Running CCR's & CCP's using Showtime Director

[Mr Dave]

Currently I am running 5 LOR 16 channel controllers, all being run by my Showtime Director. By adding 3 CCR's and 2 CCP's can I still run everything using the Showtime Director, or will have to setup another network and use my laptop (laptop running the show opposed to the Show Director) for this to work?

Thanks,

Dave

[Don]

I suspect you are going to be stretching the limits of the Showtime Director in this case. There are some things you can do to reduce the amount of data going across the network, which in turn would make it more likely you could go this route.

If you wanted to take the extreme safe side, I would run the show from a computer with two networks (which means two USB ports and two RS485 adapters.) The 3 CCR's and 3 controllers on one network and 2 CCP's and 2 controllers on the other network.

If you don't want to go the computer route, some of the things you could do to reduce the amount of data include:

• Numbering CCR/CCP controllers with the same ID. This does mean they would always do the same thing, though.
  
• Extensive use of macros. The macros use considerably less bandwidth on your LOR network.
  

[Mr Dave]

I suspect you are going to be stretching the limits of the Showtime Director in this case. There are some things you can do to reduce the amount of data going across the network, which in turn would make it more likely you could go this route.

If you wanted to take the extreme safe side, I would run the show from a computer with two networks (which means two USB ports and two RS485 adapters.) The 3 CCR's and 3 controllers on one network and 2 CCP's and 2 controllers on the other network.

If you don't want to go the computer route, some of the things you could do to reduce the amount of data include:

• Numbering CCR/CCP controllers with the same ID. This does mean they would always do the same thing, though.
  
• Extensive use of macros. The macros use considerably less bandwidth on your LOR network.
  

Hey Don. Thanks for the advice. I think the network solution is the way to go. In the past I was using Firefly's from delights, and had gotten gun shy using networks (pixels coming on and off when they wanted to etc..etc...). I'm hoping I won't have those problems with the CCP's. Firefly's have been a pain for me.

Once again, thank for the help.

Dave

[JSelph]

I seem to remember reading something about a new high speed style RS485 adapter coming out from LOR that would push out the data faster for those who want to run quite a few CCB's and/or CCP's. I think it was supposed to eliminate the need for running more than one network. But I haven't seen anything published recently. Any news from anyone on this?