Author Topic: Etherdongle with LOR S3  (Read 2518 times)

Offline bhays

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Etherdongle with LOR S3
« on: January 07, 2013, »
Greetings, folks.  I have several years under my belt with a good sized display on LOR (27 controllers plus a lot of convention dmx) and I am looking to make the move to pixels.

I was referred over here by lonewolf41 who happens to live nearby. 

At any rate, I have been trying to educate myself and everyone in the LOR world seems to be preaching 5vdc only and Sandevices E682 controllers.  In looking at what I want to to do, the Smartstring approach seems to make a lot more sense.

Am I correct that I can simply use LOR3 -- E1.31 ---> EtherDongle ---> SS Hub ---> pixels?  If so, this seems like such a better way to go.  It looks like that will work, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Apologies if this has been asked and answered ad nauseum.

Offline rdebolt

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Re: Etherdongle with LOR S3
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2013, »
I am not an LOR user as in running my show, but yes you are correct. There are several members here doing just that. You can actually take that one step further to LOR3 -- E1.31 ---> EtherDongle ---> SS Hub ---> pixels\DMX. Not sure what LOR hardware you are running, but any regular 8 or 16 channel controller with the correct firmware can be run with DMX. You will just need to make a cat 5 cross over to LOR.

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« Last Edit: January 07, 2013, by rdebolt »

Offline bhays

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Re: Etherdongle with LOR S3
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2013, »
That is awesome! 

Offline Jeffl

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Re: Etherdongle with LOR S3
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2013, »
I ran 35 LE's and 4 LOR DC controllers in DMX using the ED this year.  All went very well.  LOR has some issues outputting "spot on" DMX that will hopefully be resolved this year but most people never notice it.

I plan to do some pixel stuff this year and the E682 looks like the option I will take.  5v vs 12v is one of those "it depends" from the research I have done. From what I have read so far 12v strings used with the smart strings seams like the more versatile of the two.   I'm leaning on using the strings that work with the smart string gear just because it will work with every pixel setup, SS, E682 and J1sys.  The WS2811 stuff is 5v and looks to be a bit cheaper, but I like the ability to pick and choose the stuff that works best for my setup.

You might want to stop here as well as they are big into DC stuff and have people who are familiar with what will work best with LOR and or what strips are like LOR's.

auschristmaslighting.com/forums

Offline JonB256

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Re: Etherdongle with LOR S3
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2013, »
I have been using LOR for 7 seasons. In 2011, I changed to 100% DMX. In 2012, I added Smart Strings, Pixelnet and two E1.31 outputs to LOR (3.9.0 Advanced license).

It all worked great. LOR is managing to "just" keep up with the new technologies being introduced.

As far as "spot on" DMX from LOR, I didn't have any apparent problems, probably because I used a 50ms timing grid from the start. Now, that appears to be the best timing for both xLights and Etherdongle and the Conductor.

My yard is divided into 3 areas. I used a J1Sys ECG-DR4 E1.31 box to control DMX Universe 1 and DMX Universe 2. It can do 4, but I didn't need them.  The roof (3rd area) was controlled from an Etherdongle (E1.31 outputting Pixelnet). A single CAT5 up to the roof was carrying 4096 DMX channels worth of data. As a side note, it was technically carrying Universe 1 and 2, duplicating what was in the front yard, but I just didn't use it. I pulled DMX Universe 3 from the the Active Hub for some ACx16 controllers, then controlled 125 RGB pixels on Universe 6 and 125 RBG pixels on Universe 7.

My show PC was outputting E1.31 from its only Ethernet port. It went to a 5 port Gigabit Switch. The 2 E1.31 boxes just plugged into the switch. I ran an uplink cable from my router to that switch and maintained full Internet and Network connectivity at all times. Network usage, outputting a total of 8 Multicast addresses anytime the LOR Listener was active, had my network usage at a steady, unchanging 0.8%.  If I turned on all 32 possible Multicast Universes, network activity to the switch went up to almost 2% !!!
« Last Edit: January 07, 2013, by JonB256 »

Offline sabie

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Re: Etherdongle with LOR S3
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2013, »
running lor s3 and 12 le's dmx /usb dongle dmx
no problems this 1 st year
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Offline JerryPlak

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Re: Etherdongle with LOR S3
« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2013, »
bhays

Welcome to DIY
from North San Diego, Ca.

and also go to the  New Members Introductions   page :-)
Jerry Plak