Quickshow 2.0 BETA now available!

[Things]

It is strange, I only notice the problem with my fog machines. The devices tend to drop out when you release the trigger button, and it sometimes does not cause issues.

Since the pumps are piston based, they use magnetic coils to move the piston, I am thinking that when you cut the power, if you do it at a peak in the sine wave, it'll act like an inductor and send a high voltage spike back down a power line. How it then gets to USB confuses me. It could radiate from power cables, it could be travelling through my netbooks switchmode PSU, I dunno.

Haven't tried it on a desktop PC, they are properly grounded, but desktops aren't really practical for short laser shows anyway

[White-Light]

Its more likely to be RF I would have thought with the cables acting like one great aerial.

To isolate the power supply, simply buy a power surge protected block with noise filtering. There are designs for both pc usage and also high end hifi depending on how much you want to spend. Read a few reviews 1st and make sure the one you'er getting actually filters well though.

However, I rather suspect rf. I suspect the fog machine may be poorly screened and sending out a pulse of rf thats picked up by the cabling and this interupts the pc to fb3 signal temporarily.

As I said above, all I can suggest is better cabling. Many USB cables have poor shielding which is why some are like bell wire and others are like hosepipes! Get your self a hevay screened cable that boast about its shielding capabilities.

On the LAN side, I'm pretty sure CAT5 is unscreened as standard as I have a CAT5 network cable installed at home between my router and pc and I seem to remember warnings about rf pickup. Again, there are some screened CAT5 cables available.

Things suggestion of ferrite beads may also help or ferrite rings. I know of these but know nothing about how to choose their application.

I think overall the only thing you can do is go through and eliminate everything 1 by 1 until you find the culprit.

[Lexat8]

Dear Lexat8,

We have looked at your log files and this is what we found.

All of the problems you are encountering are related to hardware, not software. Specifically, the FB3 is suddenly disconnecting. This could indicate some kind of connector or cable problem, or it could indicate a "power problem".

From the log files we can see that you have what appears to be an inexpensive HP laptop. From what we have heard, HP laptops are made by two separate companies, on two separate production lines. One of the production line makes really cheap PCs, but with lets say less-than-optimal design. The other production line makes really great PCs, but with an elevated price. We would suggest you use a Powered USB Hub and plug the FB3 into the USB hub and see if that helps your problem. If not, then we'll have to investigate this further.

To help us to find problems in the future, we recommend you completely delete the LOG folder as well as any "Send to Pangolin" folders right now. QS will rebuild them as needed, and it will be less data to send in the future if the need arises.

Regarding the tone of email sent from me, perhaps it is you who is a bit over-sensitive . What you receive from me in email are statements of fact with zero sugar-coating, as if receiving emails from a robot. So if that is not to your liking, there are certainly other people on the Pangolin team you can contact -- for example, Francesco.

Certainly it is our goal to make software and hardware that are good enough so that you'd never have to contact us for technical support. In the real world, there are other things, well external to anything we have made that might cause problems -- for example, USB cable, USB connector, quality of laptop power supply implementation or outright abuse of the hardware.

I am happy to hear that you like what you call the "Sound to light function" (which I assume you are referring to the Virtual Laser Jockey) and I am sure other QS users will thank you if you let other people know what you are doing, and how you are using it, and the type of music you have found to be most successful.

Best regards,

William Benner

PS: Just as a reminder, OK, Lexat8 has problems, but what about the zillions of other people who purchased QS this year alone? Generally you'll only hear about problems on a forum, and not too often hear about the success stories.

Dear Bill,
Thanks for the reponse first of all, an sorry to take so long to post back, been abit chaotic over here.

Firstly, yes, I have seen a 'FB3 disconnect' message flash up along with a FB3 connected meassage. At the time it was hard to see whilst working on other consoles. I still haven't had the time to run the system up in its same configuration, will try to do so tommorow whilst running CamStudio and see what I get. I'll post the rusults here if thats ok with you.

As for the hp Laptop, its was actually quick expensive a couple of years ago, around 800 uk quids IIRQ. Maybe I was sold a pup? I'll try a powered hub, but how would that inprove the connection between the hub and the computer? Would smoother power from the powered hub compensate the connection between the computer and the hub? Also the power over here is very unstable. I get anywhere between 218vac and 264vac at the house

Log deleated as per request!

Yep, maybe I am an over sensative old hippy, but your sure know yr style. I've seen more chatty auto responders!

Its the real world that counts, and we all appreciate the products. Please keep up the good work and support.

I use the term 'sound to light' just because I don't consider myself any form of Jockey/ DJ/VJ/LJ etc.!I'm a laserist. As to what I'm doing, well I affraid mostly Club/Rave/Festival stuff, for which my clientelle are off there little titties ; So its what i would call Banging techno, althought I'm told its also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...o_music_genres

Actually 'Doc' could expand on this, an also other electronic genre

Once in a while I get a decent festival, rock band or even a marketing job! Hurray!

Zillions? Surley Trillions?

Cheers

Lex

[Lexat8]

Evening All!
I'm going to take some of the foil of 'my hat' and try to cover those cables!

Cheers

Lex

[Things]

I've just created my solution



No buffer or anything, just straight wired over. The green indicator LED is kind of like a debugging device. + and - power will be sent separately down the 2 ethernet cables. It will light only if both cables are plugged in, and they are plugged into the right port.

[Lexat8]

I've just created my solution



No buffer or anything, just straight wired over. The green indicator LED is kind of like a debugging device. + and - power will be sent separately down the 2 ethernet cables. It will light only if both cables are plugged in, and they are plugged into the right port.

Evening All
They look most goodest! Any chance of a pic of the insidey wiring bits?

Yeap, RF problem from me defo! Ran with rj45 set setup on Friday and radio mics, fecking nightmare. Only place I could get the FB3 was within a metre of the base for the mics, drop outs and freezes every couple of mins. Killed one bank of heads so i could run ILDA cables and no problems. Saturday gig no RF about, but still ran ILDA on all five heads and QS 238 build as sweet as nut IMO. Will try lastest build this week.

Cheers

Lex
(10 hours sleep in last 50 so!)

[netzhaut]

hi, if these boxes are just cable-powered, you ll get problems, i think. if i understood right, you just built a kind of directly wired adapters. in the beginning of my lasering i used an active usb expanding system with network cables as well, but the contact to the dac was lost several times during an eve.. now i use selfmade sub-d-25 cables up to 100m and no more connection errors appear.

back to topic: i m waiting for the final release and my beta is very stable in the moment. sometimes there are crashes, but only lite ones, which one can solve by clicking blackout and continue running app.

i have written to pango to get additional software like livequick to write to the memcard of the fb3 and a newer version of traceit, cause the old one will not accept the updated fb3. does anyone have the same prob?

i love qs, never mind if 1 or 2 - the price performance ratio is unbeatable at the moment

[White-Light]

QS 238 build as sweet as nut IMO. Will try lastest build this week.

A word of warning, as bugs have been cured some have popped up. You may find later versions have bugs that affect your shows more.

As I've said before, this is still a beta, albeit in its final stages. I'd be very wary before using anything less than the retail version for a show.

[Things]

Evening All
They look most goodest! Any chance of a pic of the insidey wiring bits?

Yeap, RF problem from me defo! Ran with rj45 set setup on Friday and radio mics, fecking nightmare. Only place I could get the FB3 was within a metre of the base for the mics, drop outs and freezes every couple of mins. Killed one bank of heads so i could run ILDA cables and no problems. Saturday gig no RF about, but still ran ILDA on all five heads and QS 238 build as sweet as nut IMO. Will try lastest build this week.

Cheers

Lex
(10 hours sleep in last 50 so!)

Will try and get some gut shots for you, however not much more than a mess of wires!

[Lassie]

hmmmmm getting lots of errors lately in QS2, i just had one and my whole workspace was corrupted and lost all of my custom cues and animations..... I saved my workspace at the end but it was corrupted no matter what i tried.

Gonna send 6 zip files to pangolin with error-reports, hope that helps.