E682. No output in Multicast. But works in Unicast

[dan@]

I've been struggling to get the test lights to work thru Xlights to my E682.

I had my setup done in Mulicast and would not get any output to the E682.

Out of curiousity, I switched to Unicast and the test output would work.

Why is that?

[rando1957]

The XL setup should match what you did on the e682 web screen. Both should match and of course the number of universes should match as well. You probably already know this but was the first thing I thought of.

[dan@]

Thats the thing. They did match. Multicast in Xlights - Multicast in E682.  Did not work.

Tested Unicast in Xlights - Unicast in E682 and they worked.

That was all I changed.

[gerry]

Generally such type of errors can occur if you have overlapping definitions or the same Chanel group or universe defined on more than one controller.

I would use the DA131 utility to troubleshoot as it has resolved such isues many a time for me.
Download from the Auschristmas site.

[dan@]

I'll go look for that.

I only have this one controller operating and defined in any of the locations. In fact I only have each set up currently at 1 universe of 510 channels. 

All works in Unicast, but nothing in Mulitcast.

[gadgetsmith]

Some switches and routers are know to block multicast traffic, so that may be a possibility.

[Gilrock]

So why no not just use unicast?  That's the method I prefer.  I like to know exactly where my data is being sent and who is going to receive it.  Not just flood the network hoping it gets there.

[flyinverted]

Multicast/Unicast an overly simplistic explanation

Have you ever gotten those slick adverts in your mailbox at home with no address on them? 

Those are the equivalent of MULTICAST.  The sender gets them to the post office and they got out to ALL addresses.

A envelope addressed to you has one address on it and is equivalent to unicast. It's about the destination address, there's one and it gets there.

When you send Multicast data on your network, that traffic goes to all devices on your network. Every phone on wifi, every computer, gaming system, alarm system etc that is plugged into your router receives that network traffic and has to decide what to do with it. All of those devices will do the same thing you do with that slick advert, they discard that data.  The lighting controller should receive the data and say I know what to do with and respond accordingly.

Some routers know that multicast is for wimps and do not even pass that traffic. 

Unicast is my preferred method. It works.

[gerry]

Dan ,

I you want to pursue and localise the problem , try using the DA_131 utility from the AusChristmas lighting
site or I can email it to you.

For most of us down under , it is the first port of call in such situations as it removes the sequencer set up from the equation (xLights may be easy to define but others that I used last year were a tad tricky)
 
I used Unicast last year (but as an absolute minority down under) and only because it was my first year and once I got stuff to work (5 controllers) , I was not going to touch it for the rest of the year.

There are pages of discussion on this topic .

This year , I am so far using multicast as am redoing the network, but to be honest , I don't care much either way.