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Pixcon16 Gigabit Speed??


WeissWelsh

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Hello everyone. Before I create a support ticket, I thought I'd try here first.
I am trying to get my Pixcon16 running at Gigabit speed and not understanding why it isn't working. Here's my setup:

I have a completely isolated network (no Wi-Fi) with ONLY a computer, a switch and a Pixcon16. I am using E1.31. I have my laptop plugged into the Netgear ProSafe 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch Model JGS516. The switch shows that the computer is connected at Gigabit speed -- YAY!!. When I connect the Pixcon16 to the switch, the switch shows that it is connected at 100mps.

I was recently told by LOR support staff that the Pixcon16 can run at Gigabit speed, so I'm sure I've got something set wrong.

I thought it might be the CAT6 cable or port on the switch, but I switched the computer and Pixcon16 cables, and the computer still connects at 1,000Mbps, and the Pixcon16 still connects at 100Mbps. So, it's not the cable nor the switch. That kind of leaves just the Pixcon16. I can plug in the Pixcon16 into the switch without the computer attached at all, and the switch still shows 100Mbps, so I don't think the computer is involved either.

My Pixcon16 was bought either last year or the year before. Could that be an issue? The Pixcon16 board has a "Version 1.2" written on it. I've never upgraded the firmware because the firmware is at version 1.4.8, which is what LOR shows on their website as the latest version. 

On a side note, the controller is completely setup and works great, just not connecting to the switch at Gigabit speed. Is there a configuration setting on the Pixcon16 itself or through the S4 software that must be set?

I'm at a loss.

Bob 

 

Edited by WeissWelsh
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I'm sure that is what engineering told me it was, but now I wonder.  FYI - I'm the one that told you it was Gigabit in the help desk, and supposedly I'm the PixCon expert.  

In my lab I only have 10/100 switches so I can't confirm it.  

I will send a note over to engineering to make sure they didn't tell me the wrong thing a couple of years ago.

Sorry for the confusion.  Give me  a couple of days.

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Thanks Mike for checking this out for me. I really appreciate it. I'll wait to hear from you. 

 

Bob

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Unfortunately, the engineer who worked on that board is out on vacation until around the 15th.

If however I remember my numbers correctly, even a fully loaded PixCon16 (32 universes + 4 bridge ports all active) is only going to consume 18Mb (I need my buddy Jim to correct me on that).  

Even if the port on the board turns out to be 100, you still won't be anywhere close to the top.  Remember too that you are 1Gb from the computer to the switch, which is the link that really needs it.  As long as the switching fabric of your switch can take it, you should be able to run flat out as many Pixcons as you have ports on the switch.

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17 minutes ago, DevMike said:

If however I remember my numbers correctly, even a fully loaded PixCon16 (32 universes + 4 bridge ports all active) is only going to consume 18Mb (I need my buddy Jim to correct me on that).  

Thank you Mike.  It's about a quarter megabit per second per universe, so a maxed out PixCon16 would be around 9mb/s.  Not much need to have gigabit...

 

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1 hour ago, DevMike said:

Remember too that you are 1Gb from the computer to the switch, which is the link that really needs it.

 

1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

It's about a quarter megabit per second per universe, so a maxed out PixCon16 would be around 9mb/s

Thanks Mike & Jim. I was worried about having 9 Pixcon16 boards running off the switch because I had no idea how much data that meant. This stuff is way over my head. However, your comment about the link from the computer to the switch being the important link reminded me that running E1.31 in Unicast won't throw all the data to every controller (hitting myself in the forehead.) I also had no idea that it's only 9 Mbps for a fully loaded Pixcon16. I'm only going to have 100 pixels per port, so I shouldn't even get remotely close to the max. Thanks for your help and for easing my mind. :-) I think it's going to be hard for me to get used to what kinds of speeds were talking about with E1.31. 

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17 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Thank you Mike.  It's about a quarter megabit per second per universe, so a maxed out PixCon16 would be around 9mb/s.  Not much need to have gigabit...

 

Thanks!  I thought it was .5 not .25.  That's why you are the networking king :)

 

19 hours ago, WeissWelsh said:

Thanks Mike for checking this out for me. I really appreciate it. I'll wait to hear from you. 

 

Bob

I did hear back and it is 10/100 on the board - which makes sense since it will never exceed that.  sorry for the mis-information!

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1 hour ago, DevMike said:

Thanks!  I thought it was .5 not .25.  That's why you are the networking king

No, I'm not the networking king.  We're moving a bunch of stuff to MPLS here at work, I am glad someone else is doing it, because I have not gotten the concepts of MPLS yet.

As for E1.31, I'm doing this by memory since it's been a year or so since I measured it, but if I remember it right (don't quote me on my memory) each universe generates a 680 byte packet every 23 mSec.  That comes out to just under 30K bytes per second or a little under a quarter megabit per second.  Actually my memory tells me that it was just over a quarter megabit per second so maybe I'm remembering something wrong here.  Maybe I'll have to fire up WireShark again while my landscape show is running this evening and measure it again :)

 

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5 hours ago, DevMike said:

I did hear back and it is 10/100 on the board - which makes sense since it will never exceed that.  sorry for the mis-information!

No problem Mike. I'm actually glad to hear that I didn't do anything wrong while setting it up. :) I appreciate you taking the time to check that out. 

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4 minutes ago, WeissWelsh said:

No problem Mike. I'm actually glad to hear that I didn't do anything wrong while setting it up. :) I appreciate you taking the time to check that out. 

Thanks for not beating me over the head :)

If for some reason you don't want them because I initially gave you wrong information, of course we will be happy to take them back.  I doubt you want to do that, however I do want to offer it just in case.

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On 9/1/2017 at 0:45 PM, DevMike said:

If for some reason you don't want them because I initially gave you wrong information, of course we will be happy to take them back.  I doubt you want to do that, however I do want to offer it just in case.

Oh no.... I absolutely do not want to return them. I didn't really care if they were Gigabit or 10/100. I just wanted to be sure I was hooking it up for whatever maximum speed it ran at. Thanks so much for everything. 

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