AetherII, all white all the time... ideas?

[shaunkad]

40 watt rgbw I think there is only one rgbw that is 40 watt

[rrowan]

This one should work

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Rick R.

Thanks to lonewolf41 for the mouser bom link

[Steve Gase]

THANKS!!

[RJ]

Sorry been away from the forum. Got back tonight for the first time in a few days and have almost 200 pm's waiting to answer.   

RJ

[kgustafson]

Built my first two Aethers. 

Get red blinky.  Get white flash.  Will not respond with any commands given from DMX Dongle (dongle checks out).  I haven't resoldered the RJ-45 connection yet, but I will try later.  I checked the connection on the RJ-45 dongle (on the spot case) using a RJ-45 tester.  It seems to check out (well, for the first pair which correspond to orange and orange/white).

Decided to go and build the second.  Reflashed the PIC as I saw the PIC that was sent did not have the correct checksum.  Finished the build and am now getting all white all the time (no matter what position I put the switch in).  I checked to see if I was experiencing the same lost mini-chip on the LED, but haven't found that to be an issue.  I will re-flash the PIC later tonight, to jsut make sure that this isn't the issue.

I will wait to do the third.  This is the first time I have ever had issues with any build from DLA.

Kurt

[meman]

I was experiencing a lot of frustration with the start programming, but kept trying all kinds of things that had a myriad of interesting results. Finally I now have four Aether IIs obeying my every wish. The final kicker for me was to power up the light in whatever state it was in; start the addressing utility, hit program and get it sending data. Then I kept toggling the program switch to program (red flashing) and back to run (random results) until a white flash finally occurred and the light went dark. At that point all colors worked correctly, in order RGBW at the desired start channel.

There are still two cases where I can force them to display a color without my permission:

1) Applying power to an Aether that has no cat5 attached. This can result in solid white, red..just a flash.
2) Running all four channels at once..nothing but solid bright white.

Hope this helps...
Mike E.

[RDwizard]

MEMAN you are a FREAKIN genius!

Your method also worked for me. Mine took on the second flip of the switch. When it did a quick flash and went out, I knew it was programmed. I tested in Vixen and VIOLA, RGB+W.

BTW I recall that when the White channel is on it overrides the RGB output. So it's either RGB or White.

[meman]

Awesome, glad we have anther Aether working. Until RJ has time to look at this and explain the theory, I think it's just a matter of timing in the flip of the switch and catching a wave on the right edge. 
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[Steve Gase]

how about I send you my broken one, and you send me your working one?  it would be loads of fun to figure this one out, too!

[RDwizard]

I also have one bad one left to figure out. It just gives me a flash of light when I power it up. Thats all it will do no matter what I try. I reflashed and still the same thing.

I had one that was white all the time and it turned out to be a solder bridge on the white voltage regulator pins. No matter what I did, it was always white.

On another one, I found that I  had accidentally swapped the 7805 & 7812 regulators. On that one,  I got a dim red led aftet programming the start address and it would not respond to commands from Vixen.

Finicky little buggers those Aethers are!

[RDwizard]

UPDATE on the first unit stated above: (This is the unit that only flashed once no matter what I did)

I took it apart and un-soldered the LED and Cat5 connections. Checked all soldering with an eye-loop. Reheated all the socket pins and added a little more solder on a few. Re-soldered Cat5 and LED. WORKING!

I guess the major culprit on all of my units was soldering issues. So I would suggest going over all your soldering with a magnifying glass. I was was very frustrated but I wasn't going to give up.