Arrgh! It is not comming together

[sunstream]

I have two LOR 240v controllers which I would like to run in DMX mode with four 27channel controllers daisy chained.
I can detect LOR controller with hardware utility but when I try to run a sequence there is no response.

Last week I could run the four 27channel controllers directly of the USB - 435 dongle but now they have stopped responding.

I am sure there is a wrong setting somewhere. Anyone have any ideas

Later I wish to add several universes controlled through E1.31 Is this possible. Software is LOR S3 Advanced.
Thanks

 

[madmaxisback]

Questions:

1. Did you have the LOR Control Panel icon (little red one) in your taskbar and is it set to "Launch at Startup"?
2. Does you dongle have lights on it that flash to tell you its working?

 

[sunstream]

The blue light bulb is there in system tray. No it was not set to launch on startup but I have set that now.

No, the LOR usb 435 dongle does not have any lights . When plugged in it makes the usual tone for a USB connection. I am assuming it works as I can get through to the controller using Hardware utilty.

 

[madmaxisback]

Try restart pc and LOR unit and see if you get constant red light on the board?

 

[sunstream]

Just re booted controller and laptop. Do not have any red light on controller board. There is a green one top left which flashed on power up but went steady after laptop booted and I opened LOR sequence editor

 

[madmaxisback]

Some good info here.. http://auschristmaslighting.com/wiki/LOR_Adapters


I think you might need another DMX dongle like the ones Alan @ Hanson sells. You can run the LOR USB 485 and this DMX USB dongle at the same time. One will talk to the LOR and the DMX item will talk to the DMX type items. In LOR setup you can assign these dongles to the universe and off you go

 

[madmaxisback]

Ok, I think the newer LOR boards could have green. Mine are way old. Good news. So in theory you could now communicate with the board via say Hardware utility and test using Light Console. Try this with just one LOR board connected first. Then add one more and get constant led etc..

 

[AAH]

1st step is to close LOR completely especially the control panel so then you can access the dongle. Run da_dmx from http://www.da-share.com/software/da_dmx/ . As soon as you click on the "open" at the top of it you will be sending data to the full universe of connected boards. Once that occurs you can check to see if the individual boards are responding. Depending on whether the dongle has LOR or ESTA connections you will be able to connect to either the 27 channel OR LOR boards directly. After you work out which boards you can connect to you will need a LOR/ESTA adaptor or crossover cable to get to the other 2 boards.
http://auschristmaslighting.com/wiki/DMX_Adapter_Leads#Reversible_DMX.2FLOR_Adapter

The 2 standards use different pins for the data so you can't just daisy chain from 1 to the next to next without an adaptor.

Signal			RJ45
ESTA	LOR
Data +	1	4
Data -	2	5
Data Common	7	6

 

[sunstream]

I have tried Da_DMX on the system with no response. Is it that the board is not accepting DMX? Although the firmware is the latest for my PCB16 G3 board is the latest listed by LOR it it is only v 1.12 and not v4 or higher (board i only 9 months old).

or a faulty USB adaptor Quite often I check the listener and it is scrolling a message saying "cannot open adaptor". If I unplug and plug it in again it opens.

 

[AAH]

If LOR is reporting that it can't open the adaptor then you won't get lights happening.
When you say that you got no response with da_dmx did you have LOR control panel closed down and did you then click on "open port" at the top of da_dmx.
I have dongles on my site which could get to you overnight or I actually have a loaner 1 that is sitting in Sebastopol that you could probably get hold of pretty well immediately.

 

[sunstream]

Sometime LOR tries to open the adaptor five or six times and then goes timeout or hangs.Other times I have to unplug it and plug it back in before it works. Sometimes it opens as a "listener" sometimes as "raw dmx" or "E1.31 on universe 2" if I am testing the arched. But in this case only universe 2 not 3,4,5 which are also set.

I think I had the LOR closed as I use the Unload function. Not sure if I clicked on the "open port" or not.

Couple of things I have noticed with LOR. There may be a conflict between the adaptor and some other software as "Sleep and charge" dialog often comes up and the adaptor will not open till this is closed. When using the sequence editor the Control lights under play must be ticked. But it keeps going off. Sometimes when playing sequence sometimes immediately. Also noticed that these programs will not run in background. When computer goes into sleeep mode I have to restart programs. Probably obvious to most but I did not even think about it.

I ordered three dongles today. Hope they arrive soon. What is pinout? Will I need a crossover cable.

 

[AAH]

The dongles will be there in the morning and they are ESTA pinout so somewhere along the way you'll need a crossover as per http://auschristmaslighting.com/wiki/DMX_Adapter_Leads#Reversible_DMX.2FLOR_Adapter