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Placement and use of multiple LOR Wireless Units


Richard Hamilton

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Oh Boy, I hope I can ask this question without drawing a picture for people to understand it. This question is for other people with experience using wireless units. I've used them and familiar with them, but I have a unique situation this year.

On one project I have 3 groups of controllers. Let's call them A, B, and C. My Show Director is in group "A" along with a lot of other controllers all connected in series by Cat 5. I need to transmit signals from the show director chain to controllers in group "B" and group "C". Unfortunately I am not able to run cable between the 3 groups.

I would like to have a wireless transceiver connected to a controller at one end of Group "A" that transmits to group "B". Then I would like to have another wireless unit connected to another controller far down the chain at the other end of group "A" so it will be within the range of a receiver on group "C".

Thus, I'm wondering if there is going to be a problem with having 2 wireless units connected at opposite ends of the same chain? The hope is that one end of group "A" can transmitt to "B" while the other end of group "A" transmits to "C".

Yup, I've looked at all those LOR layout wireless examples, but this situation is not shown in those drawings.

Now if you can actually make sense out of the above question, they you haven't had enough spiked eggnog yet for the season !!!

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Richard,

I have never used the wireless light linkers. However I would imagine as long as the frequencies are set far enough apart as to not interfere you should not have a problem. On another note! There are only 2 ports on each controller. If your using both ports for the Cat 5 then you will need some device to be able to "split" to accomodate the Cat 5 going on down the chain for group A and have the linker for Group B and C where they are needed. As far as power from the controllers I think you should be ok there as well.

As a suggestion, maybe make a small scale model of what you plan to do at home before going to the site. If nothing else just put lots of Cat5 in to distance the light linkers on the Group A line.

Side Side Note. thank you for the information on how to set up ZaraRadio. Works like a champ.

Chuck

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Richard, your description makes a lot of sense, looks like the long distance relay diagram from the manual listed above.

-Steve

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iresq wrote:

As I understand your question, you want to run 1 transmitter with two receivers? I don't use ELL's but per the manual, this should be no problem.

http://www.lightorama.com/Documents/RF-V4_Man_Web.pdf

Hello iresq,
Maybe I didn't explain it well for you to understand. I want to use 2 transmitters and 2 receivers. 1 transmitter will not cover the full area where the other two groups of controllers are located. That is why I want to have one transmitter at one end of the line and another transmitter at the other end of the line.

I've seen the document above and others like it. They don't show my situation.
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cmoore60 wrote:

I would imagine as long as the frequencies are set far enough apart as to not interfere you should not have a problem... On another note! There are only 2 ports on each controller. If your using both ports for the Cat 5 then you will need some device to be able to "split" to accomodate the Cat 5 going on down the chain for group A and have the linker for Group B and C where they are needed. As far as power from the controllers I think you should be ok there as well.

As a suggestion, maybe make a small scale model of what you plan to do at home before going to the site. If nothing else just put lots of Cat5 in to distance the light linkers on the Group A line.

Side Side Note. thank you for the information on how to set up ZaraRadio. Works like a champ.


Hi Chuck, thanks for the reply, and I'm glad to hear ZaraRadio is working well for you.

Regarding the transmitters, the frequency may not be selectable in my case. As I understand it, the selection of the frequency in the hardware utility is for the whole system, not an individual transceiver. Yes, I know there are only 2 ports on a controller, so fortunately I have an open port at each end of the line in group "A". I understand that controllers in the middle will need both connections to daisy chaining the controllers. Actually as a side note, the MP3 show Director has 3 connectors. I'll have to experiment on site as I don't have the equipment here and I am having difficulty understanding the setup of using multiple frequency transceivers.
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Richard Hamilton wrote:

Maybe I didn't explain it well for you to understand. I want to use 2 transmitters and 2 receivers. 1 transmitter will not cover the full area where the other two groups of controllers are located. That is why I want to have one transmitter at one end of the line and another transmitter at the other end of the line.


The picture on page 11 of the User Guide http://www.lightorama.com/Documents/RF-V4_Man_Web.pdf describes exactly what you want to do. Set one set of RF-V4s to one frequency with the HWU and set the other set to any other frequency. An RF-V4 will only communicate with another RF-V4 on the same frequency.

Group A would have one RF-V4 on frequency xx. Group B would have one RF-V4 on frequency xx and one on frequency yy. Group C would have one RF-V4 on frequency yy. The two xx frequency units must be in range of each other, likewise for the yy frequency units.

Remember, RF-V4s automatically transmit or receive as necessary on both the radio and network sides. So when commands are radio transmitted by the RF-V4 in Group A, the RF-V4 in Group B on the same frequency will receive it and send the commands out the network cable. The other RF-V4 will receive the commands on the network cable and transmit them with its radio.

Edit: Just realized that you have RF-V4s at the ends Group A. Same rules still apply, just that group A has the two RF-V4s on different frequencies. Groups B and C have RF-V4s on different frequencies.
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John, Thanks for the reply and confirmation. Even after looking at that document on page 11 twice, it was not clear that it would fit my situation, so that is why I posted the message. It was because I did not see 2 transceivers in the first line. I clearly understand what you are saying. You explained it perfectly.

Thanks for the comments from other people too. It all helps. I am going to experiment with seeing how to set up the transceivers on different frequencies with the HWU. It looks like I am going to need to do them one pair at a time.

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