Adding CCR to network question

[tomsusie]

I run my show from a mini director using 2 LOR 30A controllers.  I daisy chain my director to the first controller and then that to the 2nd controller.  This year I hope to add some CCRs to my roof and location will be closest to my 1st controller.  Can I run the Cat5 cable from the CCR controller to the 1st controller and just plug it into the 2nd Cat5 connection?  My inclination is that should work fine since everything will have unique addresses and both ports are active since I could plug my 2nd controller into either connection. 

 

Am I missing anything? 

 

Thanks for your assistance.

 

Tom

[Darryl Lambert]

It will work fine.

[tomsusie]

Thanks Darryl !  appreciate the quick response.

Have a Happy Easter.

Tom

[lightzilla]

I run my show from a mini director using 2 LOR 30A controllers.  I daisy chain my director to the first controller and then that to the 2nd controller.  This year I hope to add some CCRs to my roof and location will be closest to my 1st controller.  Can I run the Cat5 cable from the CCR controller to the 1st controller and just plug it into the 2nd Cat5 connection?  My inclination is that should work fine since everything will have unique addresses and both ports are active since I could plug my 2nd controller into either connection. 

 

Am I missing anything? 

 

Thanks for your assistance.

 

Tom

Tom I hate to say this but the ccrs run better at 500k speed. Your mini director unit won't be able to do that. You would need to buy this from Lor.......   http://store.lightorama.com/g3mp3director.html     This will run 6 regular Lor controllers & 12 ccrs,  plus four ccp controllers without a problem, but after that I have no clue because that was all I used Last year.. The year before I ran 10 regular Lor controllers & 12 ccrs

 

If you go more into rgb stuff then some where down the line you may need to get a Laptop or a Deck Top to run the show.

Edited April 4, 2015 by lightzilla

[tomsusie]

Thanks for the info Lightzilla.  Guess I'll need to upgrade the director.  Sounds like that will keep me going for a few years at least.  Hoping to add 10 CCRs this year and an additional Regular LOR controller.   My other option is to see if an older desktop or laptop I have can handle running the programs.  But then I have to figure out how to connect the FM transmitter to the computer.  I'm sure somewhere in the forum is info on that.

Thanks again for the information.

Tom

[Paducks]

Hi everybody I am in my second year of this crazy addiction. I started out with one CCR and a showtime central starter package Which came wit hone 16 channel controller. I want to add another 16 channel controller to my first one and wondering if I can use just another Cat 5E cable? Is this cable able to transfer just the data without the power right?

Also since we got the free upgrade to the superstar license I want to purchase 3 more CCR to complete the license. Will the mini director be able to handle the 4 CCRs plus two 16 channel controllers??

Thanks for any help! Greatly appreciated!!!

Allison

[ebrown1972]

You may have issues with lag running 4 ccr's and a mini director. If my memory is correct the mini director will not run at 500k speeds. I would only use a mini director for regular 16 channel controllers. Its really good for that and I used it for 3 years. If you already have the mini director test it out and try it with the ccr's. You never know. Maybe you will get lucky!

[Paducks]

You may have issues with lag running 4 ccr's and a mini director. If my memory is correct the mini director will not run at 500k speeds. I would only use a mini director for regular 16 channel controllers. Its really good for that and I used it for 3 years. If you already have the mini director test it out and try it with the ccr's. You never know. Maybe you will get lucky!

Thanks ebrown! Do you have any ideas for running the CCRs by themselves? Sorry I am such a newbie to this it can be a bit confusing

[ebrown1972]

I would use a computer if you have an extra on hand. You can run different networks with a computer whereas with the mini director you can only run one network. You really need to run your ccr's on a different network than your 16 channel controllers. Now you can purchase a g3 director (not mini director) and run 2 networks from it. One network on the g3 will run your regular network which would consist of your 16 channel controllers and the other network would run your ccr's at 500k speeds.

 

It may sound a little confusing if you are really new to it but really its not. Just read as much as possible and check out the tutorial videos on the light o rama site under the support tab. It helped me a great deal and don't be afraid to ask questions.

[default]

Also since we got the free upgrade to the superstar license I want to purchase 3 more CCR to complete the license. Will the mini director be able to handle the 4 CCRs plus two 16 channel controllers??

 

ebrown1972 just replied with basically the same message. but since I already typed it already, here it is,

 

For the last couple of years I ran the Mini Director with 3 CCR's, 1 - 16 Channel Controller and a 24 Channel RGB controller and had no issues. Your mileage may vary. This year I added 3 CCP's and the lag was horrible. I am now using a notebook to just run the shows and use 2 hi speed networks for future expansion. Networks are just USB to RJ45 adapters made for handling LOR lighting. Not as complicated at it sounds.

 

As I understand it (if I am wrong someone will correct me ) 1 CCR is 150 channels, so in your case 4 CCR's would be 600 channels + 32 for the two other controllers. I read someone where here that the rule of thumb is 900 channels per network, so from that standpoint you are below whats needed to run properly, however the Mini Director may not be able to handle that many channels.

 

The only way to know for sure (since you plan on getting them anyways) is to hook them all up and run a sequence, and check for lag. Don't just create an on/off sequence add color and lots of movement. If there is lag, then you could get the next step up director, or find a used laptop/notebook and use it just for running the shows. That would allow you to use 2 ( and more later on) networks, 1 for CCR's and 1 for the other controllers.

 

Let's not kid ourselves, we all now you are hooked and will be getting into more of this so the laptop/notebook route is a way to build for the future...  

 

Alan...

Edited April 7, 2015 by default

[Paducks]

I would use a computer if you have an extra on hand. You can run different networks with a computer whereas with the mini director you can only run one network. You really need to run your ccr's on a different network than your 16 channel controllers. Now you can purchase a g3 director (not mini director) and run 2 networks from it. One network on the g3 will run your regular network which would consist of your 16 channel controllers and the other network would run your ccr's at 500k speeds.

 

It may sound a little confusing if you are really new to it but really its not. Just read as much as possible and check out the tutorial videos on the light o rama site under the support tab. It helped me a great deal and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Ok so if I purchase G3 director (which seems inevitable) does it work with the current FM transmitter that I have from the Showtime central?

Thanks, Allison

[Paducks]

ebrown1972 just replied with basically the same message. but since I already typed it already, here it is,

 

For the last couple of years I ran the Mini Director with 3 CCR's, 1 - 16 Channel Controller and a 24 Channel RGB controller and had no issues. Your mileage may vary. This year I added 3 CCP's and the lag was horrible. I am now using a notebook to just run the shows and use 2 hi speed networks for future expansion. Networks are just USB to RJ45 adapters made for handling LOR lighting. Not as complicated at it sounds.

 

As I understand it (if I am wrong someone will correct me ) 1 CCR is 150 channels, so in your case 4 CCR's would be 600 channels + 32 for the two other controllers. I read someone where here that the rule of thumb is 900 channels per network, so from that standpoint you are below whats needed to run properly, however the Mini Director may not be able to handle that many channels.

 

The only way to know for sure (since you plan on getting them anyways) is to hook them all up and run a sequence, and check for lag. Don't just create an on/off sequence add color and lots of movement. If there is lag, then you could get the next step up director, or find a used laptop/notebook and use it just for running the shows. That would allow you to use 2 ( and more later on) networks, 1 for CCR's and 1 for the other controllers.

 

Let's not kid ourselves, we all now you are hooked and will be getting into more of this so the laptop/notebook route is a way to build for the future...  

 

Alan...

Thanks Alan , I do have a cheap computer that I originally created the show on last year and then used the SD card for the showtime central. Do you use wireless linkers to go from computer to controllers? Is there another way to set it up? I think both your and ebrowns ideas are my future path so thank you for all your assistance!!

[default]

I don't use wireless linkers so I have info for you on those. Perhaps someone that does use them will come along and give their input.

The network I spoke of consist of a The USB485-HS adapter (from your USB, it converts to the LOR protocol) Here's the link http://store.lightorama.com/usbrs485hs.html In my case I can put my Notebook PC in a dry place, plug in the USB485-HS adapter usb to pc, them out of the USB485-HS adapter with a lan cable to either the 16 channel controller or the first CCP/CCB/CCR then daisy chain the rest of controllers. In this case the PC would take the Mini Director out of the equation, not needed. For sound I plug in the input jack from the FM Transmitter to the output jack of the sound card on the PC. Here are some examples of typical setups. http://www1.lightorama.com/typical-setups/#simple

I too had the Mini Director, but as I added more stuff I outgrew it. It was sure nice just to copy the show to a SD card then plug it in and on with the show. The Notebook PC is now my Mini Director. I create sequences on one PC transfer the sequences to the Notebook PC and just use the Notebook to run the show.

Apologies to the OP, we have skewed from your original question, but some of this info maybe helpful.

Alan...

[tomsusie]

Alan - not to worry about drifting from the original question.  It all applies somehow and I found additional good info from all these discussions.

thanks to all!

Tom

Edited April 8, 2015 by tomsusie

[lightzilla]

I will repeat a bit of what I mentioned. I ran my 1st show  2008 with a PC...but theses were Animated Lighting Controllers. Then I sold them & bought Lor stuff & since then I ran the show using the mini director. I used that until 2012. It ran 272 18 regular Lor controllers. I didn't even run all the controllers I had.  Then I sold over of the the controllers I had. 

However once I switched to ccrs in 2013  I then stopped using the mini director unit & I started using the Generation 3 director unit. In 2013 it ran 10 regular Lor controllers on the 1st network , & 12 ccrs on the 2nd network (Aux A).  My 12 ccrs were setup in a Matrix.  Now I my 1st attempt with a Matrix with a bit of character animation, with texting, & a bit of Morphs & so it ran no problem with the Gen 3 director unit.

 

 So I wanted to push the Matrix & the Gen3 director  unit a little harder to see what it can do in 2014. Anyhow I sold off more controllers to where I only ran 6 regular Lor controllers on one network but 12 ccrs, & 4 ccp controllers on network 2 (Aux A). I did way more character animation, some texting, & a bit more morphs than in 2013. I also sequenced the ccp arches, but the other 3 ccp controllers simply switched from Red, To, Green, to Blue when I switched colours. One day the whole display was all Red & so on.  Again it ran my show with any issues. 

 

This year I am dropping the ccr Matrix & going with either a 16 ccr tree, or a 16 string ccp tree. If I go with a 16 ccr tree then the Pixels will make two pixel Matrix.  My 16 ccr tree sequences I am making now have even more animated character s, more morphs. Also this time there will be 8 ccp controllers...( so far).  Will the Gen3 Directer Unit run these, that is the question. If not then I will need to come up with a good desktop, & more of those Red high speed adapter (1 for every 2 ccrs) & however many for the ccp controllers.