BundyRoy
Dedicated elf
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2014
- Messages
- 1,026
Had an issue with my ink1003 2d tree on the weekend and lost 3m of pixels. Trying to narrow down the reasons why this happened so I can try and prevent it from happening again. Unfortunately there were several mistakes made by yours truly that could of led to the failures.
This was the first time I had anything other than my tree hooked up to the controller (pixlite 16) and I was planning on doing a preview of the 5 songs I have sequenced so far.
1) I did not have everything in my show hooked up to the controller. Does sending data to outputs that are not connected to lights hurt anything?
I only had my tree, one of my 2 sets of arches and a couple of the big w strings on a 2811DC30. Anyway fired it all up. And the tree was working fine but the arches were getting some signal that seemed to be that same patterns as tree.
Checked my network setting and I hadn't configured any of the universe I was using other than the ones in the tree. So I am pretty sure that some of the data that was being sent to the tree was also configured to go to the output for the arch at the same time.
2) Does sending the same data to two outputs cause any damage to lights/controller?
I then configured correctly all the outputs on the controller and the LOR network configuration for the used universes and tried it again.
This was when the issues in the tree showed up, but they may of been caused earlier. The arch and big w strings worked ok now. The tree worked for a while and then some of the strings in the tree seemed to lock up. They did not go off until I turned the power off to the controller.
Can't remember what the signs were but there must of been some issues that made me think I had to much load on the PSU as I was only using one and need to for my full show. I checked and I had 317W hooked up to the 350W PSU so getting up there.
I then went to bed for a night of disturbed sleep thinking about all my problems.
Next day I rechecked configuration, all good. Got the extra 400W PSU set up and hooked up to the tree. Tree is 10 x 3m strips of ink1003, 90 pixels/strip. Did a test pattern test and all good with the exception of the failed sections of strip.
In the process of hooking up the new PSU discovered one of the earth wires was loose on one of the three power lines to the tree. Didn't check if this was the one to the strips that failed.
All strips that failed were on the same power sources and the same data signal source. Tree is configured with 4 data wires. Two lots of 180 pixels (2 strips) and 2 lots of 270 pixels (3 strips). The power is sent to the tree in 3 lines. 2 lines power three strips (2 forward and 1 backwards) and one power line does 4 strips (2 forwards and 2 backwards).
It was the first two strips in a group of three that failed.
3) If you have a dodgy power connection what damage will this cause?
Sorry this is so long. I'm just trying to give as much info as I can before I forget it. Keen for it not to happen again. I did learn one thing. Don't rush, don't get caught up the excitement and double check everything is set up right before turning anything on.
Might have to write up an operation checklist for me to follow to make sure I don't do this again. It nearly broke my heart and put me off for ever when I realised every mistake I make is going to cost me a metre of pixels. I know it's only $8 + postage/m but it will add up fast if I keep burning them up at this rate.
If you've read this far, thanks for your help.
This was the first time I had anything other than my tree hooked up to the controller (pixlite 16) and I was planning on doing a preview of the 5 songs I have sequenced so far.
1) I did not have everything in my show hooked up to the controller. Does sending data to outputs that are not connected to lights hurt anything?
I only had my tree, one of my 2 sets of arches and a couple of the big w strings on a 2811DC30. Anyway fired it all up. And the tree was working fine but the arches were getting some signal that seemed to be that same patterns as tree.
Checked my network setting and I hadn't configured any of the universe I was using other than the ones in the tree. So I am pretty sure that some of the data that was being sent to the tree was also configured to go to the output for the arch at the same time.
2) Does sending the same data to two outputs cause any damage to lights/controller?
I then configured correctly all the outputs on the controller and the LOR network configuration for the used universes and tried it again.
This was when the issues in the tree showed up, but they may of been caused earlier. The arch and big w strings worked ok now. The tree worked for a while and then some of the strings in the tree seemed to lock up. They did not go off until I turned the power off to the controller.
Can't remember what the signs were but there must of been some issues that made me think I had to much load on the PSU as I was only using one and need to for my full show. I checked and I had 317W hooked up to the 350W PSU so getting up there.
I then went to bed for a night of disturbed sleep thinking about all my problems.
Next day I rechecked configuration, all good. Got the extra 400W PSU set up and hooked up to the tree. Tree is 10 x 3m strips of ink1003, 90 pixels/strip. Did a test pattern test and all good with the exception of the failed sections of strip.
In the process of hooking up the new PSU discovered one of the earth wires was loose on one of the three power lines to the tree. Didn't check if this was the one to the strips that failed.
All strips that failed were on the same power sources and the same data signal source. Tree is configured with 4 data wires. Two lots of 180 pixels (2 strips) and 2 lots of 270 pixels (3 strips). The power is sent to the tree in 3 lines. 2 lines power three strips (2 forward and 1 backwards) and one power line does 4 strips (2 forwards and 2 backwards).
It was the first two strips in a group of three that failed.
3) If you have a dodgy power connection what damage will this cause?
Sorry this is so long. I'm just trying to give as much info as I can before I forget it. Keen for it not to happen again. I did learn one thing. Don't rush, don't get caught up the excitement and double check everything is set up right before turning anything on.
Might have to write up an operation checklist for me to follow to make sure I don't do this again. It nearly broke my heart and put me off for ever when I realised every mistake I make is going to cost me a metre of pixels. I know it's only $8 + postage/m but it will add up fast if I keep burning them up at this rate.
If you've read this far, thanks for your help.