Access to Com Port Denied

[Photovor]

I posted this in the bugzilla, but thought I'd post it here as well, in case someone else wants to share their experience.


I have a program consisting of 4 sequences. About 15 minutes total. Each
sequence uses the same profile, which has these settings:

-Channels 1-48, Simple 595 Plugin
-Channels 49-64, Renard Dimmer (modified), Com port 1, Hold port open

In the Program settings, I have this:
-Sequence 1, Sequence 2, Sequence 3, Sequence 4
-Use each sequences plugin setup, I've also tried "Use a profile"
-0 seconds of cross fade

The error I'm getting is between sequences:
"Collection was modified. Enumeration operation may not execute". and in
another dialog box: "Access to Com Port 1 Denied"

I've gone through each sequence and re-attached the profile, but I still get
the same problem. It was happening randomly during playing the program.

I've since detached the profile from each of the sequences, and I still randomly get the Com Port issues.

[omzig]

What version of Vixen are you using? I had the same problem when I was using 2.09. I downgraded to 2.05 and it went away.

[ron d]

I occaisionally had the same issue and i either have to delete the old program and build a new program, save it and restart or found unplugging the comp ports and shutting down then opening the program and trying to play it then pluging the com ports in it goes away.

[scorpia]

i think this comm port issue is the work of the modified plugin. from what i can tell the modified plugin came in as of 2.0.5.1. so it was unmodified as of 2.0.5.

i would try the unmodified plugin from the 2.0.5 beta and see if the issue goes away.

Peter

[artzy]

Hi I am having the same problem and am using the 2.0.5 beta

[scorpia]

ah well, there goes my idea

[Photovor]

What version of Vixen are you using? I had the same problem when I was using 2.09. I downgraded to 2.05 and it went away.

I am using 2.09. I'll try the downgrade to see if that helps.

[Wayne J]

i think this comm port issue is the work of the modified plugin. from what i can tell the modified plugin came in as of 2.0.5.1. so it was unmodified as of 2.0.5.

i would try the unmodified plugin from the 2.0.5 beta and see if the issue goes away.

Peter


ah well, there goes my idea

LOL, I was hoping the same thing.

I had the issue myself, and the old version of the plug-in did not help. (renard 2.0.3 and 2.0.4)

[rlilly]

I'm using 2.09 without any real issues.

I have noticed similar behaviour occasionally. I exit Vixen and bring up task manager, it shows Vixen still running (as a process, not an application).

I end the process, restart Vixen, and all is well.

[Photovor]

Ok- so tried it with the older 2.0 version. Same problem. Apparently this is a known issue, that has a pretty good history. I'm just wondering why there isn't a solid fix for this yet. I could sit and babysit it all night long, but that defeats the purpose of the scheduler. Especially if I have to kill the task and start over every 15 minutes.

I think what I'm going to do is make a 15 minute sequence that has all 3 of my songs, and just cut and paste all the sequences together. Hopefully that'll avoid this technical issue. I'm gonna get tired of resetting this every 15 :-)

[teberle]

On the setup for the plugin do you have the 'Hold port open during the duration of the sequence execution'? I had problems using this and disabled it.

[artzy]

On the setup for the plugin do you have the 'Hold port open during the duration of the sequence execution'? I had problems using this and disabled it.

Will gibe this a try tonight and see if it helps

[artzy]

No change:-?

[lemaster63]

Same problem here. After the first sequence it freezes and says access to comm port 1 denied. I'm using 2.0.3.3.

[Macrosill]

Have you tried using the Program plugin feature? I think a lot of the time the com port error comes up is because people are using plugins in the sequences or profile. My theory is that the Program will hold the port open for the entire length of the program. The sequences and profile open and close the port for each sequence and this causes the conflict. The next sequence opens the port before the previous one closes it. This is just a theory form someone who knows less than a little bit about it. I may be totally wrong but I have not seen the com port issue in some time and I use the program plugin feature. Give it a try and see what happens.

[RJ]

Have you tried using the Program plugin feature? I think a lot of the time the com port error comes up is because people are using plugins in the sequences or profile. My theory is that the Program will hold the port open for the entire length of the program. The sequences and profile open and close the port for each sequence and this causes the conflict. The next sequence opens the port before the previous one closes it. This is just a theory form someone who knows less than a little bit about it. I may be totally wrong but I have not seen the com port issue in some time and I use the program plugin feature. Give it a try and see what happens.

Brian this is what I do also. It is important for us to point out that you need to disable the plugin's in the seqences that are in your program if you use the programs plugins. It can cause problems if both the seqence and program have plugin's setup.

RJ

[gocats7]

This is my first year at all this so I am not as knowledgable as others, but I will add my two cents on what has worked for me during the past three nights I have been testing and tweaking. I have had no issues within a program run, only when I have tried to switch between multiple programs back to back which makes sense why the comm port would be in use.

I have only had the comm port issue when I tried to switch between programs, meaning I tried to have one program of sequences end at 6pm and another program of sequences start at 6pm. I modified the timer file, as suggested on this message board, and was able to move between different programs with a 2 minute downtime without any further issues since the comm port was released.

I have not disabled the plugin for each of my sequences (which I may as it makes sense what has been said here) and have them set identically to the programs plugin. I do not use the sequence plugins, I use the programs plugin feature only. I have not disabled the hold port open check box either.

I am using 2.0.9. One thing I am doing a little differently than some is that I am using a USB to serial adapter that is using COM3 instead of the normal COM1 but I dont see right off how this would impact the issue that we are discussing, only adding in some additional detail.

Now that I have said this, I hope I didnt jinx myself.......

[gocats7]

One other thing is the laptop I am using is a clean build of XP that has no other software installed and is used for no other purpose but Vixen.

[lemaster63]

It's working now. First of all thanks everybody for the ideas. I disabled the sequence plugins and set up the program plugins to run everything. Comm port problems disapeared.

Thanks again! You all rock!

[RJ]

Glad I could help.

RJ

[Photovor]

I'll try the recommendations of disabling all plugins in the sequence, and just having them controlled through the program. I've been working with KC on this issue over in bugzilla, and we've been getting some logs on what's happening.

[artzy]

I have detached the profiles from sequences and set up the program with the plug in but now have a different error message
"
:
Object Reference not set to an instance of an object"

Many thanks

Paul

[Doug-in-the-woods]

I detached he profile from the sequences then under program manager I used the sequences plug ins (first choice?) is the one I am using
seems to be working

[Greg in Canby]

Last year I used 2.0.5.0 and the Enttek Pro Dmx dongle - everything was smooth, stable and EASY. The scheduler and 5 sequences ran perfect - all month.

So I read this thread and before hooking up the computer I disabled the vixen auto update - I'm golden right ??? Wrong.

Same old computer, same old hardware – spankin’ new error - "com port."

I don't think I changed anything EXCEPT XP downloaded updates automatically and I let them install. I'm going to uninstall the updates all the way back to December 2007. If that doesn't help I'm reformatting back to a plain Jane vanilla installation of XP.

Maybe a clue here, maybe not . . . good luck to us all.

Greg

[Photovor]

Yeah, I'm still having the problems, even after disabling the plugins in each sequence and just using the program plugin setup. I'll be interested in seeing what KC comes up with this weekend.

[Doug-in-the-woods]

No No No don't disable the sequence plug ins
detach the sequences from a profile and then let each sequence run the plug ins you attached to each sequence (use a profile first, get everyone (sequences on same page) THEN detach each sequence from profile.
then have the manager run each sequence w/ its own plug-ins
It worked for me as I tried almost every combo.
last night I ran my show but forgot to insert plug-ins on one tune.
good luck

[gmijackso]

I've had every version of the error as well, and I'll try what Doug suggested above tonight. I'm running the Enttec pro DMX dongle and get the com error between programs right now.
I used to get the com error between each sequence, but that was solved by using a programs plugin and detaching the sequence from the profile. Now I only get the com error when going from program to program. I'm also running 2.0.5 beta.

I'll have more time to work on my display now, so hopefully I'll get something figured out soon.

[Aurbo99]

I've just started to encounter this error after many many hours of sequencing a single song.


It's currently preventing my AP from showing as well.

I've tried all the suggestions so far, but still causing the glitch.

[Aurbo99]

Checking my program tracer, Vixen hung when I picked up the error.

Restart the computer, OR open your Task Manager and KILL all instances of Vixen.exe running under the Processes tab.

Seems to cure it for me.

[Photovor]

No No No don't disable the sequence plug ins
detach the sequences from a profile and then let each sequence run the plug ins you attached to each sequence (use a profile first, get everyone (sequences on same page) THEN detach each sequence from profile.
then have the manager run each sequence w/ its own plug-ins
It worked for me as I tried almost every combo.
last night I ran my show but forgot to insert plug-ins on one tune.
good luck


I've tried it this way also- same deal.

[gmijackso]

Yeah, I've tried every thinkable combination of profiles, plugins, etc, and nothing seems to work. I can make it through a single program, but when a program ends, and a new one is to begin, it crashes. I've even taken to ending each program a full minute before the next starts to eliminate any overlap, and still nothing.

I am able however, to take a short program, and tell the scheduler to repeat it until a certain time and it works fine. The problem only seems to happen when actually changing programs.

Been set up for 10 days now, and still have yet to have a show work right.

[rstehle]

Have you tried setting your seconds of cross fade to "0". I had to do that to get my program to run.

[gmijackso]

Have you tried setting your seconds of cross fade to "0". I had to do that to get my program to run.

Yeah, that was the first thing done.

It works if I run a background script, and just one program. But I can't run two programs. I had wanted to run a "background" program that ran when the show wasn't that would allow fancier things than I can manage in a script. But, implemented a fairly simple background script today and removed my background program from the schedule and has ran fine for two shows now.

So, it looks as though, for me anyway, that it is entirely about running two different programs in the schedule.

[Aurbo99]

After a few nights of tinkering with this error, here is what I found.

1. My resulting issue started when I removed some unused channels from my profile.

- The AP did not like this and the error occured.
- I added the channels back into the profile and the error cleared.
- The replaced channels do not respond in AP on play.


- Edit your .pro file and CAREFULLY count the channels.. you will find the channels you originally deleted are no longer in your number count.

I deleted channels 61-67 of my profile. I had 120 channels to start. After removing the channels, I had 114 channels. 0-60 and 68-119.

AP does not like the missing numbers and you get the error.

Adding back in the deleted channels, Vixen will count your channels again and add the 6.
But it appears to count the channels and not check against the last numerical value which is 120 but really I had 114 and Vixen added 6 more, 115-120.

AP will take this and not give you an error but it will not display the channels correctly.

Now looking at my .pro file the channel numbers read 0-60, 68-119, 115-120.

115-119 is duplicated but numerically you still have 120, my first reaction was to renumber the second occurance of 115-119 to 120-125 as I did not see the missing 61-67 and this gave me yet more errors.


Once I saw the missing sequence of numbers and manually edited the .pro file with the correct 0-119 count and Vixen behaved normally and I was able to resume play.

I used Restore Natural Order in the Manage Profile when I loaded Vixen and AP then began to display the correct channels.

In the middle of all this I DID re draw my channels in AP to correct the shifted channels.. This part may or may not be needed, and I'm not about to break it on purpose to test it again until the season is over.


Open Vixen, manage your profile, check to make sure the channels are ok, and remove the checks on your Plug-ins.

Open AP from the Plug-Ins and scroll through your channels.. you may have to re-draw some channels as they shifted. <-- still not sure on this, there might be an easier way.

After I was happy the .vix file was still good, I went back into the .pro file and edited the channels to correctly reflect the count.



So looking at my .pro file.

I started with 0-119 for channels 120 channels total.

I deleted 6 channels in the middle of my count.

This gave me 0-60 and 68-119 or 114 channels total.

AP is looking for 120 channels it seems (0-119) and actually counts the channels, which is 114 but expects 120 as the last numerical value is 119 and returns an error.

Adding back in the channels, Vixen counts 114 channels and adds to that Value and does not check for duplicate channel values.. in this case 115-119.

This results in 0-60 + 68-119 and then adds channels 115-119 again.

AP counts 120 channels and is happy.. BUT cant handle the duplicate 115-119 channel identifiers and craps out again.

Editing the .pro and renumber 0-119 sequencially,
Check the channel orders at the end of the file as well, it might be missing the original deleted numbers and replicate the 115-119 values twice.


Clear as mud?

[Photovor]

Tried the new zip file. I think it ran for maybe 2 hours, but still locked up. No error or anything, it just stopped.

I'm sticking with my one long sequence that I've cut and pasted all the sequences together, along with the audio. I just set it to repeat, and we're golden. No problems at all. Only thing is that I've been manually starting it when I come home from work- which I'd be turning the PC on by then anyways- so no point in a timer.

This method just makes it harder to re-order the sequences... but that doesn't matter to me.

[Brad H]

Maybe talking about this is just therapy - but hopefully it will help someone else that is also struggling with this problem.

I have finally gotten my system to be somewhat stable - I think. After reading many posts in many threads in this Bug Report forum I tried each of the suggestions and noted the results. All but two (and really just one) had no effect on the crashing problem. The very first time the system crashed there were two errors, with the second error "stacked" on the screen repeatedly. Since then I have only seen the second error (Com Port).

The system: Dell desktop P3 running Win 98SE no network. Renard 16 controller

Vixen: 2.0.5.1

Sequences: 7 total ling 14:54 minutes

Plugins enabled in Sequences: Display; Renard (modified)

The crash usually occurred after about 2.5 hours running - but sometimes happened much sooner - like 15 to 30 minutes into the show. Once the port error happens the only way to clear it was to close Vixen, then re-launch and start over. "Resume timer" just caused immediate crashes.
Many suggested going back to version 2.0.5.0 but I could not find it anywhere. Others reported having the problem with as far back as 2.0.3 so I quit looking for 5.0.

One suggestion was to enable the plugins in the Program AND disable the plugins in the sequences. This suggestion made no sense because the choice is "either / or" not "both". And besides when I use the Program's plugins (which is only Renard) there was no screen display. If it was truly trying to run both I should have seen a screen display - right? Anyway, biased as I was, I tried it anyway. NO HELP.

By this time I was a week into the show and had not had a successful run yet. It was time to try new hardware (another suggestion from one or more members). I tried using my Dell laptop but it has no serial port. I bought a USB -> serial adapter and while Windows XP recognizes it apparently Vixen does not. It configured as COM4 and I diligently set all Renard plugins to COM 4 and set the proper baud rate (57.6). This computer had Vixen 2.0.9 and it is the one used to produce some of the sequences. No joy!

Not wanting to waste time on a new problem I next tried an old Compaq laptop that has a built-in COM port (config as COM1). It also has 2.0.9 and also was used to develop some (most) of the sequences. I copied the sequences from the desktop as is and set a timer. To my pleasant surprise the show ran for 3 hours without a glitch! I ran it again just to be sure. Perfect! So remember the sequence plugins are still disabled. I went back and re-enabled them. Same thing! Two perfect runs in a row! It appears that this was a hardware problem all along. Mind you this is without the Renard hardware actually attached...

I am separated from the show by 200 miles (it is at my son's house) so I rushed over there laptop under my arm and swapped out the computer. Would it still work with the Ren 16 plugged in?? YES! Another perfect show (the first one with actual lights). I threw the Dell Desktop in the trunk and drove back home.

I was now determined to really figure this out. Was it the hardware (PC) or the Win 98SE OS? Probably the latter I figured. But I still had not tried all of the suggestions that have been posted here....

Another post had suggested un-checking the default "leave port open" in the plugin setup. Now remember this computer has the plugins DISABLED in sequences and ENABLED in the Program. I un-checked the "leave port open" in the program setup and ran the show. I could not believe my eyes - it ran with no crash! I put it back like it was - it crashed! So now, as someone suggested I had two changes made: plugins DISABLED in sequences and "leave port open" disabled (un-checked) in the Program. But did it need BOTH?

Of course I had to try enabling all of the plugins in the sequences AND the Program with the "leave port open" DISABLED in the Program but still ENABLED in the sequences. I have a serial port diagnostic adapter that I plugged into the serial port. I observed the states of the three active pins (Tx DTR RTS) for the two conditions of the "leave port open" and then ran the program. The diagnostic tool showed the same conditions as sequences DISABLED, Program ENABLED and "leave port open" DISABLED (un-checked). FYI the difference is on the DTR line... when the "leave open" is enabled this pin is always "green" - when "leave open" is disabled this pin is mostly "red" with "green flashes" as data is sent.
Success! Well - almost! Sometimes it runs flawlessly, other times it runs for awhile and then stops with an "Object reference not set to instance of an object" error.

But still more questions... what would happen if I moved everything to 2.0.9? The answer.. it still crashes as it did from the beginning. Clearly, 2.0.5.1 is more stable but not perfect.

Still more questions... As I write this I see that KC has uploaded a patch to fix these problems. I guess I still have a least one more thing to try......

Well, the new "patch" 2.0.7 crashes on launch with a list of errors with fmod (see the General thread if you need more info).

I hope this gets resolved soon while I still have a little hair left!

I am reminded of Lebarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology: "There's always one more bug!"

Thank you doctor I feel a little better now <sigh>

[Steven010]

Brad, For the fmod-version error which produces a mulitude of errors, have you tried the other fmod.dll that KC uploaded? this is the link: http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showpost.php?p=50222&postcount=12

I used it on our desktop and it got rid of the error but then the show crashed about 15 minutes in.

My dell laptop is running the show all night but I consistently get an "object reference not set to an instance of an object" error. It pops up numerous times but hasn't stopped the show from playing - thankfully!

Michelle

[Brad H]

Michele-

Thanks for pointing out the post. I swear I have been going back to that thread several times a day and not seeing it. I also thought that I had "instant notification" set. <sigh> I am going to DL and try it right now! Thanks again!

Brad