Guest guest Posted August 29, 2006 Posted August 29, 2006 I believe most people hook their CAT5 ethernet connection directly to their first controller. I am wondering if you can hook a LOR computer to a switch and hook your first LOR controller to the same switch. Will the "signals" that the LOR software puts out have a negative effect or interfere with a computer network? If LOR controllers don't have a MAC address, then obviously this won't work.My real goal is to be able to remote control the LOR machine over a wireless network, which could prove very difficult if the LOR computer is not connected to a network. What about using two network cards?
Guest guest Posted August 29, 2006 Posted August 29, 2006 LOR does not use any ethernet protocols and therefore must be kept totally separate from a computer network. LOR simply uses ethernet cables because they can carry the signal long distances and are relatively cheap. Hooking LOR to a switch will most likely cause damage to the switch, the controller, or both.
Guest guest Posted August 29, 2006 Posted August 29, 2006 Good to know. Actually, I examined the LOR site more closely and I believe now the LOR computer doesn't use ethernet for it's first connection, does it? That is, the connection is Computer --> (USB OR SERIAL) --> LOR Adapter --> Ethernet style cable -->first controller. Therefore, the actual ethernet card in the computer is still free. So I can still run the computer on a network because the LOR network originates over USB or serial port. As long as I keep the USB LOR network separate from the computer ethernet card network, I should be able to run the computer on a network and use LOR at the same time?(You can tell I own no boards yet.)
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2006 Posted August 30, 2006 Yeah that's correct. Your ethernet port will still be available. I guess you could use that remote monitoring or transfering files from another computer.
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2006 Posted August 30, 2006 While I actually went back to a wired network (PC problems etc etc ..) but I think I am doing what your thinking of ... I have a "show" PC that will actualy live outside. Why a PC outside ? I have a 192 channel DIO card and I dont want cables and all that comming through the window. The show PC has had its BIOS updated to ignore 99% of the post codes regarding no keyboard, no mouse, no monitor.. so the machine starts up "headless" .. I then use a product called VNC to remote control the show machince from my programming machine located in the house.The Wireless connection does work. You can install two wireless NIC cards in your PC's and configure them to run without using an access point or a router ( much like a cross over cable when using a wired network or 2 PC's back to back )So basically I have a 100BaseT connection to my remote PC for monitoring and only one Cat5 cable running outside .. and if I get REAL industrious, I'll put a jack in the wall, run the cable up, though the attic and out to the soffit with another jack.. Then I'll have zero windows open and zero wires exiting.-- Bob
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2006 Posted August 30, 2006 We're exactly in the same line as thinking. Although my computer won't be outside, it is going to be "headless" as you put it.WOOT for VNC! Not only is it free, but it also works well. And given that I'm using windows 2000 machine, VNC is also my program of choice. So for those of you wanting to remotely login and view your PC, VNC is a good candidate.For me, I'll have the LOR PC plugged into a wireless router so I can control the computer from anywhere in range, including using my laptop outside with no wires.
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2006 Posted August 30, 2006 For the record, LOR uses an RS-485 serial network. The protocol running on the network is a proprietary protocol developed by the fine folks at LOR. Only LOR devices should be attached to this network. The LOR software will also control X10, and DIO cards, but these require separate RS-232 serial ports on your PC.
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2006 Posted August 30, 2006 cstom2002 wrote: For the record, LOR uses an RS-485 serial network. The protocol running on the network is a proprietary protocol developed by the fine folks at LOR. Only LOR devices should be attached to this network. The LOR software will also control X10, and DIO cards, but these require separate RS-232 serial ports on your PC.Just to amplify the above responses (mainly for others who might be listening and still confused): DO NOT plug a LOR controller or other device into any type of ethernet networking hardware! Doing so could damage the network hardware (e.g. router/switch/hub), the LOR controller, or both!LOR (as well as Animated Lighting) uses ethernet or telephone wire as a convenient means to connect things together. They do not use standard networking protocols. Your LOR devices connect to either a USB port or a serial port on your computer, via a proprietary adaptor sold only from LOR.-Tim
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2006 Posted August 30, 2006 In addition, please do not try to use your house's telepone system to plugin controllers.... People have tried to do so with destructive results.
Guest guest Posted August 30, 2006 Posted August 30, 2006 LightORama wrote: In addition, please do not try to use your house's telepone system to plugin controllers.... People have tried to do so with destructive results.I've seen other products place a sticker with a strong warning over ports in cases like this, so that presumably the end user has to see the warning before doing anything bad (whereas, who actually reads the manuals?) Might be something to consider for LOR, especially if you're being nice and replacing their destroyed hardware after they do something like that...-Tim
Guest guest Posted August 31, 2006 Posted August 31, 2006 tfischer wrote: LightORama wrote: In addition, please do not try to use your house's telepone system to plugin controllers.... People have tried to do so with destructive results.I've seen other products place a sticker with a strong warning over ports in cases like this, so that presumably the end user has to see the warning before doing anything bad (whereas, who actually reads the manuals?) Might be something to consider for LOR, especially if you're being nice and replacing their destroyed hardware after they do something like that...A good idea.
Guest guest Posted September 3, 2006 Posted September 3, 2006 I was wondering if you could tell me where you got VNC from. I was wondering how I was going to have my computer in the garage this year and run it without having to have a monitor and such out there. I ran a search and got stuff that talks about VNC and one that runs on OSX, but not exactly what i was looking for. I'm running... I believe 98 on the other machine, haven't actually run it yet to see if it's 98 or 2000 or what it is.
Guest guest Posted September 3, 2006 Posted September 3, 2006 Musicman,Just do a google search on VNC... you should get around 13,200,000 hits :laughing:Seriously .. it comes in a several different flavors. Check a couple out and use the one thats best optimized for your systems. I run Win2K on both of mine and UltraVNC and TightVNC have both performed very well.Its VERY easy to set up and even easier to use. The tip to doing what your looking to do is going into the BIOS on your show machine and turning off error checking/reporting for things like missing keyboards, mice and monitors. It should be fairly easy to find once your there.Good luck and feel free to holler if you hit a snag.-- Bob
Guest guest Posted September 3, 2006 Posted September 3, 2006 http://www.realvnc.com/download.html(You obviously want the free version.)Then when you get the version choice, I'd useVNC Free Edition for WindowsVersion 4.1.2You must install the program on BOTH computers. When installing on your LOR computer, choose the VNC Server version. When installing on your other computer, choose the VNC Viewer. It will ask you which one to install when you run the setup.
Guest guest Posted September 3, 2006 Posted September 3, 2006 contactmike, This is not exactly true. The beauty of VNC is that nothing is required on the client PC. The server requires VNC to be installed. This is what enables remote control. As far as a client, if you enable the HTTP server, ANY web browser can be used as the client, just connect to port 5800. (eg http://lorpc:5800 or http://192.168.1.100:5800). the VNC viewer seems to be a bit better, but if you don't have a PC with the viewer client handy, pop up a web browser - I use this at work to allow me to get back to my PC when I'm working with a user's problem. I can VNC into my PC and change permissions if needed.
Guest guest Posted September 3, 2006 Posted September 3, 2006 Sounds like I might have to try this but instead just use the remote desktop built into Windows XP.. very handy !
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 cstom2002 wrote: contactmike, This is not exactly true. The beauty of VNC is that nothing is required on the client PC. The server requires VNC to be installed. This is what enables remote control. As far as a client, if you enable the HTTP server, ANY web browser can be used as the client, just connect to port 5800. Jeremy Lawton wrote: Sounds like I might have to try this but instead just use the remote desktop built into Windows XP.. very handy !Really? I didn't know that...a great feature! Just rememeber to setup the computer as a web server because computers don't have it enabled by default.And yes! I also love remote desktop. However, you can not use remote desktop to control a windows 2000 computer. For XP, I think remote desktop is actually nicer than VNC.
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 Yes, thanks for the heads up.. I have done a few servers before so I do have a little experience with this type of thing so hopefully I won't have many problems. I always thought 2000 had the Remote Desktop too.. I guess it don't? Well then i guess VNC is your only option.. I just prefer the remote desktop.. I think it will really help me out this year so all i have to run outside with the computer is power and the fm transmitter.. will save some setup time in the garage.document.write('');
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 Jeremy Lawton wrote: I always thought 2000 had the Remote Desktop too.. I guess it don't?Just to clarify, windows 2000 does have remote desktop. However, you can only use it to remote desktop FROM windows 2000 to control a windows xp/2003 machine. It is impossible to use remote desktop to control a windows 2000 computer. Hope that clears it up...**Edit grammar**
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 How would it be impossible if your just going by the identification of the computer? If you have a firewall this may stop it from going from xp into 2000 or vise versa.. but I don't really see why you would not be able to remote into a windows 2000 system if its there you should be able to use it this way I would think.. but I might be wrong too..It just don't make any sense why they wouldn't let you do that when xp is based off of 2000 just with a lot more software bugs worked out.
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