep it synced. for example, If you slowed the music to half speed playback on the mp3 module, the lights would wait every second for the music to catch up before continuing.

RJ

[RJ]

I sent you a pm on this, check it out and lets see if we can figure the issue out so you don't have to deal with it this coming year.

RJ

[lonewolf41]

Email sent.  Let me know if it doesn't make it for some reason.  Just curious if this is all somehow related to the issue I had in ED mode with channel 6143/6144 discussed here:

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since the issue I was having in this post was not present with conductor firmware.  Just something I was wondering.

Thanks,
-Keith

[RJ]

Ok here is the outcome of my test. I removed the underscore of the file name of the seq as I still feel I need to work on file name handling in the basic file system I am using. If it worked it would not be a factor I just wanted a clean name to work with.

So loaded both and setup a show using them. Ran it with the DMX out of the hub connected to the DMX grid Mike created for me so I could see 512 channels at one time.

I did not know you show but could tell from the music where you intended things to happen. It played spot on. The ending was as on time as the beginning.

Do not dispair this is what I expected based on my current hypothesis.

I believe it has to do with varations in the clocks on different units and yours might be on the outside of fast for what my firmware is doing to keep things synced.

I will have a test firmware for you to try against these same files for me soon.

RJ

[zwiller]

   Thanks!

Any thoughts as to the transmitter issue?  I would think they are two are separate issues however both issues occurred at the same time for me. 

[RJ]

Keith,

 Could I talk you into letting me pay to have you send your whole conductor to me so I can test with a unit that is know to do this?

It would really help me test new code that will fix this issue for you.

RJ

[RJ]

  Thanks!

Any thoughts as to the transmitter issue?  I would think they are two are separate issues however both issues occurred at the same time for me.

Not at this time.

RJ

[lonewolf41]

Keith,

 Could I talk you into letting me pay to have you send your whole conductor to me so I can test with a unit that is know to do this?

It would really help me test new code that will fix this issue for you.

RJ

Absolutely...especially if it will help fix a problem that others have or may have.  Sorry I haven't had an opportunity to test myself.  Like I said earlier, it seems like it has been raining, snowing, and/or freezing for the last few weeks.

In fact, I'll pay the shipping to you.  Just pay to ship it back and I'll be good.  I'll get it in Monday's mail. 

Best regards,
-Keith

[RJ]

Thanks,


Yes I am well on the way to a have a total solution done that will insure that the lights and sound is never out of sync. But since my units never were out of sync before I want a known "trouble maker" if you know what I mean to test against also.

The fix will allow me to add so high end features like (fast forward/ start at a certain spot) that I wanted to anyway so it really is a move in the right direction. I want to get the system to be able to test in the yard with your phone not just play shows.

RJ

[RJ]

Ok got your conductor.

Ran your show on mine and it is spot on and in sync. Run the same show on yours and it gets way off. It looks like it is as I thought. You have a conductor and the clock is running fast and it is enough faster than it breaks the syncing code in the conductor. So only some units would display this and in fact this is what we are seeing.

I then loaded the new firmware on your conductor, this is the firmware I am testing using your same show and the show was then spot on all the way to the end. So this shows the new firmware should resolve this issue for everyone. And with the way I am doing it the show should always be sync since I can get an extremely precise time index down to the millisecond. This requires we use Ogg vorbiis file format but this take 15 seconds in free software to run your mp3 through to get it. you can use MP3 as normal to do your seqencing but just as you convert the Seqence to a Conductor file format you also will convert the mp3 file to a Ogg file and copy it to your conductor card. OGG is very high quality and can be smaller than mp3. Plus it is a free open source format support by most software now.

I use Audicity, cause its free and I really like it, to convert but almost any free audio software works. I will do instructions on it. In audicity you open your mp3 then under the file menu choose export and in the file save dialog in the drop down for type select ogg vorbis.

Thats it, the difference is the OGG file contains accurate timing marks so it allows me to sync and do other new capabilities in the conductor. There is a new version of the control panel that goes with the new firmware and I am finishing up adding features to the system. I will need to redo the andriod app to add the new features also.

RJ

[rdebolt]

That all sounds great RJ. Cannot wait to try the new stuff out! 

[travailen]

Thanks RJ. My conductor worked great this year. Looking forward to the improvement. Than you for your efforts.

Rick S

[RJ]

If you are one of the people that had sync issues this year with the conductor and want to test the new firmware at it current state.. Not finished still have stuff to add and clean up. please pm me I need a couple to add to the Conductor beta group and test it while I add the other features.

If you are one of the people having transmitter issues and want to test the circuit I posted for me please pm me also as I will add a couple for this issue also so we test it out.

RJ