How much can I put on a single network, and how to tell the limits of USB

[scubanimal]

Amazing what you can find re-reading documentation....    found a few things that cause me rethink what the root cause may be.  

   I assumed I had an issue with throughput speeds because the lights were not behaving anywhere near what they did in the previews.    Tonight before seeing the great replies and suggestions from folks I did break up my show on to 2 networks (mega tress & 1 CCB on 1 network) everything else on the other which resulted on one mega tree working well and the CCBs working sometimes, only 1-2 arches would work, and the lights from the CTBs inconsistent,  1 was fine the others not so good.    Anyway,  I suspect that one of the root causes in addition to Alan's point about needing to break into more networks is I had forgotten that one of the CTBs was a kit, and those are very limited in bandwidth (115K max) and just happens to be #2 in line, right after the one controller (faces) that is working good.    I'm guessing here, but I suspect that in addition to the overloaded networks, that I need to put that CTB on its own dedicated (slow) network. 

 

[TheDucks]

6 hours ago, default said:

Jim I might be wrong, I'll have to look, but I thought I read somewhere that LOR didn't want you to use powered USB's.

If I am wrong, please correct me. In my case, everything (so far) runs fine with the non powered hubs but I did upgrade this year to a new laptop for running the shows.

Alan...

AFAIK Everyone reccomends POWERED USB Hubs over underpowered hubs

[k6ccc]

7 hours ago, scubanimal said:

Amazing what you can find re-reading documentation....    found a few things that cause me rethink what the root cause may be.  

   I assumed I had an issue with throughput speeds because the lights were not behaving anywhere near what they did in the previews.    Tonight before seeing the great replies and suggestions from folks I did break up my show on to 2 networks (mega tress & 1 CCB on 1 network) everything else on the other which resulted on one mega tree working well and the CCBs working sometimes, only 1-2 arches would work, and the lights from the CTBs inconsistent,  1 was fine the others not so good.    Anyway,  I suspect that one of the root causes in addition to Alan's point about needing to break into more networks is I had forgotten that one of the CTBs was a kit, and those are very limited in bandwidth (115K max) and just happens to be #2 in line, right after the one controller (faces) that is working good.    I'm guessing here, but I suspect that in addition to the overloaded networks, that I need to put that CTB on its own dedicated (slow) network. 

 

I have a dedicated slow network.  My Regular network is 56k non-Enhanced.  All that is on it is an InputPup - because you can’t read inputs on an enhanced network.  AuxA is 115k Enhanced and has all my CTB and CMB controllers.  Although all my controllers will handle 500k, there is less than 100 channels, so don’t need the speed on that network.  Next year that network will get an additional 96 channels.  My AuxB network is 500k Enhanced and has my 300 CCPs and will eventually have a CMB-24 added to it.  AuxB is used for Christmas only, whereas the other two are used year round.  Everything else in the yard is E1.31 (134 universes this year).  So none of my networks are heavily loaded.  Part of my split was because of enhanced capabilities vs not - before all my controllers were updated.  Now it’s just Christmas only vs year round.

 

[scubanimal]

Sounds very well structured and organized Jim.    Hoping the day passes quickly so I can get home and redo my networks, I'm really hoping that is issue of why some of my lights are not working right.  I need to add in a wireless linker anyway (neighbor wants me to do their lights) so this will work out nicely anyway. 

     I keep hoping that my software learning curve will flatten and I can finally take the time to learn DMX,   what you have looks so cool,   but not this year, S5 is still a mostly a mystery; though I'm functional in the areas I need to be.