Nomad Puck freezes after fading in a new preset

I'm working on a short dance performance with a rather small rig (8 devices, Martin MAC Aura XB) and 30 or so presets (there might be another 30 discarded presets still stored in the preset list) controlled by a Nomad Puck (brand new) over a NET3 gateway (might be a little shaky). I have a maximum of three effects running simultaneously. The problem I'm experiencing has developed and worsengradually over the last week. 

What happens is the following: when I press [GO] the cue runs all the way through its fades and whatnots exactly as would be expected until it reaches its endpoint where whatever was in B is in and all that needs to happen is for the preset to move to A and the next step to load into B. At this point the Puck freezes for a second or two (it's not consistent--more on this later). If I'm fading between presets with static light states this doesn't cause much of a problem--I never run sequence steps in rapid succession and since the freeze occurs when the fade is over the only symptome (usually) is a slight hiccup in the main playback. Now, if I'm running one or more effects the result of a freeze is more devasting: the preset will load including its effects and then freeze for a second or two and then the effects will start again. Sometimes with an aggravating littel 'jump'. 

I can't recreate this problem consistently, but it seems more likely to occur when I fade presets that contains effects (or so it might seem because the glitch is more obvious then) and when I stress the system ( i e by stepping through the sequence using [SEQ+] or [SEQ-] or make a lot of changes). I've been using a Congo Jr console running Cobalt as a client and that seems to worsen the problem.The problem also seemed to lessen when I pulled my USB-stick out of the Puck (but that might be entirely in my head). Restarting seem to helå alleviate, but not eliminating the problem. I might be worth noting that I use iRFR andTouchOSC (both installed on the same Ipad) to run the show (I have an inkling that controlling it through TOSC is slightly more prone to trigger a freeze than pressing GO in iRFR).

As of today I'm running the show on a Congo Jr console running Cobalt instead (straight copy over USB) and have yet to notive the issue (might have had one very brief freeze once). Any ideas of what can be causing this?

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  • Hi ,

    I'm sorry to see that you are experiencing an issue. As a quick test, if you turn off OSC in Browser> General Settings>Play Settings and use the Go button on either the Console mimic dock or the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+G) on the ETCnomad Puck, do you see the lag/freeze behavior?

    Thanks,
    Kirk
  • Pardon my late reply: I (and the equipment) are on tour so thorough testing is rather difficult. I did have some stage time the other day, though and tried your suggestion. Turning off OSC did seem to help (of course not an option for the show!). Hwo much is hard to determine as I didn't have a whole lot of time and the problem is quite fickle and hard to replicate. It would support the hypothesis of general overload of the Puck as I noticed improvements when I disconnected the console I ran as a client and even when i pulled out the USB stick (that might have been imaginary though). The hypothesis is contraindicated by the fact that I'm running 8 devices and a maximum of 4 FX:s at any one time. I've started to entertain a second hypothesis that's connected to my Net3 interface... you see, there was a development. After stressing the puck by rapid keypresses of [SEQ+] and [SEQ-], a new development occured (I will make a separate report about it later): All my fixtures moved to their focus home position and would not budge from this position: color and size changes kept changing and they even accepted FX-focus data, but they would accept focus data from the sequence. It was very clearly the Puck's home position for pan and tilt, not the fixtures. By this time I had to get everything ready for the show so I disconnected the Puck from the network and connected the Congo j:r console (running Cobalt) I use since the Puck has the aforementioned issues. Everything seemed to be ok until the middle of the show when the pan/tilt home position debacle happened again. I had to restart the board to get the fixtures moving again. Weird stuff, but might point to some sort of Net3 gateway problem. I did experience som static from the interface earlier, like a dmx-module that dropped out and the whole thing needing restarting. I suspected a faulty power supply and when I switched to POE the problems went away. Or at least so I thought. Any thoughts? Anybody? Somebody?
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  • Pardon my late reply: I (and the equipment) are on tour so thorough testing is rather difficult. I did have some stage time the other day, though and tried your suggestion. Turning off OSC did seem to help (of course not an option for the show!). Hwo much is hard to determine as I didn't have a whole lot of time and the problem is quite fickle and hard to replicate. It would support the hypothesis of general overload of the Puck as I noticed improvements when I disconnected the console I ran as a client and even when i pulled out the USB stick (that might have been imaginary though). The hypothesis is contraindicated by the fact that I'm running 8 devices and a maximum of 4 FX:s at any one time. I've started to entertain a second hypothesis that's connected to my Net3 interface... you see, there was a development. After stressing the puck by rapid keypresses of [SEQ+] and [SEQ-], a new development occured (I will make a separate report about it later): All my fixtures moved to their focus home position and would not budge from this position: color and size changes kept changing and they even accepted FX-focus data, but they would accept focus data from the sequence. It was very clearly the Puck's home position for pan and tilt, not the fixtures. By this time I had to get everything ready for the show so I disconnected the Puck from the network and connected the Congo j:r console (running Cobalt) I use since the Puck has the aforementioned issues. Everything seemed to be ok until the middle of the show when the pan/tilt home position debacle happened again. I had to restart the board to get the fixtures moving again. Weird stuff, but might point to some sort of Net3 gateway problem. I did experience som static from the interface earlier, like a dmx-module that dropped out and the whole thing needing restarting. I suspected a faulty power supply and when I switched to POE the problems went away. Or at least so I thought. Any thoughts? Anybody? Somebody?
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