Flakey Dongle... any ideas?

[Steve Gase]

I have a DMX USB dongle that is very flakey.

It regularly stops working if I have the slightest glitch during my testing of MR16s, LEs, Aethers, etc.
xLights, the channel config tools, etc. will stop working.  The green DMX led goes out, but the red USB light stays on.

I disconnect the USB, reconnect USB, and restart the software and I'm good for a while longer.

It doesn't appear to be a problem with how long it is ruunning, instead it seems to be temporary glitch as things get connected to the DMX bus, or get powered up or down.

DMX and the dongles are usually fairly bullet proof... so I suspect that I have a part that is borderline.

Anyone see this before?  ...or have an idea on what to check or swap out?

[rrowan]

since you keep mentioning usb problems. I would check the usb module

Rick R.

[pk]

I had a similar problem and it turned out the USB port would power down / sleep.  I changed the USB port settings to prevent it from powering down /sleep/ whatever.

Check the solder joints too!!!  It doesn't take long to touch up all the joints since the board is relatively small

[Jeffl]

I had a machine I built with two different motherboards with the same chip set that had issues one year with LOR and a LOR adapter.  It turned out to be the USB ports so I would not rule that out.  The only good thing is it would disconnect/connect quickly and the show would just stall and then go on. I only found it after I turned on the USB connect/disconnect sound and heard it.

[Steve Gase]

since you keep mentioning usb problems. I would check the usb module

Rick R.

the USB light remains on throughout... the connection to the computer remains up (as evidenced by plug-n-play sounds at the computer happen only when I take manual action).

I unplug from USB in order to perform a reset -- and the reset returns it to working order.

[Steve Gase]

I had a similar problem and it turned out the USB port would power down / sleep.  I changed the USB port settings to prevent it from powering down /sleep/ whatever.

Check the solder joints too!!!  It doesn't take long to touch up all the joints since the board is relatively small

it happens with the same dongle on multiple computers, but it does not happen with other dongles.

i will go through an touch up solder points...  thanks.