No Blinky :(

[mnarel]

Trying to get my SS up and running but no blinky yet.   Problem is, with nothing previously verified, I have no idea where the problem lies.   Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Setup:

1 Smart String Hub... freshly assembled and flashed (pickit 2).  Green power light on  (pwered by Corsair TX750 via ATX input).
1 SSC connected to 128 count node string  (SSC flashed with current firmware, jumper on program)
1 Ver 2 Dongle flashed with pixelnet firmware)  Dongle red light on when connected to PC

Using SS Utility from DLA.

I open the utility and update the com port to match the dongle location.
I set the utility as follows:

Start Channel 1
Mode Individual pixels
Node Count 128
Device Type: String

Program with: USB Dongle

When I hit transmit I get an error message that the com port is not available.  The utility shows transmitting, but I get nothing at the strings (and no green light on the dongle)

If I change Program with to :EtherDongle  I don't get the error message, the utility says transmitting, but I still get nothing at the strings (and no green light on the dongle).

I can't find anything on the site or in the wiki telling me what to do with the "Program with" option, but assume the Etherdongle option is a future use item for the pending hardware.

My first thought is a dongle issue since I can't get a green light (which I assume indicated data transmission).

I have 6 dongles, all V2.  I flashed 2 more with pixelnet and got the same results (I updated the com port for each before transmitting).

I reflashed all three dongles to DMX and tested them out using LSP and a few rainbow fixutes.  They all work fine.  Green light comes on when DMX is transmitting from LSP to the dongle.

I flashed back to pixelnet and tried the above proceedures using the utility:   No Blinky, and no green light on the dongle.   

I tried a second hub with no change.
I reflashed the hubs and the SSC to verify the firmware... no change.
I changed, and verified continuity on all the CAT5 being used.... no change.

...getting depressed.

[rrowan]

Did you connect the SSC to the correct side of the string nodes?

Make sure you are connected to the wired side with the one large chip on it.
For the string nodes make sure you got Red to +, Green to -, and Blue to Data

See if that helps

Rick R.

[mnarel]

V+ V- and DAta lines are all hooked up correctly.   SSC is feeding the nodes from the input side (large chip on board, and 'up arrow' on input side of the node casing).   There is no terminator of any kind at the far end of the string.  Not sure if that affects anything or not, but at present, the three lines coming out of node 128 are just capped individually.



Can you verify that the dongle should be showing a green light when data is transmittng through it?  If so, any additional problems downstream would be irrelivent until that is fixed.    When transmitting DMX (rather than pixelnet) the dongle green comes on when data runs through it regardless if there is anything even attached at the fixture end of things.

[rrowan]

I have ver 1 of the dongle so no stupid green led to get me upset over. The green led tries to blink as fast as the data its sending out. So it would not surprise me if you don't see the light on with pixelnet since its sending out 8 times as much data as dmx does. To be honest I don't know if the green led works in pixelnet or not.

Check the wiring on the other side of the ssc to make sure you got that wired correctly. Do you have a volt meter? Check if the SSC is getting 12 volts dc at the red and green wires. After you flash the pic with the firmware did you read it back to see if the checksum was correct? The strings don't need a terminator nor does the ssc

Rick R.

[RJ]

Trying to get my SS up and running but no blinky yet.   Problem is, with nothing previously verified, I have no idea where the problem lies.   Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Setup:

1 Smart String Hub... freshly assembled and flashed (pickit 2).  Green power light on  (pwered by Corsair TX750 via ATX input).
1 SSC connected to 128 count node string  (SSC flashed with current firmware, jumper on program)
1 Ver 2 Dongle flashed with pixelnet firmware)  Dongle red light on when connected to PC

Using SS Utility from DLA.

I open the utility and update the com port to match the dongle location.
I set the utility as follows:

Start Channel 1
Mode Individual pixels
Node Count 128
Device Type: String

Program with: USB Dongle

When I hit transmit I get an error message that the com port is not available.  The utility shows transmitting, but I get nothing at the strings (and no green light on the dongle)

If you are getting a com port error than this must be resolved before going any farther.

Before anything I would download the Test firmware for the SSC and load it. Once it is loaded then all that matters is that power is getting to the SSC. It will rotate threw the colors as a test with no data required so we take your dongles out of the loop.

Get you lights to work with this and then you know power, SSC and lights are ok. Then move back to trying to control it.

On the com port make sure you are not leave any other programs open like vixen or LSP. They could have your comport open and cause this issue.

RJ

[mnarel]

I appreciate all the input.   It appears I have a couple of problems.   

I attached another SSC and light string to the hub and tried again... no change.  I then removed the USB cable from the PC and inserted it into another USB port.  I verified that the com port remained the same for the dongle and tried again.   Viola!    Blinky!   ... at least on the second SSC.    The first SSC I was testing still won't light.

Not sure what happened with the USB ports and the dongle, but I'm guessing it had to do with the intermittent switching between LSP, Vixen, and the SSC utility. 

I build a total of 48 SSC controllers over about a weeks time.  My guess is that I have some soldering issues with a few of them (though there's nothing obvious on the first one that doesn't work).

    I'm going to take RJ's advice and test all the SSCs using the test firmware (I wasn't aware you could do that) using the now confirmed hub (or at least the one confirmed port on that hub) and get them running first.   Then I'll revisit the control issue.

Thanks again.

[z327]

I appreciate all the input.   It appears I have a couple of problems.   

I attached another SSC and light string to the hub and tried again... no change.  I then removed the USB cable from the PC and inserted it into another USB port.  I verified that the com port remained the same for the dongle and tried again.   Viola!    Blinky!   ... at least on the second SSC.    The first SSC I was testing still won't light.

Not sure what happened with the USB ports and the dongle, but I'm guessing it had to do with the intermittent switching between LSP, Vixen, and the SSC utility. 

I build a total of 48 SSC controllers over about a weeks time.  My guess is that I have some soldering issues with a few of them (though there's nothing obvious on the first one that doesn't work).

    I'm going to take RJ's advice and test all the SSCs using the test firmware (I wasn't aware you could do that) using the now confirmed hub (or at least the one confirmed port on that hub) and get them running first.   Then I'll revisit the control issue.

Thanks again.

The COM port on my laptop gets very upset when I go from the SSC Programming Utility to Vixen or visa verse. I found that before launching an application it was best to pull out the USB cable to the dongle and wait for the audible indication from Windows that the COM port was no longer there, then reinsert and again wait for the audible signal. Once I started doing this I could go back and forth from the SS Programmer to Vixen. I have 10 SSCs working with Vixen and a single HUB.

[taybrynn]

THere is also a fairly obscure fix for the USB port under Win7 ... where you need to disable to power saving for the USB port ... because that kept making it go to sleep on me and was driving me crazy.  Probably not your problem here, but FYI.

Try a reboot also, if you haven't already.

[caretaker]

As RJ posted (and you seemed to be heeding his advice) make sure your pixel strings are working first. I at first had a com port problem on Windows 7 64 bit and after running the SS utility in the ADMIN mode I stopped having the problem.  When I did flash my strings with the smart string utility most would flash white and I would remove the programming jumper and power down the hub then hit the stop transmit button. I did have a few strings that lit up white but did not flash but do seem to behaving normally so far (won't know till I do more tests with vixen). I also had two pixel strings with shorts and two that where bad which I snet back to Ray who is replacing them. Above all take your time and go over one thing at a time and you will get through the set up of your smart strings, it's a new learning curve for all of us.

[wftxlites]

I have seen all the problems in this thread. Based on my testing I think LSP is locking the comport. I saw this on two pc's running xp. I would stick to testing ssc's with Vixen and forget about LSP working for now. I finally reloaded xp and Vixen only. All ssc's work fine with Vixen.

Greg

[keitha43]

Okay I have 3 out of 9 strings that when I try to use the utility on them they stay solid white instead of flashing quickly until I turn off the power supply then they start blinking until all power is gone. I then tried the test firmware and red, green, and blue work okay until it hits white and then the string freezes. It works okay with Rays controller. Is the consensus that I have a bad node somewhere along my 126 node strings?

[tng5737]

First make sure that you are using the latest firmware and software from the wiki.  There was a problem earlier where if you typed the number of nodes into the config util instead of using the drop down list and selecting the correct number - then you would get exactly the symptoms your are experiencing!  Hope that this helps!

[keitha43]

Nope tried the new null node SS utility and the 7-10-11 software just now. Still doesn't flash on SS utility. Redownloaded the test firmware and now it starts all red then changes to multicolor the mostly blue then white where it freezes.

[RJ]

Nope tried the new null node SS utility and the 7-10-11 software just now. Still doesn't flash on SS utility. Redownloaded the test firmware and now it starts all red then changes to multicolor the mostly blue then white where it freezes.

I really would like to have the string that is doing this before you do anything. How long is the string I would trade you a string if I have one to match. This is the string nodes not modules correct. Pm me as I will pay to have it shipped to me since I have none that do this and I would love to have one so I can test. It could be a tolerence of the spec issue with certain nodes that a firmware update could fix but with out a string that does it I have nothing to go on.

RJ

[keitha43]

My strands are normally 126 nodes long. Originally they were 84 then I decided to make them 126 so I had ordered a second batch from Ray. Since I had more problems with bad nodes on the 2nd order than the first I cut the 2nd batch addition off but it worked. However the ones from the first batch still would just stay white. One time during testing the 3rd node came up pink so I cut out the 3rd one but that didn't help.  I decided to cut out the 1st one next and when I went to strip the wire using my teeth (low tech I know) the data wire pulled out of the node. I thought I found my problem but no it wasn't the problem neither was the 2nd node. Bottom line I can send you the 80 node remaining string as I have confirmed the problem is in there somewhere. I will send you a pm with this message.