Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Serial Automation intermittent cue firing problem

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Posted by Andy Frodsham (Member # 4061) on 02-20-2013, 05:25 AM:

We have a Dolby DSS220, Barco DP2K-12C, CP750 processor and a generic serial automation unit.

The automation 'box' is operating unpredictably, sometimes cues fire and sometimes they don't! Most unreliable are any cues involving the house lights. The masking and stage lighting cues are usually okay.

I am not stacking cues. All the electrical connections are okay - manually firing the lighting cues from the Dolby 'Control' screen always result in lighting changes.

I have experimented with cue placement to see if the situation improves, but things are still unprectable. There doesn't seem to be any pattern in what makes the cues fire or not.

In the meantime, all the 'internal' ethernet automation links to the projector and processor are fully reliable.

Our installers are returning tomorrow to check things out. Any ideas in the meantime?

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-20-2013, 05:39 AM:

What is your automation box? Does it keep a log of cues sent to it?

Pulling the Dolby logs can see if it is sending (or thinking it is sending) the cue.

Tapping into the serial line you can put a computer to "see" if a cue is being sent and ignored or not being sent.

As an experiment...you can double-up the cues that seem to fail and see if that improves reliability.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-20-2013, 05:39 AM:

What is 'a generic serial automation device' - an ethernet->RS232 converter?

- Carsten

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 02-20-2013, 06:29 AM:

Yes, what is the "generic" serial automation device? With the Dolby server you aren't doing TCP/IP to serial since - unless there's a secret way I don't know - you can't use the ethernet network for anything except what the server finds there on its own. So you must be sending serial commands from the DSS to something like a Jnior that's controlling the light dimmer or whatever. Maybe the serial port setup is a bit flaky - like using a very high data speed when something less would do, or you should use a different flow control?
I've used many Jnior Jr310 units via serial control and they seem very reliable. If that's what you have I would check the port setup and ensure everything is correct.

Posted by Andy Frodsham (Member # 4061) on 02-20-2013, 07:52 AM:

No, it's an unbranded black box connected via the serial port to the server! I referred to it as 'generic' because it is not a branded unit with any obvious specific peculiarities (although this may, it seems, not be the case).

I'm wondering if some other device may be more reliable?

Steve, does 'doubling-up' the cues mean stacking two versions of the same cue at the same precise place on the timeline or having two cues (with the same instruction) fire immediately after each other?

Thanks for the help so far.

Posted by Nerijus Marmokas (Member # 6712) on 02-20-2013, 08:40 AM:

Strange, we have a same problem with houselights. Although we are using GPI/O port for automation and a specific xml fole uploaded via config. It is alowed in this file to change the duration of impulse, but that only helps a bit, because the impulse duration is often default length on one click (or cue), and on other click it is the custom duration, that was set.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-20-2013, 08:42 AM:

I would hook up a PC/Notebook/USB-Serial to a very basic 'tap-adaptor' as Steve suggested. Using a simple terminal set to the same UART parameters as used on the Dolby should show any serial cues in the terminal window. That way you can see wether they are actually transmitted to the black box or not, or corrupted.

Do you have a choice of UART Speed on the Dolby/BlackBox combination? Sometimes higher UART speeds cause trouble on the receiving side, when the device is too slow to react to a stream of chars. Using a lower speed like 9600 instead of e.g. 115200 could make it work.

- Carsten

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-20-2013, 12:22 PM:

Honestly...you can try stacking them on each other and/or spacing by a second or so.

Given that this is a "no-name" box...there is no telling and "we" are not going to be able to really pull from experiences. The most popular serial DCinema automations, at the moment are the JNIOR, the eCNA series and the FT-21 (Film-Tech).

I use a LOT of eCNA automations with the Dolby and I've never seen it choose to miss the house lights. I have had on complete reboots the first cue (whatever it is) get missed.

Posted by Andy Frodsham (Member # 4061) on 02-20-2013, 01:31 PM:

Now, that may be significant!

The server and automation unit are both powered-down every night and re-booted on each show day. The first cue delivered to the serial unit would be the house light cue (although there are prior cues delivered via Ethernet to the projector or sound processor).

I'll try creating a double-cue for the first serial trigger cue and see if it addresses the problem.

I'll let you know the results.

Thank you again.

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 02-20-2013, 05:20 PM:

the bloke who designed your automation interface will offer all the assistance he can, once he returns to work from paternity leave [Wink]

In the meantime, look at the serial settings in Show Manager, make sure the reset string and the termination string are the same. /0D/0A

Pete