I have 4 lasers, one controlled by a legacy helos DAC and the other three controlled by individual etherdream devices. After installing this latest version, it appears I’m going to have to reprogram the beams in each of the zones, as I’m back into this status again:
Every new version appears to do this to me.. and yet I keep wanting to test out the new versions and see if it’ll work out of the box. I can ping each of the IP addresses assigned to the etherdream devices, so it’s not clear what’s causing the disconnect… in any case, removing them and then reprogramming from the start appears to clear the issue.
On the upside, I’m getting really good at reprogramming my zones. Where did alt zones go? Will they be back? Loved being able to do two different scenes with the press of a button.
All of that said, I’m really glad the auth bug got resolved and I’m going to keep testing as the edge case.
Where to start! I know we’ve spoken before about some of these issues, so I might drop you a message privately to dig into why you can’t just import your project from previous versions - that definitely should work.
Regarding the Ether Dreams not connecting - have you tried using the “Reconnect” button in the Laser Assignment window? Are the DACs showing up on the network but failing to connect, or are they not visible on the network at all? Can you share more about your network setup?
Also, I vaguely remember you sometimes run Liberation in admin mode? With the latest builds that shouldn’t be necessary anymore - but if certain files were created when running as admin, you might now be hitting some permission issues. Honestly, a lot of the strange behavior you’re seeing could stem from that.
Yes, the Reconnect or Recycle (circular round button) works, after I press it multiple times. This makes me think there may be some issue getting over the network to the etherdreams? I have a POE switch up on the laser bar on the ceiling, and a gig ethernet run down to the switch the liberation PC is plugged into, so two switches, but both are 1g newer switches.. Anything else I can try? I ping all three of the etherdreams just fine, before I launch liberation. I’m using POE extractors to get POE out of the ethernet and into the etherdream, I bought the same POE adapters someone else here was recommending, and they appear to power the etherdream units without issue. strangely, the single helios DAC (that i’m in progress on replacing) works without issue, every time.
I will try not running in administrator mode next and report back with any issues. Thanks again!
Honestly, I’d try to simplify the network setup first and see if that isolates the issue. Multiple switches, PoE extractors, and ceiling-mounted runs add a lot of variables. I’d recommend testing with just a single Ether Dream connected directly to the PC (or through one known-good switch) with a standard power supply if possible - just to rule out any odd power or networking quirks.
The fact that Helios works every time points to something network-specific, especially since you’re able to ping the Ether Dreams but still get connection flakiness. Liberation uses broadcast to discover DACs, so any issue with UDP broadcast traffic across switches can cause this kind of behavior, even if ping works fine.
Also - switching between running in admin and non-admin mode can cause file permission problems. From here on, please run clean installs in non-admin mode. Make sure to delete your working folder too (in AppData...\Liberation) before reinstalling, to avoid any leftover config issues.
It turns out that the shortcut I’m running isn’t configured to run as Administrator after all. I assumed it was, because I was clicking thru it, but it’s actually a UAC dialog:
Thanks Eric - just to clarify, Liberation itself shouldn’t ask for elevated permissions. The executable is configured to run with normal user permissions (‘asInvoker’), so there’s nothing in the manifest that would trigger a UAC prompt on its own.
That said, there are a few reasons why you might still be seeing a UAC prompt:
It’s installed to C:\Program Files - some Windows configurations will show a UAC prompt when launching apps from that location, even if the app isn’t requesting elevation.
If you previously ran Liberation as Administrator, this can cause files in its working folder to be owned by the admin user. This can lead to permission issues when launching normally.
Your shortcut or launcher might still have “Run as administrator” enabled, even if you’re not aware of it.
Third-party tools (e.g. updaters or security software) can sometimes interfere or force elevation unexpectedly.
To clean things up and avoid any future issues, I’d recommend doing the following:
Uninstall Liberation
Manually delete (or move) this folder (back it up first!):
C:\Users\<YourName>\AppData\Local\Liberation\
Reinstall Liberation
Run it normally (don’t use “Run as administrator”)
That should eliminate any UAC prompts and avoid file permission issues going forward. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks for the extra detail - it definitely looks like a network issue.
Since the Ether Dreams are visible in the assignment panel, we know the UDP broadcasts are coming through fine. The problem seems to be that the TCP connection to one or more of them is failing intermittently.
The best way to troubleshoot this is to completely simplify your network setup. If possible, test with just one Ether Dream through a single known-good router, without PoE extractors, ceiling runs, or multiple switches.
If things work reliably in that setup, you can gradually reintroduce elements to pinpoint what’s causing the issue.
