dongles differences

[charles59]

I agree with jnealand, one has to consider availability, etc.  In addition, although ethernet is easy to have, one needs to consider how you want to hook it up to your home network. Do you have the switches, ports, etc?  What type of isolation do you want, if any.  None of it hard, or showstopper, but things to consider in each individuals descision.

The problem with going for the etherdongle is that they are not readily available and they are not likely to become readily available for a period of time.  There may have a better long term output, but the time to get started is now.  You would never wait for all the traffic lights to turn green before starting out for work.  So far there has been one completed coop for the etherdongle with a target of 100 and second incomplete coop for 150.  And the sum total of those two coops do not mean that 250 people will have a dongle at the end of the current coop since many of the members will have two or even more.  We might see a couple more etherdongle coops this year but that still does not make for a lot of product availability.  There is nothing like starting with a small show and learning the ropes today.  Besides who knows if there might not be an etherdongle 2 at some point in the future.  Almost all the current pcbs are in at least there second iteration.  You can wait or start with a known available product.  The choice is yours but I want to point out that there are pros and cons both ways.

[tbone321]

Availability can be an issue either way.  What if a required part that the USB dongle uses reaches EOL like the transformer on the SSR4.  It's way to early in the year to worry about availability yet.  And if for some reason it looks like you might be able to get one in time for the season, you can always order the parts for the USB dongle from mouser and the board from RJ and build it then.  I would also bet that there will be some availble already built from happy EtherDonge owners who don't really need it anymore.  Any way that you want to spin it, the EtherDongle is the future for the Lynks controller and really the way to go.  As for getting started now, I agree but you really don't need any controllers at all to do that.  All you need is the sequencing software and the visualizer to begin sequencing. 

[tbone321]

Tbone,

Thanks for your insight.

Starting from scratch (meaning nothing!), it seems it would take for ever before reaching the limitations of the Dongle when not using pixelnet. Maybe when you reach a sizable display or implement pixelnet, those limitations are more obvious, or when you are more knowledgeable than I am. Multiple posts and the recent success of the Etherdongle coop seems to support your remarks.

What do you estimate the pricing for the Dongle to come up to? looking at mouser, cost of the enclosure, PCB... I thought you could get it for under or around $60. Am I miss something?

No, you are correct (not including shipping) but the EtherDongle is around $80 (not including shipping) so for around $20 difference, the added cost is not a show stopper.   As I said before, the channel count is only one of the features to look at.  The primary one is it's expansion capability and one of the upcoming ones is the Conductor.  With this, you no longer need a computer to RUN your shows and that can save you many headaches.  RJ plans to document the expansion port of the EtherDongle which could lead to many more really cool capabilities added to the EtherDongle.  None of this is ever going to happen with the USB dongle.  Being an Ethernet device also saves you the headache of installing and dealig with USB drivers or the PC shutting down the USB port in power saving mode before your show starts.

As for not having a lot of knowledge, it would probably be better to start with the newer equipment then to start with the old one and have to relearn it over again.  The choice is really up to you but to me it simple makes more sense to start out with the current and moving foward equipment rather than start out with a device that is already pretty much at its EOL, at least as far as design and upgrades go.