Renard and FPP issues

K

Keith R

Supporting Member
I have three known working Renard SS16's that are possibly not receiving data from FPP. I did upgrade my FPP to 7.5 this year, but for some reason I am not receiving data to my Renard. What can I do to insure that Renard in FPP is not broken? That my controllers are receiving data? and would there be any other way to hook up my first 40 channels (RenardSS16 and a DC Renard24[HC?] to FPP. This is not a deal breaker, but I have spiral trees and my floods hooked to those 40 channels. Thanks
 
I would check your Output Setup/Channel Outputs, under 'Other'. I'm assuming you're using 'Renard' and have selected a Com port. The correct com port settings aren't always preserved, so I would see what com port is associated with your SS16s, see if other COM ports are available and perhaps try swapping ports and test. I am using 3 COM ports in other - 2 are Renard, one is DMX. Sometimes after a power outage, where I didn't do an orderly shutdown of the FPP, when the FPP comes back up the COM ports rotate (for example, if one of my Renards used to be ttyUSB0, maybe now it needs to be ttyUSB2 and the ttyUSB0 is now associated with one of the other two). If on the other hand, you aren't seeing the USB port (assuming you have used a USB to Serial or USB to RS485 connector) it is possible that the USB converter has failed - I have also experienced in the past where I needed to replace my USB to Serial converter because it got wet and no longer worked. Good luck
 
What you are describing above is what happens when you use the cheap USB knockoff adapters. Those devices have a knockoff chip in them and all of them present the same USB device ID to the USB controller. That results in shifting USB com port addresses on reboot. In these cases it is worth the time and money to ensure your USB adapters use quality parts and have unique USB device IDs (Like the ones you get from an FTDI device).
 
Thanks for the replies. EMKLLK, if you are using a newer or newest FPP, that is good to hear that the Renard ports are working. Martin, I was using 3.7 two years ago and it was working fine. It is only after the upgrade, that I am having an issue. I do have the 4.00 USB to 485 cheapies, but never had an issue before now. I am getting one of the trees to light when I toggle the lights in status control/display testing. My next step is to get out the old Renard 24's that I built from WJohn and try those. I guess I could also try removing JP2 on the controller.
 
I upgraded this year to FPP 9.3, and haven't run into any issues with the ports. Haven't actually experienced what I described in my earlier response either in a while (I have been using 2.4 for years, only upgraded to 9.3 this year after some other issues), but I've seen it in the past.
 
I want to say thanks for the heads up and ideas where to look. I ended up swapping my SS16 out with another one, cleaned the terminal and replaced the shunt on P2, and cut the ends off of my 60 or so feet of old Cat5 and re-terminated the ends. It wasn't until I put a couple of fingers where i shouldn't have and got a jolt that it started working. I upgraded my membership once again for the help. Thanks!
 
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