Wirless Lag

[Brandon]

Hi, we have two ELLs, and I just tested our wireless configuration today and the lights that are on the wireless network will lag every once in a while. Sometimes they will not fade or miss a beat. They are about 200 feet apart from each other, and the first one is transmitting through a wall and the second one is in a box.

Any ideas as to why this may be happening, the wireless units are new this year. Thanks.

[Texan78]

Have you tired troubleshooting this by putting the ELLs closer together?

[Brandon]

No but that is not really possible because the lights are on a whole other house.

[Texan78]

Do you have any controllers that are closer together? For testing purposes I would move them to other controllers that are closer together to see if it is actually the ELLs or the fact you might be extending the range to far and you are going through a wall. You can move the ELLs without having to move controllers.

[Brandon]

I'll try and see what I can do, I'll try and raise them up a bit to because they are kind of close to the ground

[Richard Hamilton]

Brandon wrote:

I'll try and see what I can do, I'll try and raise them up a bit to because they are kind of close to the ground

Brandon, you will lose a lot of signal if they are close to the ground. Try to keep them 6 feet or higher off the ground. I hope you did not put the transmitter in a metal box? Also, keep the cat5 cable from the controller to the linker short. Ideally less than 6-8 feet.

[Richard Hamilton]

Jeff Millard wrote:

Any chance the frequency selected is being interfered with by ssomething in the area? Try changing the channel using the hardware utility and see if that helps.

Jeff

My guess would be that nothing is interferring. If it is, then it would likely be an older style cordless phone since that is the band that the linker operates in. I've never seen an interferrence problem with linkers.

[Brandon]

Thanks for the replies, I will raise them up higher and see if that helps. also the linker is in a fiber glass box not a metal one but it wont be in a box any longer.

I'll post back when I test it again. thanks.

[djman316]

Im having a similar issue with the ELL's. Mine are about 400' direct line of sight, transmitting through a glass window, but not through any walls. My display has a serios lag, I have moved the ELL's all around the display with no changes. The slower sequences seem to respond better but on the faster sequences it looks like my programming sucks. Any thoughts or ideas, lights go on Friday night. Going to try to move the PC closer to the display, but if I do this no real need for the links. Grrrr.........

[Brandon]

Well I moved both of my ELLs out side and raised them up a few feet and all is well.

thanks for all the help.

[Brandon]

ctownpolicedispatcher wrote:

Im having a similar issue with the ELL's. Mine are about 400' direct line of sight, transmitting through a glass window, but not through any walls. My display has a serios lag, I have moved the ELL's all around the display with no changes. The slower sequences seem to respond better but on the faster sequences it looks like my programming sucks. Any thoughts or ideas, lights go on Friday night. Going to try to move the PC closer to the display, but if I do this no real need for the links. Grrrr.........

If I were you I would try and see if running it through the window is causing a problem. try putting it out side because thats what I had to do.

[djman316]

Well solved the problem. Removed the links from the set up and went back to trusty old CAT-5 cables and no lag. It works better that ever with no ELL's hopefully this post helps some of you experiencing these same issues. Just hope Dan lets me return these, since they serve me no purpose. Had to be creative and get the PC in a secure location outside. I have decorated the square and we have a small SANTA HOUSE, put it under the table with netting over it so its invisible. Using 128 channels, so i dont know if that was the problem with overclocking the transceiver or not??

[Richard Hamilton]

ctownpolicedispatcher wrote:

Well solved the problem. Removed the links from the set up and went back to trusty old CAT-5 cables and no lag. It works better that ever with no ELL's hopefully this post helps some of you experiencing these same issues. Just hope Dan lets me return these, since they serve me no purpose. Had to be creative and get the PC in a secure location outside. I have decorated the square and we have a small SANTA HOUSE, put it under the table with netting over it so its invisible. Using 128 channels, so i dont know if that was the problem with overclocking the transceiver or not??

This surprises me about what you posted. We've sucessfully set up a system that is almost all wireless with 240 channels of fairly complex rapid song sequences transmitting over 800 feet, and never see any lag. It's good that you got it working with Cat5, yet I think there was probably something set up wrong with your linkers.

[djman316]

Well I thought the same thing but I went through the entire trobleshooting manual, made changes to the frequency and still the same effect. I even brought the PC outside with the linker still attached about 25' apart and still have the lag, both are at least 6' high and no other obstructions around. I even turned the FM Transmitter off, switched cables, still there. after removing the linkers and going to CAT-5 the problems went away.

Everything is all new this year, computer (Duo Core) 2G ram, Vista. And contollers and linkers are new

Really weird.....

Sent Dan a message for him to call me, maybe he has some suggestions.

[Richard Hamilton]

ctownpolicedispatcher wrote:

Well I thought the same thing but I went through the entire trobleshooting manual, made changes to the frequency and still the same effect. I even brought the PC outside with the linker still attached about 25' apart and still have the lag, both are at least 6' high and no other obstructions around. I even turned the FM Transmitter off, switched cables, still there. after removing the linkers and going to CAT-5 the problems went away.

Everything is all new this year, computer (Duo Core) 2G ram, Vista. And contollers and linkers are new

Really weird.....

Sent Dan a message for him to call me, maybe he has some suggestions.

Hmmm, scratching head. Sounds like you looked at all the most common things. The only thing I didn't see in your checklist that comes to mind is the datarate you selected in the hardware utility. Anyway, it's good you are doing well with cat5.

[Don Williams]

Hi Guys, Have not posted in a long time, but I am a huge reader !!! Thought I would give a little insight on this thread.

I have been using the linkers since they came out and have had great success with them untill this year. I always leave a week befor show date to do all of my testing.

We have 128 channels out of 608 that the linkers are controlling and I notice a lag on these channels and sometimes did not respond at all . Well I corrected the problem but I would like to share some of the information that corrected the problem. The linkers were place in the same location for the past 2 years with no problem until this year.

The HU could not find the controllers at all times so I knew there was a problem. So I relocated both linkers. One linker was located in a tree and the other that was doing all the transmitting was located 10' on the mega tree pole. I relocated the one that was in the mega tree to the window sill on the front of the house. This added an additional 75' To the other linker and was 7' from ground level. The one in the tree was relocated on a 10' piece of EMT pipe beside the tree. This was still a line of site of about 200' . The communicating between the 2 linkers improved greatly.

During the testing procedure I notice there was some glitches . All of our neighbors support the display so I started to ask if they have purchased a new phone lately. Sure enough 2 had new phones in the 900 range. Changed the channels and and the problem went away. This was the first time I have had a interference problem but anything can happen when using such complex hardware as we are using.

Richard mention keeping your Cat5 short but the linker at least 6 to 8 foot off the ground and I agree 100% . And speaking on Cat5 cable, use good quality Cat5 wire and you will be happy you did. I have use some Cat5 that gave me problems after problems.

Brandon, glad to here your problem has been solved.

Hope everyone have a great lighting season !

Don Williams

[Richard Hamilton]

Hi Don and others,

Thanks for sharing your information. As you found out, lags and skips are usually caused by intermittent communications with a linker's reception. I'm not surprised about the cordless phone issue. Someone else and I mentioned this as a possible issue in other threads on here. Fortunately, most new cordless phones operate in much higher bands and don't cause a problem.

There is also something in your posting that leads me to think you had a VERY LONG connection between one or more of your linkers and the controller or computers they are attached to. You mentioned a linker being at the top of a megatree that is at least 10 feet off the ground which makes me wonder how far it is from the controller.

The best thing folks can do to get solid communications is not make the cat5 cables too long from the linker to whatever it is attached. I like to keep them under 8 feet long. If I have a choice of bringing the linker down from a higher level, I'm always going to choos a shorter cable and put the linkers at 6-8 feet off the ground. Long cables cause voltage drops and REALLY shorten the distance you can transmit. Even with 900 MHz phones at both neighbor houses, I have no trouble transmitting to their houses several hundred feet away. If the linkers are placed at the right height and the cat5 is short, the transmissions will even over-ride a cordless phone. As yes DOn, you said it, good quality cat5 helps a lot.

This is a good place to mention an interesting problem that took me a couple of hours to figure out when helping an LOR user out here. Just because you changed the channels, don't think the problem is gone !!! The problem is that some 900 MHz phones (Sony in the case of the other LOR user) will frequency hop in order to find a clearer channel. We found that if his phone was in use and using the same or nearby frequency to his LOR, then when his LOR powered up the show, he could not transmitt reliably. The phone would find a clear channel ONLY during the start of a call and then stay on that frequency. LOR was not running so the channel was clear at the time the phone chose the freq. His daugher is constantly on and off the phone so it drove him nuts trying to figure out why LOR worked sometimes and not others. Often one song would be find, but the same song was out of sync 30 minutes later when it played again.

In his case, the cat5 run from his linker to the computer was 30 feet... much too long! We ran a cat 5 from the computer to the first controller and then put the linker on the controller with a 6 foot cat-5 cable. All problems went away, even when standing near any controller (with a linker attached) with the cordless phone in use.

[Don Williams]

Great post Richard !! I am really surprise that the linker would even power up with a 30 foot Cat5.

When I had the linker installed in the Mega tree which is 26 foot, I had the linker installed at about the 8 foot level using a 10 foot Cat5. When I re-located the linker on the window sill I had a controller mounted on the house just under the window behind a bush. I was able then to use a 7 foot Cat5 to power the linker. I am sure this help a lot also.

Since making my last post , I have spoken with my neighbor with the new phone and he said if any more problems he would change phones . What a good neighbor!!!! I will even buy him a new phone and we will switch phones. Then I know that old 900 phone will not be used during the show. LOL

Don

[Richard Hamilton]

Don Williams wrote:

When I had the linker installed in the Mega tree which is 26 foot, I had the linker installed at about the 8 foot level using a 10 foot Cat5. When I re-located the linker on the window sill I had a controller mounted on the house just under the window behind a bush. I was able then to use a 7 foot Cat5 to power the linker. I am sure this help a lot also.

Something else to consider is that at your megatree, you have a lot of electrical cables and strings of lights near the linker. I'm thinking that the radiation pattern is partially absorbed or causes a high standing wave ratio with the linker. Just moving it away from the tree probably had the best improvement.