How much can a network handle?

[DLTSLC]

I have 2 Pixie 8 controllers, 9 CCR II, and 3 of the 1602 Gen 3 16-plug controllers.  At what point is the load on a network too much?  I currently have 2 but want to move stuff to one network but am worried it's too much.  How many channels can be on one network or is there another measure for network load?

Thanks :D

[TheDucks]

You might want to split off the 1602's (or other dumbish types) just because they are top speed limited (compared to the Pixies)

Have you looked at http://www1.lightorama.com/network-speeds/

I've see the number 2400 (nodes) tossed about. It all depends :p

on how complex your sequence demands change . dropouts would be an indicator (and be a bit late to do corrective measures)

At this point,another HS adapter would not hurt

[k6ccc]

You made a very common error in telling us what you have.  You told us the number of controllers.  What we really need is the number of pixels or channels.  For example, there is a huge difference between a Pixie 8 controller with six string that vary between 15 and 25 pixels per string (around 120 pixels or 360 channels), and a Pixie 8 controller with eight strings that are all 170 pixels (1,360 pixels or 4,080 channels).  For network capacity, it's channel count that matters, not the  number of controllers.  However controller type (including generation level) and quantity does matter for determining network speed limits for those controllers, and Enhanced vs non-Enhanced requirements.  For example, when running on a LOR network, a Pixcon16 REQUIRES an Enhanced network, but all AC and DC controllers that are not Gen 3 can NOT handle an Enhanced network.

The Pixie and CCR2 controllers can both handle 1,000K speed, so I would agree with TheDucks and split them onto a separate network and run it at 1,000K speed.  The general recommendation for Pixie controllers is that they run on an Enhanced LOR network which would require you to upgrade to a Pro level license.  There are people here on the forum that will tell you that Pixie controllers require an ELOR network.  LOR's documentation says that Enhanced is not required.  The 1602 controllers can not run on a 1,000K speed network so if you run the Pixies on a 1,000K network, you must run two networks.  If your Pixies are lightly loaded, you could drop that down to 500K speed and run the 1602 Gen 3 controllers on the same network (Note for anyone else reading this, non Gen 3 1602 controllers can't handle 500K either).

The current general rule of thumb is that a 1,000K Enhanced network can handle 2,400 pixels (or 7,200 channels).