peejmeister
New member
My Olsen 595 Bresonik v2.4.1 has been working flawlessly year after year, with Vixen 1.1.11, using the same old PC, same cables, same lights, etc. since 2006. I had to take a 3-year hiatus (2020-2022) while our house was rebuilt after a major fire.
This year, before setting everything up (40 channels out of 64 configured in Vixen), I booted the PC and Vixen came up immediately from startup, as expected. Next, I connected the controller to the parallel port, same as always, everything appears fine via the LEDs on the board when running my all-channel test sequence. I'm feeling pretty confident so on to testing the SSRs.
Still sitting at the PC, I begin swapping one SSR in after another and see that each one works, each of the 4 channels. It appears everything is working fine so I unpack all the lights and spend three days setting them all up. Finally, I plug in all the CAT5s to connect everything and run my all-channel test sequence.
All the channels work, but whenever a significant number of channels come on, all that are on will flicker super fast, and sometimes random channels will come on. Further testing shows that just plugging in the CAT5 between the controller and the PC (about 15'), all the lights will come on rapidly in sequence from 1-40 and stay on, with no sequence running (and even with Vixen shut down). Using the individual channel control, I can use All Off to shut them all off, but within a second or two, they'll all come back on. Running a sequence will produce the behavior described above where the sequence runs, but when a lot of channels are called for, things get erratic.
I reseated and swapped all the 595 & 2803 chips with no change in behavior. I tested using a spare external PC power supply attaching at the parallel-to-CAT5 connector and see the same behavior. I triple-checked the parallel port settings in the BIOS for EPP (tried the other settings with less success). Lastly, I swapped out all the 595 chips for new TI ones bought off Amazon but for whatever reason, those produced constant on, rapid flickering without following the commands from my running sequence. After that, I swapped back in the original 595 chips and I'm back to the described behavior. I have a new set of 2803s coming tomorrow that I'll try but I'm not holding my breath. I also checked the Olsen 595 plugin settings to ensure they're still correct. Replacing the CAT5 between the controller and PC with a new, store bought one had no effect.
I've scanned this Olsen 595 forum front to back for anyone having a similar problem to no avail. I haven't followed the troubleshooting steps where continuity and grounds, etc. are verified since I do see things looking properly without a full load. I've examined all my solder joints, connecters, sockets and all looks really good still. I hate to give up so close to Christmas but I'm just about out of options.
Anyone have any guidance to what could cause such behavior? As noted above, this setup has been flawless for many years and I've just come to expect it all to work out of the box every year. Any help is greatly appreciated!
This year, before setting everything up (40 channels out of 64 configured in Vixen), I booted the PC and Vixen came up immediately from startup, as expected. Next, I connected the controller to the parallel port, same as always, everything appears fine via the LEDs on the board when running my all-channel test sequence. I'm feeling pretty confident so on to testing the SSRs.
Still sitting at the PC, I begin swapping one SSR in after another and see that each one works, each of the 4 channels. It appears everything is working fine so I unpack all the lights and spend three days setting them all up. Finally, I plug in all the CAT5s to connect everything and run my all-channel test sequence.
All the channels work, but whenever a significant number of channels come on, all that are on will flicker super fast, and sometimes random channels will come on. Further testing shows that just plugging in the CAT5 between the controller and the PC (about 15'), all the lights will come on rapidly in sequence from 1-40 and stay on, with no sequence running (and even with Vixen shut down). Using the individual channel control, I can use All Off to shut them all off, but within a second or two, they'll all come back on. Running a sequence will produce the behavior described above where the sequence runs, but when a lot of channels are called for, things get erratic.
I reseated and swapped all the 595 & 2803 chips with no change in behavior. I tested using a spare external PC power supply attaching at the parallel-to-CAT5 connector and see the same behavior. I triple-checked the parallel port settings in the BIOS for EPP (tried the other settings with less success). Lastly, I swapped out all the 595 chips for new TI ones bought off Amazon but for whatever reason, those produced constant on, rapid flickering without following the commands from my running sequence. After that, I swapped back in the original 595 chips and I'm back to the described behavior. I have a new set of 2803s coming tomorrow that I'll try but I'm not holding my breath. I also checked the Olsen 595 plugin settings to ensure they're still correct. Replacing the CAT5 between the controller and PC with a new, store bought one had no effect.
I've scanned this Olsen 595 forum front to back for anyone having a similar problem to no avail. I haven't followed the troubleshooting steps where continuity and grounds, etc. are verified since I do see things looking properly without a full load. I've examined all my solder joints, connecters, sockets and all looks really good still. I hate to give up so close to Christmas but I'm just about out of options.
Anyone have any guidance to what could cause such behavior? As noted above, this setup has been flawless for many years and I've just come to expect it all to work out of the box every year. Any help is greatly appreciated!