Mixed Gen Controllers and LOR Enhanced Protocol

[sasmuse]

Hello,

Seeking clarification about LOR controllers and LOR enhanced protocol. Most of my LOR controllers are G1's. Additionally I have 2-G2's and 1-G3. I also have 12 ccr's, and 3 e1.31 pixel universes. Last year, I had 3 networks configured as follows:

LOR Regular:  Controllers 1-8 (running at 57k)

LOR AuxA:  12 CCRs  (running at 115k)

3 E1.31 universes 

I would like to take advantage of the LOR enhanced protocol for the CCR's and the pixels. I have the LOR Sequence Editor Pro Level license. Based on what I've read in the forums, it seems that if I have all the controllers (G1-G3) on one network and the pixels on their respective networks I should be able to use LOR enhanced and the intensity files from PE and SS.

I did try that briefly last year, and there was considerable lag on the ccr network. So much so, that I had to go back to using the legacy data files.(The ccr controllers are running firmware v1.19 which supports the enhanced protocol)   Is the lag a function of my computer, my hard drive (non-SSD) or something else? My computer has an i5 processor at 1.8 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 64 bit Windows 10 Pro OpSys.

I'm trying to determine if I need to replace all my old G1 controllers (a hefty sum that's not in the budget), replace the show computer with a dual- or quad-core processor, replace the standard hard drive with an SSD version or something else?

Last year someone suggested breaking the 12 CCR's into 2 six networks. The problem with that is that my current computer only has 3 USB ports. To break out the ccr's means I need a 4th USB which means adding an additional port somehow or getting a machine with enough USBs.

So...as we're approaching the summer sale, and I need to finalize my show "infrastructure", I'm wondering what suggestions/recommendations are out there for me to consider. Thanks for any and all help.

Sally Simpson

 

 

[k6ccc]

The Gen 1 & 2 controllers can not use either enhanced protocol nor 500K network speed.  They can run on a non-enhanced network up to 115K speed.  The CCRs (with late enough firmware) will handle both 500K networking and enhanced protocol.  If you keep the CCRs on a single network, I would highly recommend getting a high speed RS-485 adapter and running that one at 500K.  You could also more your Gen 3 controller to that network, but it would really not buy you much with one exception.  The exception is you could have the programming for the Gen 3 controller sequenced in SuperStar or Pixel Editor and output as intensity files.  You are sort in the same boat that I was in 2015.  I had a couple older controllers that could operate on an enhanced protocol network.  The result was that most of the show was sequenced in SuperStar and output as intensity files, and the few channels on the older controllers were not used much.  In the spring sale this year, I replaced the two old controllers.  Now, EVERYTHING is able to run on an enhanced network, and all programming is being done in SuperStar and will all be using intensity files.  The only exception is the InputPup which is used for my year round landscape lighting is on a non-enhanced network because I found you can't run input devices on an enhanced network.  So now, my networking is as follows:

Com 3 - Regular Network - aka Network 1 (Year round - Inputs only - 57.6K normal)
Com 4 - Aux A Network - aka Network 2 (Year round - All Gen 3 capable devices - 115.4K enhanced)
Com 5 - Aux B Network - aka Network 3 (Christmas only - CCP arches & packages under tree - 500K enhanced)

Additionally for year round there are currently three universes of E1.31, and for Christmas this year it's 16 universes of E1.31

You should be fine with the 12 CCRs on a single network at 500K speed.  Using intensity files should make it FAR better.   I also was forced into that in 2015.  When I added a really fast song, I was running out of CPU cycles on my really old show computer.  Switched to intensity files, and went down to around 20% CPU load.  I don't have a good answer to why you saw lag when using intensity files last year for your CCRs.  That does not make much sense to me.  You have far more show computer horsepower than I do, and quite  a bit fewer channels.  I would not expect you to have lag problems with intensity files, but not legacy format.  However, 12 CCRs on a single 115K network IS very heavily loaded.  That's why I recommended moving that network to 500K.

As far as running out of USB ports, get a POWERED USB hub and you will solve that problem.  A powered USB hub has a separate power supply so it's not trying to pull all the power for it and everything plugged into it off the USB port in your computer - especially if your show computer is a laptop (which I suspect it is since most desktops these days have USB ports coming out their ears).  Desktops have far more power available so it's not as much of an issue,but I still generally recommend powered USB hubs.

BTW, my personal opinion is that if there is any one item of spare parts for infrastructure, it is a spare RS-485 adapter.  Spend the extra couple dollars and get the high speed version - you can always use a red one for a slow speed network, but often not the other way around.

[sasmuse]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the info. So if I'm understanding you correctly, I can have my Gen1's on one network running "non-enhanced", and my ccr's and pixels on separate enhanced networks. That's awesome news!  BTW, I am running all three networks with the high-speed RS-485 red adapters, and I have 2 spares. I try to keep at least 1 spare of most mission-critical items as well as onsite and offsite backups of all show files.

As for your show computer, how much RAM do you have, and does it have an SSD hard drive?

Thanks again,

Sally

 

[Mr. P]

If you go to this LOR support page it tells you what speeds all their stuff will run at:

http://www1.lightorama.com/network-speeds/

[k6ccc]

8 minutes ago, sasmuse said:

Thanks for the info. So if I'm understanding you correctly, I can have my Gen1's on one network running "non-enhanced", and my ccr's and pixels on separate enhanced networks. That's awesome news! 

Almost correct.  The Gen 1 & 2 controllers on a non-enhanced network and the CCRs & Gen 3 controller on a high speed enhanced network.  I assume the E1.31 pixel universes are running over ethernet and not LOR networking, so they don't get into the enhanced vs non-enhanced network discussion.  And yes, pixels over E1.31 can run intensity files.

8 minutes ago, sasmuse said:

As for your show computer, how much RAM do you have, and does it have an SSD hard drive?

The show computer is an old HP desktop running on a Pentium 4 CPU at 3.00GHz.  It has 1GB of RAM and an 80GB spinning hard drive.  It is running Windows XP.  It has been my show computer since Halloween 2012 and runs 24 x 7 x 365 and was bought as a refurb back then.  Other than shutting it down twice a year to blow the dust out of it, it just runs.  It does do a scheduled re-boot every afternoon.  Remember that the LOR files are pulled from the server rather than locally.  The data drive on the server is a pair of 1 TB hard drives in a RAID-1 configuration (Western Digital "Red" drives and a Dell PERC 6/i hardware RAID controller for the technically curious).  Between the server and the show computer are two 100MB LAN connections (one is the E1.31 LAN and the other is the normal home LAN), and a HP network switch. 

 

[sasmuse]

Thanks. Another question....does the Gen3 controller have to be with the ccr's? Can it function on the non-enhanced network as a "regular" controller?  I get the impression from your response that Gen3 controllers have to be on a LOR enhanced network. I know putting it on a regular network doesn't take advantage of it's total functionality, but sometimes I just need the extra 16 channels. 

[k6ccc]

10 minutes ago, sasmuse said:

Thanks. Another question....does the Gen3 controller have to be with the ccr's? Can it function on the non-enhanced network as a "regular" controller?

 

Nope.  The Gen 3 controller can be on any old network.  The advantage (maybe) is that by being on an enhanced network, it can be sequenced in SS or PE and use intensity files.  I found it really annoying last year to have to sequence a few channels in SE while everything else was done in SuperStar because those channels were going to old controllers.