Getting Worried

[olingerjccj]

Tomorrow is my big day to finish, this has been burning a hole in me for about a week. I had the display lit for about 20 mins but has to take all the extension cords down just too mess at 9:30 at night, anyway the forcast is calling for rain and snow tomorrow, i am not sure what i am gonna do if that happens. Well just had to vent.

John

[Ronp]

Take you time remember this is supposed to be fun... lol

[Pwmcguire]

Hang in there, I got my show going on Thanksgiving. I did some set up in the rain. Everything was working after the rain. My show started tonight and I noticed 4 candy canes weren't working. I was so concentrated on them that I didn't notice all four of my arches weren't working. I quickly figured out that it was a communication issue and 2 1/2 hrs later I found that com port 1 quit working properly I had to run a cat5e cable between the last controller on com 1 to the first controller on com 2 and switch them all to com 2 and 1/2 later it worked. I'm back up, for a while I was worried too.

[Wayne J]

We all have little gremlins we chase and kill at start up. Keep calm, and you will get them. ;)

[dj merritt]

I agree with wayne, when we went to video tonight i noticed one channel on my arches not working, wife said who ya gonna call? ghost busters. I said nope. I will go to DIYC.com and go to the wiki it always works .

[IdunBenhad]

Hi:
Boy, did I luck out or what? This is my first year of blinky-flashy. I wired everything up, made all the connections and ended up with 2 channels reversed. I'm running on 32 channels at present. 64 when I get the mega-tree up.

The reason for the channel reversal is the way I wired everything. I ran zip cord for each two channels with a separate ground or neutral wire. I used regular wall receptacles for each two channels. The receptacles were put into "blue boxes" and then waterproofed with plastic sacks. I know, crude, but here in Yuma, AZ we rarely, if ever, get rain.

The only real problem turned out to be that my Vastelec FM transmitter has not arrived, but last winter I had bought a Belkin type transmitter (not actually a Belkin) from Craigs List. I decided to try this thing and the results were amazing. I ran the audio from the computer, hooked up the transmitter to the 3.3 vdc output of a computer power supply, put the transmitter in the window of the shed where computer control is housed, and this darn thing goes for over 1/4 mile without an external antenna.

It does have a couple of problems, like it will not return to the set frequency on power up and you have to "punch a button" to get into transmit mode. Solution: just leave it on all the time!

Good luck All

Idun

[olingerjccj]

Thanks for the kind words, It is not too bad today I am gonna go for it, but have to wait till 8:00am before I start going crazy with the staple gun. This has been bugging me not sure if it was the strand or my ch4 was out the night I tested it, we will see in about 4 hrs. I really dont want to have to mess with that.

John

[NogginBoink]

My show is late getting up, too. For the fourth year running. Don't sweat it.

[cgarwood]

Found out I have a dead channel on my old Olsen controller. It's mounted in the rafters of my porch right now so now way to get to the guts and fix it. To top it off, its raining now and I still haven't got my roof outline or big star put up. I'm starting to think that I will never finish my display this year. I still have to program my songs too

[scottmcm]

Take you time remember this is supposed to be fun... lol

True that! I finally stopped worrying. House done, meage tree done, mini trees....4 out of ten done. No songs done yet but the display is still better than last year!

Thanks to all at DIYC!