ELL Question

[Bob Musil]

Here is my situation: I have 4 LOR1602Ws, all using ELLs. 3 of them have line of site to the PC-connected ELL. The 4th unit is on the opposite side of the house. This unit has at best an intermittent connection. However, it does have good line of site to one of the other controllers in the yard, and is not far from the yard unit (Less than 100 feet).

Shouldn't the unit in the yard, which has a very good connection to the show, act as a repeater and send data on to the unit which does not have line of site to the main unit? Is their something I can do to test out this issue? I have tried swapping out controllers, and get the same result with each of them.

If the ELL does not work as a repeater, my only option is to use a 50 or 75 foot network cable to move the ELL so that it has line of site. Since it is 50 miles to the closest electronics store, I am hoping somebody has a way that I can use the good ELL as a repeater.

Thanks,
Bob

[JBullard]

Bob Musil wrote:

Here is my situation: I have 4 LOR1602Ws, all using ELLs. 3 of them have line of site to the PC-connected ELL. The 4th unit is on the opposite side of the house. This unit has at best an intermittent connection. However, it does have good line of site to one of the other controllers in the yard, and is not far from the yard unit (Less than 100 feet).

Shouldn't the unit in the yard, which has a very good connection to the show, act as a repeater and send data on to the unit which does not have line of site to the main unit? Is their something I can do to test out this issue? I have tried swapping out controllers, and get the same result with each of them.

If the ELL does not work as a repeater, my only option is to use a 50 or 75 foot network cable to move the ELL so that it has line of site. Since it is 50 miles to the closest electronics store, I am hoping somebody has a way that I can use the good ELL as a repeater.

Thanks,
Bob

No, and Yes.

When an ELL is receiving, it cannot transmit. If it kept trying to switch from recive mode to transmit mode, two things would happen.

1: There would be a delay from when it received the command and then retransmitted it.
2: It would be sending the same commands, slightly delayed, back to the other ELLs that had just received the same commands slightly earlier.

The result would be a total mess because at least the first two controllers would be reacting again to the same commands.

ELLs can be set up to act as a repeater. One ELL would be receiving the commands on one frequency then be connected to another ELL to retransmit on a different frequency.

So, in your example, you would need an additional ELL to operate as the transmitter portion of the repeater using a different frequency then the first three, then your last receiving ELL would need to be set to the same frequency as the transmitting repeater ELL

[Bob Musil]

Unfortunately, that makes sense. I guess I will need to go get a long network cable.

Even though it is not what I hoped to hear, thanks for the explanation.

Bob

[Steven]

Bob Musil wrote:

Unfortunately, that makes sense. I guess I will need to go get a long network cable.

No, you don't need to. You can do as John suggested:

JBullard wrote:

So, in your example, you would need an additional ELL to operate as the transmitter portion of the repeater using a different frequency then the first three, then your last receiving ELL would need to be set to the same frequency as the transmitting repeater ELL

To be more clear, you would:

1. Purchase another ELL.
2. Configure this new ELL to a different channel. (Your current ELLs are probably using the default channel that was set when they shipped.)
3. Configure the ELL connected to the 4th controller to the same channel as you selected for the new ELL.
4. Connect the new ELL to the 3rd controller (the one that is line-of-site to the 4th controller). The 3rd controller will now have 2 ELLs connected to it.
5. Put the ELL you configured it step 3 back on the 4th controller.
   

Now your PC will send commands on its ELL, on channel 00 (I'm just assuming). It will be received by 3 other ELLs, one of which is connected to a network with another ELL, which will then transmit the commands on channel 31 (or whatever), which will then be received on the ELL connected to the 4th controller.

[cmoore60]

The manual for the ELL show the exact typology that is being explained here.

Chuck

[JBullard]

Yes it does Chuck, which is why I did not go into detail since the manual does cover it.