dollar4bill Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Newbie here planning my first show for Christmas 2015. I'm planning on doing a mix of lor CMB24D and CTB16PC controllers. In relation to the cat5e cable run that come out of the USB485 adapter and to the controllers, does it matter what the order of the controllers are? Do all of the cmb24d's have to come first and then the ctb16pc's (as shown in the controller layout diagram on this page http://www1.lightorama.com/rgb-controllers/)? Or, as long as all of the controllers are lor, it doesn't matter what order they are in (in relation to the cat5e lan cable runs)? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Any order you want. Read more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightingnewb Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Any order you want. Read more.Any way you want, that's the way you need it, any way you want it! Silly me... getting carried away with music... But yes, Don said it right - any order you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstorms Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 If you trip over one of your CAT5 cables and yank the connector too hard you may have to put that one last in the chain. Remember strain relief on the comm cables. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shfr26 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Any way you want, that's the way you need it, any way you want it! Silly me... getting carried away with music... But yes, Don said it right - any order you want. Just put one out, then go place another and plug it in, and another, and another. No order, just plug them in and they may work. Thanks for that song in my head ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightingnewb Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 (edited) Just put one out, then go place another and plug it in, and another, and another. No order, just plug them in and they may work. Thanks for that song in my head !You're welcome. If you need help getting the song out of your head... let it go... let it go... No. NO! I can't do this... I quit. I'm not letting you suffer from this song. Ugh. Edited February 25, 2015 by lightingnewb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizywk Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 LOL With friends like these...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrock_at_rons Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 One thing to remember as you set them out, you will have to assign them all a controller id before you daisy-chain them together. The physical order does not matter, but each will need to have a controller designation for them to work properly. John Storms has a quick video on youtube on how to easily assign these. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnzjAW6zMkU 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstorms Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 Another tip is to not have any of your controllers be assigned to an ID of "1". That way if you end up having to buy a controller mid-season (heaven forbid) you can just drop it on your network and change the controller ID with the controller in place. I do the same with my SanDevices. By default they come as 192.168.1.204 (I think), so when I get a new one I program it to something else other than default. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Another tip is to not have any of your controllers be assigned to an ID of "1". That way if you end up having to buy a controller mid-season (heaven forbid) you can just drop it on your network and change the controller ID with the controller in place. I do the same with my SanDevices. By default they come as 192.168.1.204 (I think), so when I get a new one I program it to something else other than default. Actually, I hadn't thought of it like that before, not setting a controller to ID01 for that reason and it makes good sense for replacing during a show evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Sanch Mafia Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 quick follow up question? I'm pretty sure I'm picking up what your laying down but wanted to be clear. I can daisy chain controller #1 to #7 and then #2, then #3 and so on.?? I had all mine in order but realized it makes more sense to move #7 right next to #1. So with what is said above, i should be good then? Opposed to changing #7's ID to #2 and so on. Thanks for the feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darryl Lambert Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 quick follow up question?I'm pretty sure I'm picking up what your laying down but wanted to be clear.I can daisy chain controller #1 to #7 and then #2, then #3 and so on.??I had all mine in order but realized it makes more sense to move #7 right next to #1. So with what is said above, i should be good then? Opposed to changing #7's ID to #2 and so on.Thanks for the feedback.That's fine. It doesn't matter the order of the id numbers or the type. The only note to this is the network speed . If using a high speed network then All controllers in the chain need to be able to handle high speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Sanch Mafia Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Great, thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 In the RS485 communications environment, each channel is addressed with a unit ID and a channel number. The units sit out there listening for their unit ID, then wake up and listen for the channel #, then do whatever its told. So on a "data buss" like this, it doesn't matter where they are located. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Sanch Mafia Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 In the RS485 communications environment, each channel is addressed with a unit ID and a channel number. The units sit out there listening for their unit ID, then wake up and listen for the channel #, then do whatever its told. So on a "data buss" like this, it doesn't matter where they are located.a simple way to explain it.. makes perfect sense. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainyoregonchristmas Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 More veteran advice. If you do set a controller in the yard and have forgotten to set the unit I'D or have set it in the wrong spot don't panic and unplug all the cords to bring it back inside. Simply turn off the power to all the other controllers or unplug the others so that only your target controller has power. Then run the hardware utility and set the unit number. I've done this several times during setups. Finding and identifying 16 extension cords and their corresponding plug in can be frustrating. I find it easier to do it this way. It is also why when I set up the display I only power the controller I am working on at the moment. Makes trouble shooting so much easier when you have 160 standard channels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 If you trip over one of your CAT5 cables and yank the connector too hard you may have to put that one last in the chain. Remember strain relief on the comm cables. If I may add to what jstorms was saying. I mount my controllers on a post. I then take my cat 5 cable and tie an overhand knot leaving a fairly long tail that goes up into the controller. I rather rip up a cat 5 cable then have to deal with a broken socket on my controller. And I have gently tripped on my cat 5 cable even when trying to be careful not to. I truely believe that this over hand knot has saved my bacon a few times now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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