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LEDWiz, LED BLinky and IPAC4 issues?
drventure:
Hey Arzoo
No, it's always happened, I just haven't had things setup enough to really get into configuring the lights, so I hadn't worried about the issue till now.
drventure:
Just an update on this.
My suspicion is that RandyT was right on the money. After a LOT of trial and error and trying to narrow things down, it LOOKS like the problem centers around electrical noise of some sort.
Way back when, I picked up some ELWire that came with a 120v ac to 90v ac converter (The elwire itself requires the lower ac voltage, and very low current).
After testing, it +looks+ like when I have +that+ hooked up, everything's still solid.
BUT, in order to drive the ELWire in my CP proper, I picked up a little USB powered driver. Same thing, basically, though it converts 5vdc to 90v AC for the elwire.
Now, that converter is always powered up, but there's no juice flowing to the ELWire segments till I use LED Blinky to turn on the corresponding LED ports. Within seconds usually, I start hearing USB device unplugged "bong" sounds.
Interestingly, I've got a Lamp sitting close by that I rewired to use a touch dimmer and an AC-DC LED Driver I picked up a while back.
If I DISABLE the ELwire controlling LEDWIZ, turn on the cab, start an animation with LEDBlinky and then TURN ON the lamp, within a minute or so, I ALSO start loosing USB devices.
Short version.... I'm guessing RandyT is right and I've got piles of emr coming off those converters or off the ELWire segments, and that's what's fouling my USB devices.
So I guess now I'm gonna have to rig up a faraday cage to shield the inside of my cp from emr, and at the same time no short anything out!
This thing is really starting to feel Frankenstein-ish
Not sure I'd recommend using ELWire in a cab anymore....
drventure:
Well, to wrap up this thread for posterity's sake....
The problem (at least so far as I can tell at this point) has turned out to be several fold.
First, The 7 port hubs I have just don't seem to be stable when they have more than 3-4 devices attached. I'm not sure why, but I was actually getting intermittant "usb device disconnects and then reconnects" with the cab just sitting there, no LED's flashing, games playing or anything.
I split the connected devices across 2 7 port hubs that I happened to have and that helped that problem disappear.
Second, I had the hubs (now 4 of them) daisy chained, one to the next to the next. Instead, I connected 3 of them directly to the 4'th hub and then the 4th hub was connected to the PC. This appears to have been the final key to getting the usb ports and hubs stable.
BUT I was still getting dropped connections when I'd fire up LEDBlinky.
Turns out I had one segment of ELWIRE that is problematic. I can actually hear popping and buzzing in my speakers when it lights. If I disconnect THAT PARTICULAR segment, My IPAC4 no longer flakes out, and all usb ports seem to be stable (at least so far).
I'm guessing that the two hair-like wires in that EL segment are "almost" shorting, and causing a lot more noise than they should normally.
Unfortunately, I don't have any more ELWire to replace that segment, so I guess it'll just be out for now.
Thanks again for all the suggestions!
Nephasth:
Good to hear you were able to pinpoint this. :cheers:
arzoo:
And glad it's not software related :)
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