LOR lagging with large pixel count

[pixeldigger]

i3 2125 8GB RAM Win7 64bit

1150 Pixels (E1.31)

30 RGB DMX devices

96 DIO channels

96 LOR Channels

2 CCR

No lag, delay or problems.

[thebaronn]

I have to agree with the computer part.

My laptop hangs and lags...

but my

i7 3.4GHz with overkill of 16GB RAM.

Works flawlessly!

3960 Pixels on 6 E682 boards. (with rendered video from LSP)

+200 LOR Channels

2 CCP

[jeffl]

How are you using LSP with LOR. Is there a way somehow to use some of the features in LSP to generate sequence data for LOR somehow?

I'm also curious when your shows are lagging if the machine is really maxed out or what it's doing.

[thebaronn]

How are you using LSP with LOR. Is there a way somehow to use some of the features in LSP to generate sequence data for LOR somehow?

I'm also curious when your shows are lagging if the machine is really maxed out or what it's doing.

I will answer this backwards: The laptop would run at over 50% CPU usage when LOR was running a show, and forget about doing anything else at the time. Its 4 years old and missing 13 keys! My desktop never goes over 13% CPU usage and I can run LOR and LSP at the same time and no LOR issues, it is so smooth that even my wife noticed.

I used to be angry with LOR.....Let me add several swear words to that sentence.....

So I started using LSP. Originally I exported my old sequences from LOR to LSP and added my E1.31 in LSP and rendered video on the matrix. I mostly made the switch because of my anger and I wanted to use video in my Halloween show (http://www.lightshowpro.com/rants-raves/3097-halloween-story-rave-rant.html and see my signature, hint, hint) Then Christmas came around. Rudolph has footage from the TV show. Linus and Lucy has footage from the Peanuts Christmas Special etc.... Then there was the issue if the LSP scheduler, YIKES! They said that the scheduler was okay with shows under 30MB, mine were coming in at 100MB. Somehow I managed to get the LSP scheduler to run my show perfectly (I was using the old 32bit version, but for some lucky reason I wasn't having the same issues others were) Then the power went out. The sweet spot I had found was gone forever. Same settings and everything, all of a sudden nothing was in time. Watching my show reminded me of streaming bad video over dialup! The screen would pause, then it would speed up to catch up to where it was supposed to be. I upgraded and nothing helped, I got the dreadful: nothing more we can do this year....... Others offered up xlights, but I wasn't ready to go there (nothing against xlights, but some people said for the amount of commands I am generating I may be toast....) So, back to LOR! I chopped my LSP sequences down to the 25DMX universes (there are other DMX universes, but those are the big ones for the pixel screen) by removing all channels originally imported from LOR and then exported them 5 universes at a time. LOL! on my Carol of the Bells Medley it took 45 minutes to export 5 of the 25 DMX universes of the sequence to LOR and the size was 439MB! Then just copy and paste. The best part is that LSP doesn't generate timings, so I only have to copy one cell for the show sequence! (per channel)

It was quite the pain, but the end result was worth it. Now I just have to get a camera.....

[taybrynn]

Really no lag here using E1.31 . I'm using a dual dongle setup ... RS485 LOR dongle on about 112 LOR channels, then E1.31 controlling maybe 4500-5000 channels of DMX (about 200 of which are traditional A/C controller channels, the rest are RGB). I do experience slowness when loading or saving a sequence or importing the configuration file.

I would like a way to have a centralized configuration file ... and maybe a way to remove junk from it which no longer applies. There is a row by row GUI-based focus on manipulating channels in the config file and it really would benefit with some batch cleanup, purge, rename utilities. Even a way to "downsize" the config file and eliminate unused channels would be helpful. I found myself going into some RGB items and changing things took forever on even a single 300 channel rgb display item. If I could manipulate things in a group, vs. just at the controller level ... it would be very very powerful.

[Dr. Jones]

FYI - I was able to resolve the issue by upgrading software- cause was possibly a memory leak with 3.6.0

[Max-Paul]

Thanks for the Kudos, but it wasn't me that suggested the staggering of commands. Someone else deserves the credit.

 

 

Jay said:

I'm running 6 CCRs and 4 CCPs with 6 LOR controllers and see a lag at a few key points. I saw a suggestion by Max-Paul that suggested staggering a few commands at those points to help out -- and it has worked for me a little. i.e. when switching from a single lighted segment macro (value 1) to individual pixels (value 0) I try to do that a little before all of the channels individually send out their commands. And if it is a big amount of things comming on at the same time, try to stagger some a little before/after by a tiny fraction to spread out the commands.

Lastly, I have just ordered another USB converter to start a second network, seperating the CCPs from the CCRs. I will try to post back here if I get good results, but I figured I'd try this $30 fix before looking in to gettting a bigger computer - which coud ultimately be the problem...

Good luck.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Max-Paul

[PaulXmas]

2 years ago I started using 4 CCRs for arches and the performance was so bad I was ready to sell them.

Bob work with me and he suggested a few things because I was sending too many commands over a short period it was bogging down the network.

One was to add another network.

i added 4.

Show ran as designed!

last year I added one more, no problem.

this year I am adding another 4 and I doubt I will have any problems (but i do I have a spare usb dongle just in case).

[PKingRoch]

2 years ago I started using 4 CCRs for arches and the performance was so bad I was ready to sell them.

Bob work with me and he suggested a few things because I was sending too many commands over a short period it was bogging down the network.

One was to add another network.

i added 4.

Show ran as designed!

last year I added one more, no problem.

this year I am adding another 4 and I doubt I will have any problems (but i do I have a spare usb dongle just in case).

 

So are all of these networks LOR networks, or have you added DMX to the mix?  How did you split up your networks?

 

I had some issues late in the season last year where my entire sequence would bog down to the point of most of the lights just not working.  A reboot fixed the issue, so there may be a leak in 3.9.0  I didn't have a problem until I upgraded and increased my network speed.  I needed to increase the network speed because the CCR's just didn't fade as smoothly as I had expected.

 

I currently use 2 LOR networks, and I was looking to add a third for floods this year.  One network is for CCRs (4 of them) and one LOR 16 channel controller.  I have 6 LOR controllers on the other network.  I will probably also add a new computer to the mix next year.  I'm still trying to figure out in my head how I'm going to do all of this next year.

[john fulkerson]

i have a 12 ccr tree i have them split on 2 networks but the more i add graphics they start to lag a lot so i  had to split bthem again into 3 networks with 4 ccr's on each how do i know if my ccr controller is upgradeable to the high speed orr be able to utilize it in other words can i updrade the firmware to my ccr's to gen 3?

how can you look at them and tell if they are upgradeable?

[Ken Benedict]

I thought that all CC devices could be upgradable to the higher speed with new firmware. The Hardware Utility should balk if not.

 

Probably been answered before in this forum.

 

Maybe this will help: http://www.lightorama.com/help/index.html?whats_new.htm

 

And this: http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/25224-new-ccb-firmwarewhere-is-it/?hl=firmware

 

Or this: http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/22727-what-ever-happened-to-superspeed/?hl=firmware#entry236786

 

There was also a rumor that the older LOR USB dongles might not support the higher speed. Certainly the new ones do.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Ken Benedict

[TGabriel]

Be nice if the software was as quick as the spring sale was.

 

I though Dan was going to make an annoucement soon on the software fix.

 

What happen to that?

 

Thomas