WARNING CMB24D RGB DC Board

Bassaw1

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WARNINGHi all, I have just received the new LOR 24 channel pixel controller. I have beef synchronising shows since 2006, I run S2 and very happy with the stability of this program and have no desire to go S3. Checking the LOR website no mention is made that the CMB24D is not compatible with anything less than the latest S3 Version ( I think 3.9 or 10).
The problem is that the HWU will not recognize this board and therefore a unit # can not be assigned! Now the point is that the good people at LOR were aware of this at least a month ago according to the forum and still have not advised customers of the same. I can't go into much more detail at this time as I have opened a ticket earlier today and have yet to get a reply from LOR.
However, I felt it important enough to keep other members of the forum informed of this situation and consider all requirements if you intend to go down the CMB24D road. Will advise of the outcome with LOR when known.
 

Charl Marais

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I was not planning to go the LOR route again as they are expensive but this is still very good to know especially for new starts or people sticking to LOR equipment.

Thanks for the heads up.
 

Beacy

It's so much better on the dark side
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Nothing surprises me with LOR they have always tried to tie their users down to their products, but this is below the belt, thankful I never went the LOR path
 

David_AVD

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Bassaw1 said:
The problem is that the HWU will not recognize this board and therefore a unit # can not be assigned!

From the LOR manual for the CMB24D:

Setting the Unit ID (and DMX address)

Use the Unit Address Switches to set the controller’s LOR/DMX network address. DIP switch positions 1-9 set the address. Refer to the DIP Switch Address Settings section for the mapping of your desired LOR/DMX address to DIP switch settings.

Legal LOR Network unit IDs are ‘01’ to ‘F0’ hexadecimal, in decimal that would be 1 to 240.

Legal DMX Network start addresses are 1 to 511 decimal.

If you can't set the ID # or DMX address via the HWU (software), why not use the DIP switches provided?
 

Valentinorx

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I am completely new to this and went LOR due to my limited experience. I also have and had a problem setting the ID as the manual can be confusing. So through a quick email I learned that the ID is certainly set through the dip switches. I was referred to page 8 in the manual. I am running in LOR mode and that meant LOR ID for controller 3 was switches 8 and 9 were up. If you were running in dmx mode, the jumpers are moved and those same dip switch settings would correspond to a dmx start channel of 3.
 

plasmadrive

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Valentinorx said:
I am completely new to this and went LOR due to my limited experience. I also have and had a problem setting the ID as the manual can be confusing. So through a quick email I learned that the ID is certainly set through the dip switches. I was referred to page 8 in the manual. I am running in LOR mode and that meant LOR ID for controller 3 was switches 8 and 9 were up. If you were running in dmx mode, the jumpers are moved and those same dip switch settings would correspond to a dmx start channel of 3.

Seems there is a lot of good info when you actually read the instructions.. however... shouldn't LOR know that when they sell to a "guy" we never read the instructions? :D :p Well.. not until all else fails and no one is around to see us do it... ;)
 

Valentinorx

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plasmadrive said:
Valentinorx said:
I am completely new to this and went LOR due to my limited experience. I also have and had a problem setting the ID as the manual can be confusing. So through a quick email I learned that the ID is certainly set through the dip switches. I was referred to page 8 in the manual. I am running in LOR mode and that meant LOR ID for controller 3 was switches 8 and 9 were up. If you were running in dmx mode, the jumpers are moved and those same dip switch settings would correspond to a dmx start channel of 3.

Seems there is a lot of good info when you actually read the instructions.. however... shouldn't LOR know that when they sell to a "guy" we never read the instructions? :D :p Well.. not until all else fails and no one is around to see us do it... ;)

Ahhhh. The old map analogy. I'd still be driving around aimlessly with my wife giving me stink eye if it wasn't for GPS navigation. Now I don't listen to that either.
 

Bassaw1

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Hi All, OK here's the drum. Firstly I did follow the manual to the letter. Also dip switches were tried and I looked for help on the LOR forum. So now I have a reply from the LOR help desk and can say with certainty S2 can not operate the CMB24D. The first thing that made me wonder if S2 was compliant was that the HWU can only test 16 channels and the 24D has 24 channels!!!! So here's what the help desk had to say......
"A Light-O-Rama help desk staff member has replied to your request, # with the following response:.... Earlier generation software doesn't know about the hardware developed after it was released. Because the new hardware has new properties the old software can't understand, we're between a rock and a hard place ..Version 3.10 of our software does recognize the new controllers just fine and reads all sequences generated in the 2.x world. Upgrading shouldn't be painful and you end up with better software"
So I have to renew my License to include 3.10.12 to use the CMB24D. Hope this of some use to other members here. If you are considering the purchase of the 24D and your not sure if your software is compatible, I would first of all ask for advice from the help desk. Cheers and thanks for your comments, have a great Christmas.
 

David_AVD

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Did LOR say that you can't set the ID via the DIP switches, or just that you can't use the HWU with it? I suspect the latter. Why else would it even have the DIP switches fitted?

As long as you can set the ID with the DIP switches, there's no real need to use the HWU. Even if S2 doesn't know about the 24 (vs 16) channel hardware, you could still set up 2 16 channel LOR controllers in S2 (on consecutive IDs) and ignore the last 8 channels.

You should also have the option of running the CTB24D in DMX mode, but that's only viable if you have S3 advanced of course.

In the end, it sounds like LOR would prefer people to upgrade to S3. That's not unreasonable of course if you want to use newer hardware.
 

Valentinorx

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You do have to set the ID via dip switches. I've never had S2 so I cannot comment. That said, the 24 can run LOR or DMX protocol so I'm wondering why it would cause these problems. I'm still learning so I be curious to hear what LOR says.
 

Bassaw1

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David you may be correct about only using the dip switch but the help desk didn't offer this as a way around my problem. They only offered the update to S3 as a possible fix, which I have now installed. I suppose it's like anything in today's world they want the dosh in the first instance. I must say that I did try using the dip switch with 1 and 9 on and it didn't happen for me, I didn't want to do to much without being advised to though so I erred on the side of caution. I have since run the RGB pixels and strips and really happy that I decided to go this way. As a footnote I bought this controller and a number of other items in the past from Mike at WOW Lighting who is most helpful and he also thought that the dip switch should have worked!
Regards Barry 8)
 

fasteddy

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Unfortunatly this is the world of technology and as an industrial electrician im forever seeing things updated that are not backwards compatible and in many cases cant even be installed into the same mountings even though its the manufacturers direct replacement part.
 
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