Contours cannot find any motors
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Confirm every motor is powered and physically connected.
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Open Connections › Manage Connections and click Refresh.
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For Ethernet motors, confirm they are on the same subnet as your PC.
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For serial motors, confirm the correct COM port is available and not being held by another program.
An axis will not connect
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Confirm a motor is actually linked to the axis — right-click the axis to check.
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Try Disconnect then Connect again.
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If the motor appeared before but no longer does, cycle power on the motor and refresh connections.
An axis property is greyed out
Some properties are read-only while the motor is connected. Disconnect the axis, make the change, and reconnect.
My recording looks noisy or jagged
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Open the Record Edit view and apply a smoothing filter. Start with a gain around
0.1. -
Re-record with a larger interval if the noise is genuinely sample-to-sample jitter.
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Check that the motor's maximum speed and torque are reasonable — aggressive limits can cause mechanical chatter.
Playback is too fast or too slow
Open the Record Edit view and change the Interval value. Larger intervals play the same data back more slowly; smaller intervals speed things up.
Imported CSV data does not appear
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Confirm the file has at least two data rows and that the first column is time in seconds.
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Confirm time values are not all the same — Contours rejects zero-interval data.
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In the chart's Fixed-Interval Sample panel, enable Show so the trace is visible.
The joystick is not being detected
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Plug the joystick in before launching Contours.
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Open Project › User Settings and select your joystick from the list.
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Confirm the status bar shows Joystick Acquired: <name>.
The show video says "Media file not found"
The show's media file has been moved, renamed, or deleted, or the project was copied without it.
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Copy the media file back to its original location relative to the project file, then reopen the project (see chapter 8).
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Or put the file in the same folder as the project file and reopen the project — Contours looks there for a file with the same name.
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Or select the show and use Add media to choose the file again, then save the project.
The show video doesn't play or shows no picture
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Confirm Windows can play the file — open it in a Windows media player. Contours can only play formats that Windows supports.
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An audio-only file plays sound and shows the time, but has no picture.
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If the video is popped out, the panels in the main window show only the controls. Look for the pop-out window, or click Dock.
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During a test run, the video starts only once the motors report movement. If a motor isn't responding, the video stays paused.
The video Play and Pause buttons are greyed out
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The selected show has no media — add it in the show's properties (see chapter 8).
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A recording or test run is in progress. The video follows the recording or run controls until it ends.