Lighting Networks, Good bad, ugly using E1.31

multicast

multicast

Senior elf
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
715
Hi,


I'd be really keen to hear about any E1.31 network nightmares you've had. What works and does'nt work for you. Nothign is wrong or right here.
 
I've heard of people having a hard time getting E1.31 to play nicely where the PC has both wired (to controllers) and wireless (to Internet router) connections.
 
There are a number of nightmares when it comes to the jump to E1.31 after using usb dongles.
- understanding that each E1.31 board needs it own IP so that it can be addressed successfully
- configuring your PC firewall so that your sequencing/scheduling software can access/control the boards
- configuring your router/s firewall/s so that the boards can be accessed
- lack of feedback from the E1.31 boards to anything (computer or sequencer) to say that there is a valid data pathway and that data is getting there successfully
- configuring the right IP range so that computer/router/board all talk. It's not as simple as giving them all an IP. 10.0.0*** and 192.168.**** being common network ranges won't necessarily allow communications to get through.
- I doubt that too many have the issue but there is a 100m limit between devices that needs to be taken into account too
 
I have had the issue when using my laptop to check my sequences and leaving my wireless on that it overloads my router with too much info and it locks up.
 
You'll definitely want to stay away from Wireless, but the rest just comes back to normal IP networking 101.

The 100m limit is just for a single wired Ethernet connection too - a LAN switch at the 100m point is all that's needed to 'regenerate' the packets for another 100m. (Not a practice I'd recommend for a proper network design, but for Xmas Lights we won't be running fibre links will we :))
 
David_AVD said:
I've heard of people having a hard time getting E1.31 to play nicely where the PC has both wired (to controllers) and wireless (to Internet router) connections.
Click to expand...

This is exactly the problem that was experienced at the Adelaide Mini this year - E1.31 controllers connected via wired NIC, internet access via wifi. The venue's network was being flooded by multicast packets when certain sequencers were running (merely being open - and not playing back a sequence). It would save a headache if E1.31 multicast could be restricted to one wired NIC/wifi receiver. Then E1.31 could send to all IP's on one network only.

As it stands now, the only option short of requiring all demo's & displays run in unicast is to block any E1.31-driving computer from internet access.
 
I think I have found a solution to my E1.31 & home network problem via LOR forums.

It seems that when not ALL E1.31 devices are plugged in it tries to throw out the traffic on home network. I am running unicast. So basically I have 10.10.10.12 & 10.10.10.13 hooked up but NOT 10.10.10.10/11/14/15 yet so its hunting for those.

At the moment Im only able to hook up 2 of my 6 E1.31 devices, it wreaks havoc/breaks my home connection.

Once all my devices are outside and setup I hope that will remedy the situation.

Once showtime begins in Nov/Dec I will be unplugging the internet cable from showpc but till then I would really like to be able to sit outside with my laptop and teamview in to test lights.

Of course it only hiccups when commlistener.exe/LOR Control Panel is running.
 
I tested my lights (in the garage) on Saturday night and ran my complete show (twice) using Xlights. I accidentally left the wifi on, on my laptop (I had read that it's not a good idea), but I had zero problems (during the second run I was accessing the internet to check out ACL too). I tried with HLS and had the same result. I am using 2 x e6804's to run 525 pixels via 8 universes (did it this way because it was easier for me to manage/understand) using multicast. I don't have a lot of elements or pixels in my show so maybe this helped. I intend to test the show on my Raspberry Pi on the weekend. I am new to all of this so I am expecting some issues as I go. So far all I've had to do is change out one dodgey cable (it was my new soldering skills at fault).
 
I have a networking issue, First of all I have A pixlite and two Sandsdevices and using LOR software. Running this though my laptop which has wireless internet. What happens that when I start a sequence the P.C. is talking then it stops, I unplug the cat5 cable in P.C. and plug it back in and it talks until it decides not too.
I tried disconnecting internet also in local area connections of changing the IP, currently using 192.168.1.202.
The IP's for the controllers are-192.168.1.206 + 220 +200
Any solutions or point to the info out there.
Just another day in the park!
 
Are there any messages that are coming up in the Comm Listener? Also if you are using a lor sequence and the network preferences have a usb-lor dongle specified but it's not attached then the sequencer will turn of the "control lights" check thingy.
As a test of network and hardware I'd suggest closing LOR completely, especially the control panel which runs the comm listener, and give the application da_e131 a run to see if it talks successfully to all your boards. You can get if from http://www.da-share.com/software/da_e131/ and there's nothing much to using it.
 
AAH, Well this is what happens. LOR control panel is off, The only cable that is connected to PC is the cat5 running the controllers. I turn on red to full intensity and it will turn off, so if I use the mouse to move the red lever it will turn on and then go off when I release the mouse from the lever control, hope that makes sense.
So during it go on and off the cat5 in the PC port does stop talking. With the connection made with da_E131 should it be talking all the time?
 
At this point my issue seems to be solved. disconnecting my AVG AntiVirus software,Cat5 keeps on talking.
And I certainly hope that was it! Thanks for help
 
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