Why do cue's stop working?

[djharryg]

I created an 8 step sequence and saved it as a cue. I clicked the cue and the lights moved as expected. I did this several times throughout the night.

Then... all of a sudden... for no apparent reason, I click the cue button and the lights do not respond to the cue any longer. I can see that th cue is running through the steps in the cue window. But, the fixtures are no responding at all.

The only way to fix this is t shut down Freestyer and re-start it.

What could be causing this? How can I avoid this?

[Mattotone]

What interface are you running? (please add your computer specs and interface to your sig)
Was only cues affected or was other features I.e Blackout, overrides, manual control not working either?

The enttec open suffers from noisy lines and can cause it to lock up.
There is a mod avaliable to suppress the affects. Also ensure dmx lines are terminated, away from mains and especially away from foggers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matt

[djharryg]

Hi,
I updated my profile. I'm 99% positive that I listed the corect interface now. The manual control seemed to work fine. I didn't try the blackout. I don't seem to get that to work anyway.

Something about the cues I create for the scanners... The cues just stop sending the commands to the fixures. I can see the cues running on the laptop screen. But, I'm not getting a response from the fixtures.

The only thing I'm running on the laptop at the time is Freestyler. I did not terminate the signal that night. (I forgot to hook up the terminator).

What is the mod? Is it for the Velleman? Is it something I can do?

[djharryg]

Does anyone have any info about the "mod" discussed in this thread? It's very frustrating to have to constantly shutdown and restart Freestyler at my events.

[Tom]

It's very possible that it is because you did not terminate the DMX signal with a terminator.

[djharryg]

I do terminate the dmx signal with a terminator. Could it be because I run my shows simply by clicking cues "on and off" during my show? Should I be using the "submasters" to run my shows?

[Mattotone]

the method of using freestyler should not affect this error.
If freestyler is still running it means that the hardware has locked up, unplugging and then plugging the hardware from the pc and then selecting the interface in freestyler should bring back on line.
But is usually caused by noise on the dmx line. I.E Mains and in particular smoke machines as well as some strobes.

matt

[Crrispy]

It's quite strange, because if only restarting FS is enough, it seems the hardware is not locked up, must be something in the USB layer/drivers. Have you done the usual checks: firmware/driver updates of the interface etc..? If it still happens, try to borrow an externally powered USB 2 PCMCIA card (if you are using a notebook) and make a show with it, this solved many problems for many people I know. Also bios updates etc... I remember a dodgy USB on an old T23 notebook was fixed by a bios update, etc...
Anyway, it's not a FS bug if cues continue running, everytime I had the same problem it was the USB interface which froze and I had to unplug/replug it.