Tony Shepherd Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 Hi. This year I am moving to 20 controllers. (3 old gen 1 - 16 gen 3 and one controller for 8 floods). I have read that the network can get unstable once you get to 20. Has anyone got any experience or advice? Thank Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 10 minutes ago, Tony Shepherd said: Hi. This year I am moving to 20 controllers. (3 old gen 1 - 16 gen 3 and one controller for 8 floods). I have read that the network can get unstable once you get to 20. Has anyone got any experience or advice? Thank Tony I've heard the problem is around 2K channels. You have a way to go BUT those Gen1 (and 2) are speed limited, enhanced mode limited (but you only have Advanced, so not something you can do). Is there a reason to NOT split (other than the cost of shipping a RED adapter across the pond)? Are you running ELL's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Shepherd Posted November 21, 2019 Author Share Posted November 21, 2019 1 hour ago, TheDucks said: I've heard the problem is around 2K channels. You have a way to go BUT those Gen1 (and 2) are speed limited, enhanced mode limited (but you only have Advanced, so not something you can do). Is there a reason to NOT split (other than the cost of shipping a RED adapter across the pond)? Are you running ELL's? Not even sure what an ell is? I’m just running one network from the standard RS485 connector. I have just looked up the red adaptor as I didn’t realise this was an option. It says the black ones appear to work well with 500k speed. Not sure how I tell what speed my network is? Would it make a difference having an old gen 1 as the first controller on the network? Thanks for your help Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioguy1007 Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 ELL is short for easy light linker - a wireless network adapter from LOR. I have 32 controllers in my display of all generations, AC, DC and floods. No smart pixels. Channel count a little under 450. All communicate using a ELL system with 8 receive "islands" where one ELL may wire connect to one or more other nearby controllers. I did this to reduce long network cable runs. The system has worked very well for me for almost 15 years. You should have no issue with 20 controllers on a wired network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 I'll try to answer a couple points. Number of controllers is not normally important, number of channels is. Depending on your network speed has a huge effect on the capacity. The old rule of thumb for a 115k non-enhanced network is about 900 channels. For a 56k network, cut that in half, and for a 500k network, triple it. Those are rough numbers, as the complexity of the lighting changes can SUBSTANTIALLY affect that. It makes no difference which controller is first on the network. As for how to determine your network speed, it is a setting on Network Preferences. If you never touched it, it is likely 56k as that is the default. Your older controllers can't handle 500k or 1000k speed, so those are not an option for you at this time. However, if you get into large number of pixels, you will need higher speed, so a second controller will be a requirement. Hint, if you buy a second USB to RS485 adapter, always buy a red one. The black ones are spec'ed to 115k, but many reports say they will work at 500k. For only $2 difference, just get the red ones. In my first paragraph, I said the number of controllers is not important. There is one exception to that. The RS-485 specification allows 32 devices on the network, and up to 4,000 feet of total network length. How critical that is, I can't answer, but that's the spec. BTW, the spec also requires that both ends of the network have a termination. The LOR USB to RS-485 adapters provide termination at one end. Many LOR users do not terminate the far end, and get away with it, but that is in the spec. The higher your network speed is operating, likely makes the other specs more critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 Termination is fairly easy. a 120 ohm resistor between pins 4 and 5 (Blu- and Wh-blu wires if you make a pigtail out of a old CAT cable). I've made ones by crimping the leads of a 1/4 W resistor, directly into the proper pins of a new RJ45 plug. (The wattage is not critical except for a lead fit into a plug) Generation 2 Pixies now include a Terminate jumper (USE only on the LAST device on a run) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Shepherd Posted November 21, 2019 Author Share Posted November 21, 2019 Can I thank you all for you replies. All have been helpful and it looks like with only just over 300 channels and no pixels I should be good. As they say every day is a school day. Thanks again Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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