Please help
Printed From: Aurora
Category: Aurora Sequencer Software
Forum Name: Aurora 1.0
Forum Discription: This is the place to discuss (and report bugs) the 1.0 version of Aurora
URL: http://www.aurorashow.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1272
Printed Date: 02 Jun 2024 at 6:00am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.06 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Please help
Posted By: shawmc
Subject: Please help
Date Posted: 25 Nov 2011 at 6:39pm
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My show is supposed to start in less than 2 hours and I suddenly have no output to my controllers.
Hardware is all D-light, software is Aurora 1..0.69 Everything was working ok 2 nights ago when I tested things. I noticed that my 3 controllers, were all on different firmware versions. So today I updated them all to 1.19. Then when I started testing I noticed that no channel would stay lit, it would switch on, then turn off, if it came on at all. It looked like it would mostly ignore the commands except for the ramps, it would do them. So I unplugged all the controllers from the network except the first and started playing with it. If I put new data into the sequencer it worked just fine, but all the old data didn't work. So I downgraded the controller to 1.17 and same thing. Hooked all controllers back up and was just runnign sequencing trying to see if I could get a better idea of what happened, and all the lights went out and stayed out. Getting nothing now, and the LED on the controller is flashing like it isn't hooked up to a network, while the sequence is playing and outputting to the lights. I tried deleting and recreating the network in Aurora. Not sure what else to do. If I go into the hardware utility it looks like everything is fine, and can see all controllers and all the channels respond properly. ???? What the heck is going on? I can't imagine my show will start tonight, I need help please! 
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Replies:
Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 25 Nov 2011 at 8:26pm
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Did you change the network id number of Borealis by accident? I never went higher than 1.16 due to problems. ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/"> 
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Posted By: Jonathan
Date Posted: 25 Nov 2011 at 10:13pm
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v1.19 firmware will not work with Aurora. Use v1.20 with the EEPROM hack ( http://www.d-light.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&p=14851#p14851 - http://www.d-light.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&p=14851#p14851 ), OR v1.17. Any firmware below v1.16 is not recommended.
------------- ~Jonathan |
Posted By: LightChristmas
Date Posted: 25 Nov 2011 at 10:20pm
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Have you tried operating the controllers with the D-Light hardware Utility? That will tell you if its a wiring problem.
------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/"> 
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Posted By: shawmc
Date Posted: 26 Nov 2011 at 3:58pm
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Thanks for the tips. I didn't know 1.19 was incompatible with Aurora.
I got it working less than an hour before the show started last night. I put firmware 1.17 on my first controller (the one that was displaying the problems in the first place. And then realized that when I deleted and re-created the network, I forgot to set it to the proper COM port, so it was still set to Com1, changed that to COM4 and it started working again. I am still having some issues, but the show runs for the most part. The problems may be that I have 1.19 on my other 2 controllers. I will downgrade them to 1.17 now. Thanks |
Posted By: shawmc
Date Posted: 26 Nov 2011 at 5:03pm
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OK, well that slightly helped.
Set all the AC16's to firmware 1.17, power cycled them and ran through a sequence to see what happens. I have 2 channels not acting right at all. It is a spotlight and bunch of mini's, bot on my nativity scene. The song I am testing things on those 2 elements come on early in the song and stay on the entire time. Well they both come on, for about 10-15 seconds then turn off and never come back on. What the heck? Each light is on a separate channel on separate controllers. As far as I can tell every other channel is working (hard to tell in the light, and mainly paying attention to these 2 channels. I'm getting so frustrated, nothing seems to want to work this year. 
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Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 26 Nov 2011 at 8:05pm
I feel your pain. Been there, done that, felt like abandoning it all. Many of my problems have been cured by staying at 1.16. I had tried 1.17 and even 1.20 and it didn't do anything but misery to my cause. I know it is a pain having to redo the firmware on your boxes but just for the heck of it, try 1.16 to see if it goes right for you. You're still early in the season unless your show was only up for this weekend? Keep coming back and we'll try to find out the problem, one way or another.  ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/">
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Posted By: shawmc
Date Posted: 27 Nov 2011 at 9:22pm
Yeah I think trying a different firmware is my next step. I will try 1.16 first, if I still have issues I'll got to 1.2+EPROM hack. The strangest part is that it is only those 2 channels. Which is very annoying, because the Nativity is kind of in the center of the display, so I have this big dark spot right in the middle, instead of the 600 mini's and a spotlight that should be there. Also super strange is that on some of the sequences it seems to react properly, but only on ones that those 2 channels are only on for short amount of times, any sequence where they are supposed to stay on for a while, they don't. ???? |
Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 28 Nov 2011 at 4:32pm
When I had 1.20 as firmware, I had channels that forgot to turn on when in fact they should have been on. I went back to 1.16 and problems cleared away.I guess that's the game we play. There a reason why it isn't for everyone to animate lights....if it was, everybody would have them. We wouldn't be unique anymore! 
------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/">
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Posted By: shawmc
Date Posted: 28 Nov 2011 at 7:07pm
| well I just tried it in Light Show Pro, and had the same exact issue, so I'm pretty sure it's not the sequencer, but the hardware. I'd like to try firmware 1.16 but I can't find it, D-light doesn't have it on their sight any more, anyone know where I can get it? I'd rather not go 1.2 as I've heard of a couple people having issues, 1.16 seems to get the most votes for stable. |
Posted By: ATController
Date Posted: 29 Nov 2011 at 6:15am
| Here you go...http://d-light.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1985 |
Posted By: LightsOnLogan
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2011 at 8:36am
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1.16 is a very good firmware. I ran it as my own preference for a few years. It does suffer from some random "sticky channel" issues under certain very specific circumstances, but I personally found it more stable than 1.17. 1.19 is completely incompatible with Aurora, and 1.20 returns compatibility when using the EEPROM compatibility setting. There is some debate as to which is better, 1.20 or 1.16. Our testing here was inconclusive, so I simply advise customers to use whichever of those two works best for them.
For future years, everyone should plan to transition to the OpenDMX firmware on their D-Light controllers. It is perfectly stable and is the direction Aurora is heading. I am presently field testing a 368 channel DMX only network that is entirely OpenDMX firmware and a hybrid build 185 / build 90 environment and it has been running flawlessly. The code used to accomplish this will be finding its way into the public builds in 2012. Michael ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/"> 
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Posted By: shawmc
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2011 at 5:17pm
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Well I got all the controller loaded with 1.16 last night and it seemed to fix my issues. So fro now I will just stay on 1.16 to get through the year.
Thanks everyone for the help. |
Posted By: balloon2000
Date Posted: 11 Dec 2011 at 8:57pm
| I HAVE A SONG IN MY SCHEDULER BUT WHEN IT PLAYS IT WILL NOT END .? ANY IDEAS? |
Posted By: Jonathan
Date Posted: 12 Dec 2011 at 1:24pm
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This happened on my system when I switched from .WAV files to movie files (.AVI or .WMV). In my case, the audio was being encoded into the movies incorrectly (MP3 instead of PCM). I had to reassociate those sequences to the working .WAV file for the problem to resolve itself.
If you are not running any videos in your show, the issue could stem from a bad audio encoding, i.e. MP3 or a 32 bit WAV file. If this is the case, try reencoding the audio on that sequence into a 16 bit PCM WAV file. ------------- ~Jonathan |
Posted By: balloon2000
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2011 at 6:44am
| Rencoding worked thanks I was hoping I was not going to re sequence the song 57000 events |