Transferring from one computer to another

[Santacarl]

Hello all....

Has anyone had any problems with sequences when they transered from one computer to another? I travel a lot and am wondering if I sequence on my laptop if there could be problems when I put the sequences on my desktop....

I ask because I did some of this last year and there were a couple of places in one sequence that I did while on the laptop that gave me some problems on my show computer with phantom flashes of light from some of my stringers....when nothing was visible in Vixen to indicate a stringer should be on....

So I am wondering if I would be better off doing all my sequencing on one computer......

Any thoughts would be appreciated....

[RichF]

I copy the whole vixen directory to a thumb drive when I am sequencing.

If you were using a Olsen595 or a Grinch off a parallel port you may be picking up some noise.

I was using my olsen 595s coverted with a ren-c and had some flashes on some channels when I dimmed from 100 to 0.

[Santacarl]

Nope.....R-24's.....but mostly on one tune only....really strange....can't figure out where it's coming from....was gonna resequence entirely but didn't want to contaminate it if two computers was causing the issue...

[WWNF911]

As long as both have the same version of Vixen, shouldn't be a problem. I travel all the time and sequence on the laptop. I only backup sequences and profile files to a thumbdrive and no problems to date. :D

[JEEPGUY]

Try and zoom your columns and rows in Vixen to 100% to track down those phantom "on" cells. I had the same problem last year. I couldn't see any "on" cell's, but at the time I had the soom at 50%. I had to go to 100% and found a bunch of cells I had missed after editing.

[Santacarl]

Thanks....already at 100%......but it was worth a try....

[WireWrap]

Make sure sampling is at the same rate when moving sections -- 25/50/100 ms timeslots don't play together well...

[Santacarl]

When I copied from one computer to another I copied sequence and profile onto a jump drive and uploaded both onto the second computer...... I'm not creating anything new...or changing anything to do with sampling that I know of when doing this.....Is there a way that sampling could get off when I copy over and I don't realize it?

[WWNF911]

The issue of moving sections is a non-issue when copying the entire sequence. When doing so the sampling rate is already set. Wirewrap's comment would be something to take into consideration if you were copying data from one sequence to another and inadvertantly did so without regard that one seqence was initiated at say 100 ms while the other might be something different like 50 ms. for example.

[wbuehler]

Try and zoom your columns and rows in Vixen to 100% to track down those phantom "on" cells. I had the same problem last year. I couldn't see any "on" cell's, but at the time I had the soom at 50%. I had to go to 100% and found a bunch of cells I had missed after editing.

I had this same problem last year were I would have some random flashes with just one sequence. After looking for a bit I found some sections were I had some blocks that got left on after I had copied and pasted things around a bit.

Bill

[NoobJacob]

Instead of copying the Profile and sequence, try copying the whole vixen directory with all the files. That would eliminate the possibility of any setings issues. If you still have the problem, maybe you have a problem with the cable from the second computer to the first ren.

[deplanche]

Just watch that you don't delete other files if you are doing this.

[WWNF911]

Instead of copying the Profile and sequence, try copying the whole vixen directory with all the files. That would eliminate the possibility of any setings issues. If you still have the problem, maybe you have a problem with the cable from the second computer to the first ren.

Actually, unless you've changed your profile, there's no need to copy it over everytime. All you need is your new/updated sequences. You don't have a cable issue. I believe everyone who's complained of random flashes so far has had that as a result of copying and pasting cells in a sequence. (an entirely different issue then what SC was asking about).


Just watch that you don't delete other files if you are doing this.
Good point if you're going to copy the entire directory. Like I said, it's just not necessary.

Hope that helps.

Leon


EDIT - SC, I re-read your original post. I must've forgot you said you did this last year. I did as well although I found that my phantom flashes were all caused by me. :oops: This was cells I inadvertently turned on by copy/ pasting cell groups. I also forgot on a couple of occations to take out some beat tracks that I had placed on certain lines to make it easier than having just on the last line. These were hard to see in my preview as they were so short, but once it became showtime, those pesky phantoms became readily appearant. :D

[Santacarl]

Hmmmm, I'm sure I did some cutting and pasting on that tune.....but trying to find where now is like the proverbial needle in the haystack exercise....I'm beginning to think I need to just start over....but I'll probably try Frank's suggestion first and create a new sequence and copy/paste into it....

[daviddth]

Last year I programmed on 4 different PC's, and it was much easier to simply copy the entire directory to a portable HDD/memory stick as that way I did noit have to remember if I tweaked the profile, altered text files, added ledtriks sequences etc

The time taken to copy 100MB was negligable in real terms - usually less than 2 minutes max, even to the slow memory sticks :)

[ErnieHorning]

I typically copy the entire directory from a memory stick to the harddrive also but found that it was quicker to just run from the memory stick. Occasionally I found that Vixen hesitated or ran slower on some computers.

I recently tested a large quantity of memory sticks as part of my job. I found that the speed varied greatly. Some could read and write very fast, some could only do one fast, but not both and some just weren’t fast doing either.

Once I found my fastest stick, I could plug it into any computer with a USB 2.0 port and sequence right from the stick. The drive letter would sometimes change, but I ran it from file explorer anyway. I have found some computers that hesitate but I’ve determined that it’s the video card because it hesitates off of the harddrive too.

[djulien]

Once I found my fastest stick, I could plug it into any computer with a USB 2.0 port and sequence right from the stick.

In the 2.0.x version of Vixen that I've used, it seems to require the files that it opens not to be write-protected or else it will throw an error. This might mean that extra writes are done to the files when they really don't need to be. This in turn may reduce the lifespan of the flash drive, since they have a limited number of write cycles before they start to go bad.

I didn't investigate further, so I don't know if this is a significant issue or not, but I thought I would mention it just in case.

don

[ErnieHorning]

I've read that flash manufacturers have actually implemented a write algorithm that constantly writes to new cells. That way the wear is evenly spread out over the entire memory space.

[djulien]

I've read that flash manufacturers have actually implemented a write algorithm that constantly writes to new cells. That way the wear is evenly spread out over the entire memory space.

I guess that means that my comment can be ignored, although it might still be true for older flash sticks.

don

[deplanche]

Couldn't the same be true for any hard drive? Nothing has an infinite life span.

[djulien]

Couldn't the same be true for any hard drive? Nothing has an infinite life span.

True, but write cycles for (older) flash drives are usually spec'd a lot lower than hard drives.

don

[daviddth]

Very true about write cycles. I would probably not run from a memory stick as I don't know how much vixen writes to the drive, but I did do it at work ok occasion LOL.

What I would love is a version of vixen that does not need net framework but can't be used to show the display, just program it. KC i'd pay for that too :)

[sandy]

This too is a memory stick question,
just a different one.
When I transfer a vix file from the programming computer to the stick,
so I can put it into the show computer,
the copy isn't complete.
It truncates the end of the file and I get the 'unexpected end of file' message.
It's generally in the /eventvalues and everything there else missing.
It's fine on the primary computer,
but it seems Windows is truncating the file.
This isn't the first time it's happened but it seem to be every time on a particular sequence.
Could the event values somehow simulate an end-of-file marker to Windows so it stops copying at that point?

[ErnieHorning]

Sandy, first off, you’re using File Explorer to copy the files right?

Have you tried a different memory stick?

Maybe the file structure is corrupt. Have you tied a disk scan?

Have you tried reformatting the memory stick?

[budude]

There's an option in Windows wrt to removable devices and how it handles the write-cache for it. I believe the default helps ensure complete writes with the other setting helping the speed better (write-thru vs write-to I think). You may want to check that. Also - normally, you get the little icon in your tray to show a removable device, you should use the "Remove device safely" option before disconnecting the device. To be honest, I quit doing that a long time ago with my thumb drives but perhaps yours is "special"! ;)

Brian

[sandy]

Yes I'm using Explorer to 'drag' the file into the stick.
I do use the 'Now Safe to Remove' function too.
I learned that on the hard way by not using the close function and wiped out my entire show, as I was going to load it into the show computer.

The drive should be OK as other files on it run just fine.
It seems like this one sequence it doesn't like.

I'll try copy and paste, instead of dragging.

[ErnieHorning]

The drive should be OK as other files on it run just fine.

The scan program checks the pointers in the FAT table and the file itself. If the pointers are the wrong values, this may be why only part of the file is copied.

Unless you’re using Window 2000 or you didn’t change any with another OS, ‘Safe remove’ is not necessary. The problem with Win2000 is that write caching is used an can’t be turn off. With the cache, some of the file may still be in memory and if you yank the stick, the end of the file never gets written. On all other OS’s, write caching \ is turned off so the whole file is written immediately.

You might also try writing the sequence to a different name in Vixen so that you’re not using the same file and/or location on the harddrive.

[sandy]

It's all in XP Pro.
I removed some redundant files and did a scan and a de-frag on the drive.
It didn't report any problems but the drive was very full.
It could have been a frag problem.

Thanks Ernie, you must be sitting in front of the computer all day like I do.

[rwoomer]

I transferred Vixen 2.0 from one computer to another both XP with a memory stick. the sequence is hesitate. The audio is perfect it's the bar that goes acrossed that is hesitate and sometimes stops but the profile keeps playing then the timeing is off then the sequence jumps ahead to catch up.
Roger