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At what point do i start a 2nd network?


brichi

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Hey guys, I have been adding some more to my show and thinking ""at what point do i add a 2nd network""?

Is this a logical question? Not sure what the max is using a USB485-HS with LOR Pixie 4's, 8 and 16. Right now I'm using 1 box at a time to setup and test and but haven't tried hooking up all 7 at the same time, is there a max of what i can add to a USB485-HS? In my head i figure I'm good until i run out of unit ID's choose from right?

thanks!!

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I think there may be a limit on the number of universes per network but I would think 7 controllers is nowhere near that limit.

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I believe DevMike posted this in a similar topic withing the last 30 days. Maybe he will reply to this, I do not recall what he posted.

JR

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1 minute ago, dibblejr said:

I believe DevMike posted this in a similar topic withing the last 30 days. Maybe he will reply to this, I do not recall what he posted.

JR

Hail Caesar!! :)

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thanks guys, i was looking for a similar topic by searching, i figured it would be a common question but didn't see anything on it, hopefully he responds but like you guys said, i don't believe either that 7 controller is anywhere near the limit of 1 universe/network

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I believe I read somewhere that they recommend around 2500-3000 channels per network. That channel count comes up pretty quick when using pixels.

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1 hour ago, caniac said:

I think the limit on universes per network is somewhere around 500ish.

Isn't the overall LOR universe limit something like 999?

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1 hour ago, Mr. P said:

I believe I read somewhere that they recommend around 2500-3000 channels per network. That channel count comes up pretty quick when using pixels.

really? My tree alone is 800 leds x 3 channels per led (2400 channels), i have to use a stand alone network just for the tree? that seems odd

 

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7 minutes ago, brichi said:

really? My tree alone is 800 leds x 3 channels per led (2400 channels), i have to use a stand alone network just for the tree? that seems odd

 

that can't be correct, I ran my mega tree plus ten other props (1600 pixels or 4800 channels) over 16 universes on ONE controller with no issues unless that's the count for using LOR RGB.  will be pushing 10,000 pixels over two controllers this Halloween and Christmas.

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I'll ask the other haf of this topic.

When does you USB  PCI Bridge (internal to your PC) get swamped?

Is anyone using PCI9e) RS485 cards with LOR?

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The original poster was asking about LOR networking, and except for the comments in the last paragraph my answer is talking about LOR networking only.

There can be several reasons for adding additional networks.  For example you may need more than one because of incompatible devices.  For example if you have a PixCon 16, it MUST be on an enhanced network, but if you have non-Gen 3 controllers, they can't be on an enhanced network.  Another example of incompatible network devices would be if you are using ELL (which only go to 115K speed) and a PixCon or Pixie controller (which requires 500 or 1000K speed).  A different reason for multiple networks may be simply network layout.  You may have one network go one direction and another go a different direction.  For example one network for each side of your house.

The most common answer however is network congestion which is generally due to too many channels.  Because of the nature of LOR networking, there is no hard and fast number of channels because it will depend on the activity level.  With that said, back in the old days before 500K and enhanced networking, the general rule of thumb was to limit a single 115K network to six CCRs which is 900 channels.  500K and 1000K speeds of course increase that, and enhanced networking also will increase the limit.  DevMike (I think it was) said that at 2016 Christmas Expo they were running 2400 pixels on a single 1000K enhanced network without any trouble.

For what it's worth, for my year round landscape lighting, I run two LOR networks.  One is running at 115K enhanced and has all my lighting controllers.  The second runs at 56K non-enhanced and only has an InputPup on it.  I have to run the second network because you can't detect inputs on an enhanced network and my landscape show makes heavy use of interactive sequences in the show, and both the start and end of the show are the result of input triggers.  For Christmas, I add a third network that runs at 500K enhanced for my CCP based arches.  This third network is primarily because it's convenient from a network layout standpoint.  That is in addition to about 20 universes of DMX over E1.31 on five SanDevices controllers.

BTW, I see that Universes has been brought up in this discussion.  DMX Universes have nothing to do with LOR networking.  If you are using DMX, then there is a hard limit in the DMX standard of 512 channels per universe, and the LOR software is limited to 999 DMX universes.  Each universe MUST be on it's own physical network if using DMX over RS-485 on cat-5 cable.  When using E1.31, a controller generally can take many DMX universes (in some E1.31 controllers, dozens).  When using E1.31, each DMX universe creates about one quarter megabit per second of LAN network traffic, so even a 10Base-T network can handle a dozen universes with room to spare.  A 100base-T network could handle a couple hundred DMX universes if there was no other traffic on that network.

 

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