Smart String Active Hub Fuses & Channels/Universes

[Gary]

Okay, I'm sooo proud of myself now... I edited my first Wiki pages! 

Added/Edited the bullet points at the top:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Added some bullet points at the bottom:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Hope you don't mind my plagiarizing some of your writing, Steve!

[Steve Gase]

Looks good, gary!


some additional comments...


a pixelnet usb dongle will produce only one pixelnet universe...using the first pair of wires (pins 1+2).  in this setup, the pixelnet jumpers on the hub will only work if they are set to universe 1 -- the other positions will have no data.


an etherdongle produces 4 pixelnet universs,,,  4 pairs.


using a (de)combiner kit you can combine up to 4 pixelnet usb dongles into a single cat5 with 4 pairs... this will produce the same 4-universe (16384 channels) that you get with an EtherDongle... and all 4 universes can be selected on the smart hub.

Okay, I'm sooo proud of myself now... I edited my first Wiki pages! 

Added/Edited the bullet points at the top:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Added some bullet points at the bottom:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Hope you don't mind my plagiarizing some of your writing, Steve!

[tbone321]

Then you also my want to include the combiner and that it will allow you to use up to 4 USB dongles on one Cat5 cable. 

[Gary]

using a (de)combiner kit you can combine up to 4 pixelnet usb dongles into a single cat5 with 4 pairs... this will produce the same 4-universe (16384 channels) that you get with an EtherDongle... and all 4 universes can be selected on the smart hub.

Updated:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

[Gary]

Hey, another question:

Regarding the 4-port passive hub, there are no jumpers to determine the PixelNet Universe like on the 16-port Passive (or Active) hub. How is it done?

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login



Edit (something that came to me as I was brushing my teeth to go to bed!):

I think I may have answered my own question: just use the PixelNet combiner in reverse (i.e. Place your Pixelnet Input Cable into the Output Jack) and plug your 4-port Passive Hub into the desired universe of the Combiner's Input?
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

[Steve Gase]

Hey, another question:

Regarding the 4-port passive hub, there are no jumpers to determine the PixelNet Universe like on the 16-port Passive (or Active) hub. How is it done?

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login



Edit (something that came to me as I was brushing my teeth to go to bed!):

I think I may have answered my own question: just use the PixelNet combiner in reverse (i.e. Place your Pixelnet Input Cable into the Output Jack) and plug your 4-port Passive Hub into the desired universe of the Combiner's Input?
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

The normal use is to plug a cat5 cable into one of the (16) powered pixelnet jacks on the active or passive source hub.  the 4port throws away the power on 6 of the wires and replaces it with the power connected to the 4port power terminals.  So, you don't select the universe on the 4port hub, it inherits the same universe selected at the 16port.


howerever, there is another option...   knowing that the pixelnet out connector carries 4 universes, you could connect the pixelnet out connector to the 4pt hub if you simply wanted to get the first universe (regardless of how the 16port is selected).    if you want universe 2, 3, or 4 -- then use the (de)combiner board to break out the pairs -- the pixelnet out goes into the combiner board, and the 4pt hub connects to one of the 4 ports that have the 4 separated universes.

[tbone321]

Doing this would probably cause many unpredictable signal issues due to open ends at the end of the runs with no termination resistors.  I would not put things like this in the WIKI because they could cause issues with some displays.

[tbone321]

Hey, another question:

Regarding the 4-port passive hub, there are no jumpers to determine the PixelNet Universe like on the 16-port Passive (or Active) hub. How is it done?

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login



Edit (something that came to me as I was brushing my teeth to go to bed!):

I think I may have answered my own question: just use the PixelNet combiner in reverse (i.e. Place your Pixelnet Input Cable into the Output Jack) and plug your 4-port Passive Hub into the desired universe of the Combiner's Input?
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

The 4 port passive hub does not have any universe selection because it was NOT designed to be used for that purpose.  You will notice that it also doesn't have a PixelNet output either.  The purpose of the 4 port passive hub was to add a few more ports to a 16 port passive or active hub.  Even though it can be used the way you suggested above, that is not what it was designed to do and can cause signal reflection issues when used this way.  I would limit what is put into the WIKI to how the components were designed to be used and leave the creative ideas to the forums where they belong. 

[twooly]

I had the need for one more additional port and the 16 port would have been way overkill.  So I used the out on the other 16 port into the combiner and then selected the numbered port on the combiner into the 4 port input (port 2 in my case).  Gave me universe 2 on my 4 port.

[Gary]

There are a few differing opinions here. Reflections or no reflections? Perhaps they can solved by method of arm wrestle. Or RJ can chime in.

I'm looking at my planned layout and spreadsheet with channel counts, and it would be nice to get a small number of Universe 2 pixels (i.e. 4 ports worth) near a Universe 1 controller.

[tbone321]

The point that I was making is that the WIKI should only list what the device was designed to do, not the creative out of scope ways that people come up with to use them.

[CaptainMurdoch]

You could use a 4-port passive hub with a custom universe-swapping cat5 cable connected to one of the PixelNet outputs (not SSC outputs) of the active or passive hub.  This cable will take the place of the non-existent universe selection jumpers on the 4-port passive hub.  I can show you how or make you one if you will be down in the area anytime.

[Gary]

Yeah, I was thinking about that possibility but didn't go so far as to putting any thought into specific wiring diagrams, but how is this solution any different at stopping reflections? If the end of an electrically conductive path is inside a CAT5 jack, or in a CAT5 plug plugged into the jack, or at the end end of a CAT5 cable plugged into the jack... what difference does it make?

I'm not an electrical engineer, so I don't know. I just work here. 

[Steve Gase]

reflection is a real issue to me...  i take special effort to ensure that my input and output pigtails are both directly connected to aether2 board instead of sharing part of the wire and splicing away from the board.


that said, I have not had any issue using the combiner to split the 4-pair pixelnet out.  YMMV


I had thought that at least the active hub regenerated the pixelnet output for increased range.  using a regenerated signal would seem to isolate the rest of the circuit from reflections in my non-EE thinking.  but what do I know...?

[CaptainMurdoch]

Yeah, I was thinking about that possibility but didn't go so far as to putting any thought into specific wiring diagrams, but how is this solution any different at stopping reflections? If the end of an electrically conductive path is inside a CAT5 jack, or in a CAT5 plug plugged into the jack, or at the end end of a CAT5 cable plugged into the jack... what difference does it make?

I'm not an electrical engineer, so I don't know. I just work here. 

As Steve mentioned, the Active hub regenerates the signal on the two Pixelnet output ports so there shouldn't be a reflection issue if the 4-port passive hub is connected to one of these ports.  On the Passive hub, I don't know that there would be a reflection issue either, but it may be trial and error.  The Passive hub does not have any terminators onboard so whatever of the 3 universes that you are not using are just 'hanging' there unconnected to anything.  Daisy-chaining a 4-port passive hub off of one of these wouldn't seem like it would make it much worse than it already is especially if you are using all 4 outputs on the hub.  The preference would be to use an active hub with regenerated output signal though, so there is no possibility of reflection back to the source.