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Erase track special case problems

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(@john-hughan)
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Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 44
Topic starter  

I've been having trouble with the Erase track that has caused me to perform 3 factory resets just today (each of which included reloading over 60 tracks and recreating 5 playlists).  I believe I've narrowed down the problem condition, which I'm reporting below, and it's also led me to an enhancement request.

I'm finding that the Erase track does not always play at double speed as it should.  It seems to occur more often when it is played in reverse (outside in).  Just after my most factory reset, I noticed that the standard direction played normally.  But then I wanted to play a "01" track on an erased canvas, so in order to force the Erase track to play in reverse, I created a playlist that contained my "MoveOut" track -- whose only instructions are "0 0" followed by "0 1", then an Erase track that would play in reverse, and then my desired track.  The reversed Erase track played at "regular track" speed.  I then tried a playlist that was simply two Erase tracks back to back.  The forward Erase played at the correct double speed, but the reverse Erase played at regular track speed.

I have previously had the reverse Erase run at the correct double speed, so I'm not sure what's going on here, but it's frustrating not to be able to perform an "outside-in" Erase at the correct speed before playing a track that begins at Rho 0.

The feature request that came to mind while dealing with all of this: In addition to special casing the speed for the Erase track, the table should special case the direction of it.  Right now the table determines the direction of the Erase track based on the end point of the previous track in the playlist.  I believe it should determine it based on the starting point of the following track.  At the moment if I set up a playlist with a track that ends at Rho 1, followed by an Erase, followed by a track that begins at Rho 1, the Erase will run in reverse and I'll end up with a connection line from the Erase track to the next track.  I would expect most users would much prefer to see a connection line between their previous track and the beginning of the Erase instead.  This issue is precisely what prompted me to create the "MoveOut" and "MoveIn" tracks to force the Erase to run in a particular direction, but it would be nice not to have to do that.

But it would be even nicer for the Erase track to consistently play at its correct double speed.  I have a 36" RGBW 2-ball coffee table running firmware 1.10.70 if it matters.


   
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(@john-hughan)
Contributor
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 44
Topic starter  

Quick update on this.  I set up a playlist that began with Erase, then a "Rho 11" track (goulet_basket1_ee), then Erase, then a "Rho 00" track.  The first erase went from the center out and ran at the correct speed, and then the second Erase that went from the outside in ALSO played at the correct speed.  But after that, I wanted to run an Erase and play another "Rho 00" track.  So I added my MoveOut track (instructions of just "0 0" then "0 1") followed by an Erase that would run from the center in.  This time the Erase played at "regular track" speed.

So it's clearly possible get a center-in Erase to run at the correct speed, but it also seems I'm able to make it fail somewhat consistently.  Again, a playlist that simply has two Erase tracks back to back also results in the second, center-in Erase running at "regular track" speed.

Can anyone else reproduce this?  It would be helpful to know if this is just something with my table, despite the fact that I've observed it after multiple factory resets now.


   
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(@john-hughan)
Contributor
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 44
Topic starter  

Another update: I'm now experiencing this "slow Erase" issue even on center-out plays.  I've found that at least for now, playing the Erase track as a single track, i.e. not in a playlist, seems to reliably run a center-out Erase at the expected speed.  But that's also not very helpful for two reasons.  First, the Erase track will only play center-out that way; it would really be nice to be able to specifically choose to play a track in reverse....  And more annoyingly, if I wait for the Erase track to complete by arriving at Rho 1, then even if I select another single track that BEGINS at Rho 1, the table homes to Rho 0 before going back to Rho 1 to begin the track, leaving me with 2 connection lines before the track begins.

I work in IT, so I understand that bugs happen, and I'm used to testing, troubleshooting, and narrowing down problem conditions.  But I also bought this table specifically for the "kinetic art" aspect because I figured it would be relaxing to watch and help take my mind AWAY from those daily grind activities in my work life.  If this table becomes yet another "device" in my life that requires a project of diagnosing problems, attempting to find workarounds, and writing up problem reports, then it's basically serving the exact opposite purpose that I had hoped it would.

That said, in the interest of getting this fixed as quickly as possible, I'm willing to provide logs or whatever other info might help chase this down so that I can get back to enjoying this table. Given that I've factory reset it 3 times already, I don't see how this could be a case of user error.  But I would really appreciate some insight into why the Erase track does not consistently play at its special case speed, and an ETA on a fix if this is found to be a firmware issue.


   
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(@matt2)
Admin
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 64
 

I'll take a look at the Erase speed issues, definitely sounds like a bug.


   
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(@matt2)
Admin
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 64
 

Found the issue. The speed value in Community database was incorrect, so when you started a playlist after loading the Erase track from Community, the local speed value was overwritten with the wrong value.

If you connect to Community and visit either the Most Popular or Newest Tracks pages, your Erase track should stay at the correct speed throughout when you start your next playlist.


   
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(@john-hughan)
Contributor
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 44
Topic starter  

Fantastsic!  Thanks very much for the quick action on this Matt! 🙂


   
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