Have you tried, moving the collateral to a new address and starting again? Maybe there is something not quite right about your collateral? you can test this by running masternode outputs make sure the output is still there if it sometimes does not show there is something wrong just try making a new address and move the collateral to a new address then try start your masternode again.
Yes I got it working by setting up a controller wallet and an MN. Works now.
One issue I am having is that I am not getting rewards nearly as frequently as the other MNs I am seeing in the block explorer. I have been online for over 24hr and have only received 3 rewards. I have seen other MNs with upwards of 20-30 payouts in this same time. What gives?