Maximum LOR DMX channels

[zman]

I hope I never get to this point from a sequencing stand point for a personal Christmas display!

I am trying to get my head around the concept of multiple universes with the iDMX. In looking at LOR and DMX today, there is the 256 channel limit (any input on when that will be 512?). I think my light bulb just went off as to why this limit is in place today. "OK, so I am not the sharpest pencil in the drawer, until I need to draw something, and then, I can still be pretty dull at that."

Looking at the 256 iDMX channel limit, would that mean that there is a max limit of 15 iDMX's allowed today. When they fully support DMX512, that goes down to 7.5 iDMX's. Not sure what happens with the last .5.

When the 512 become available, how will they get mapped into the SE? Today, looking at the mapping there is 'x'0 - 'x'F reflecting 16 controllers. (there is a typo in the iDMX manual if you look at the attached picture)

Are my limits correct. Is there some other factor that would not allow 16 iDMX's today? Not a wise investment due to the limits. if half of them will not be usable when this goes to DMX512.

What is driving the limits of LOR controllers and channels (240/3840)? These are not typical 16 bit limits.

I will leave my questions for ichans to another thread

Hopefully this was not an exercise in futility. :shock:



Attached files

[Charles Belcher]

zman,

There is one more important element when obtaining the total possible channel count and that is the number of networks which S2 can now support.

So you take 240 x 16= 3840, then multiply that times the 4 available networks to arrive at a total possible channel count of 15,360.

I had 3,384 channels in 2008. I don't know what I will do in 2009 yet because I refuse to even think about it now.

Charles

[zman]

Charles, you are right! I forgot about the additional networks. That's why these forums are great. I spaced on that account. I knew you had a high channel count due to DMX. What did you use to program?

I am look at Excedrin headache number 512 :shock:

BTW, I am looking forward to sitting in your DMX class at PLUS.

[Dr. Jones]

there is no real theoretical limit, but in actuality you will hit speed bumps as the size of the dmx network increases, especially if the data stream drops below 2 volts. Higher end fixtures will account for this and repeat the signal ( some may even be isolated) where as many lower, consumer grade fixtures will cheap out. - the average consumer is not likely to have close to the max of 32 fixtures per branch. While professionals... the limit is close to infinite, just not logical

Charles - were some of your fixtures driven from a seperate source? or did all the channels come off of iDMX units?

[Charles Belcher]

Dr.

I only used (6) iDMX-1000 units. In addition to those DMX outputs, I also took an ethernet output from the Maxedia media server I/O box to a Pathway Connectivity DMX Manager Plus. I then took 4 more full DMX 512 outputs from the Manager Plus to the video screen which was 1800 channels by itself.

http://www.pathwayconnect.com/content/view/34/29/

Below is a diagram which was drawn up before I added the 6th iDMX-1000, after running out of available iDMX channels. The video screen is not drawn in this diagram, only the LED tubes on the house eve and roof peak.

Charles




Attached files

[Charles Belcher]

zman wrote:

Charles, you are right! I forgot about the additional networks. That's why these forums are great. I spaced on that account. I knew you had a high channel count due to DMX. What did you use to program?

I am look at Excedrin headache number 512 :shock:

BTW, I am looking forward to sitting in your DMX class at PLUS.

What did I use to program? I don't know if this is what you are after but...

I used LOR S2 on my laptop. I only use one sequence which is 30 minutes long. That sequence has 18.5 minutes of show and 11.5 minutes of break music with minimal static lights so we can turn the audience. I only used one network. This is the KISS principle at work. Things are complicated enough, so there is no reason to introduce more hardware into the system unless it is necessary.

Because we do a show with narration between songs rather than a playlist of songs, I cannot have those dead seconds between songs and/or narration as each sequence compiles. It would break the continuity for me.

After I had programmed about 7-8 minutes of 3384 channels, the time it took to save a change to the sequence was enormous. Even hitting the play button took 20 seconds for S2 to compile and play. I talked with Dan about this and they are working on it or maybe have already improved this. Even adding a sub-set of channels and triggering them on the main sequence did not help the compilation time. My work around was to break the channels down into several groups and work on them independently. When I finished the entire program on the individual sequences, I cut and pasted everything to one sequence.

That way, once I entered the show into the scheduler and after S2 loaded the sequence into the scheduler, there was no delay between shows. It did take the first show 44 seconds to compile each night, so I had to change my start time to 5:59.16 in order to effect a 6:00pm start time.

Man, I haven't thought about this stuff since last September when I finished the show!

Charles