CCRs seriously lagging and erratic

[rickswa]

Hello All,

This is my first year switching from LOR to xlights and also using the Falcon F16v3 for my main controller.  I have 1 universe setup for 15 LOR AC boxes and another for 2 CCR trees that I have and then additional universes for 4 pixel arches from the f16 outputs.  For some odd reason even though I have the macros disabled on the CCR controllers, I had to make the second CCR start channel a few channels after the 1st one ended to make it behave normally.  I tested them earlier this year with one arch and 3 LOR AC boxes hooked up to the f16 and all was perfect after figuring out that channel assignment issue.....

Fast forward to today when I finally got my display ready to run.  I have the CCR's set to serial output 2 and the AC boxes on serial output 3 and all defined properly in xlights.  If I have only 1 CCR hooked up, it works perfect.  But if I plug another cat 5 cable into the CCR controller, even if it is not hooked up to anything at all, I get a serious lag, erratic behavior (sometimes CCR doesn't come on at all when it should, other times part of it lights up when the whole thing should, etc).  As soon as I unplug the cable that would go to the second CCR, it's back to working perfect.  I've tried both CCR controllers and both do the same thing.  I've tried 6 different cat 5 cables from the f16 to the PC I use, from the f16 to the ccr's and between the ccr's and same results every single time.  I just cannot understand what would cause this even when I just plug a cable into the second jack when it's not connected to anything.  It's baffling that it worked when I tried it with part of my AC boxes set up earlier this year but now I can only have one CCR hooked up for it to work properly.  The rest of the display works perfect, it's just this CCR issue.  Any ideas what could be causing this?  Thanks for any help.

[Gilrock]

So the channel assignment is easily explained.  The LOR Unit ID's make the start address go up in increments of 16 so you probably had to set it to 0x0B and start at 161 to get it to work.  Just use this table:

For the CCR issue I'm not sure.  I used to run them from my F16v2 but ended up replacing them.  I think I remember having to setup parameters in the Hardware Utility but not sure what could cause what you're seeing.  Adding a cable connected to nothing should be electrically invisible except for maybe some capacitance.

You didn't mention it so I gotta ask did you move the jumpers over to the LOR side for the serial output connector?

[rickswa]

thanks for the reply.  Yep, I actually made sure again today with the jumpers because when I tested them before I did that exactly wrong.  lol.  I'm just baffled with the whole thing.  Maybe I'll try resetting them again and see if that helps somehow.  This is most likely their last year but it would still be nice to have them on this season.  Do you think it would work better if I ran everything else thru the falcon and used the LOR dongle to output directly to the CCR's or am I looking to make a huge headache for myself by doing that?  Thanks again for the info.    Also, I did use the hardware utility when setting them up initially but that was just to disable the macros.

[Gilrock]

Yep I was just outside last night moving my jumpers because I installed a new F16v3 and forgot.  I just don't see how plugging in the cable makes a change.  You could try the LOR dongle but what is driving the show?  xLights typically doesn't do well with over 96 channels on a LOR dongle if its driving it.

[cybi257]

Curiosity comes to mind about the cabling. The jumpers on the Falcon allow you to run a standard Ethernet cable to my LOR 16 AC controller. But, without the jumpers, other controllers would require a specially pinned Ethernet cable for the LOR connections. I wonder if this is the case with going from one to the next?

I'm not familiar with the CCR's the LOR has, but this would apply to the AC controllers as I came across this issue when daisy chaining to my second LOR controller last year off my Falcon with the Jumpers to the first controller. (I have 2 LOR AC 16 channel controllers)

-Tim

[rickswa]

thanks again for the replies.  I'm glad I didn't go down that road with the dongle since I didn't realize that I would exceed the limit.  I do have just the standard cat 5 with the jumpers set to LOR but just acts out when a second cable is connected to the ccr controller.  I'm going to tinker with them again now.  I had thought about just cutting off the CCR pigtail and making running it right from the f16 like a standard pixel strip but then I realized the CCR's are 5v and I'm running 12v.  I may just see if I can find some 50 node strips somewhere with quick shipping and run them right from the f16 but it's just really really puzzling why this freak out happens.  But the rest of the AC boxes and my new pixel arches work great so it's just a small part that isn't quite all there.

[Ebuechner]

Don't cut the CCR's, they have a lot more value if you don't modify them.
It would definitely be a good idea to get some strips or nodes to replace them and run it directly from the falcon.
Maybe put your location on your profile and maybe somebody who's near you might chime in with some help if they have some extra lights.

[Phrog30]

While I'm not a fan, holidaycoro will probably be the fastest if you want to buy some strips.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[rickswa]

Thank you so much for all the replies!!! However, I think this is the part where I have to slowly slink away with my head down mumbling "nothing to see here, move along." lol.  After spending over 2 more hours today with these and convincing myself that it was the LOR defector self destruction module being activated after sensing I was running them on xlights/falcon, I FINALLY figured this out.  Even though I tried and tried yesterday, I gave it one more shot with another cat 5 cable from the f16 to the CCR's.  This started showing promise but I have to connect that cable to a specific port on only the right tree ccr module (if I try the left, it's back to freak out mode) and then daisy chain the other cat 5 to a specific port on the other ccr module as the remaining port is labeled, yep, freak out mode.  this is the only way that it works.  BUT it works.  Finally.  And after this experience, there will definitely be a "normal" pixel strip from Ray Wu on those things next season.  Well thank you so much again for all the replies but there is a slamming door that is calling for my head right now.   

[cybi257]

Again, not too familiar with the LOR CCR's, but couldn't you just get a 5v power supply to run on the hot side? This would be easy and you can get these pretty fast from Amazon.com. Just a thought to save you from having to redo a model.