limit to LOR channels in 4.xxx

[jerrymac]

Is there a limit to how many LOR channels 4.xxx will handle?

[Gilrock]

Yep.

[Lights On Fifth]

I used 240 last year

[Gilrock]

Yeah I gave a vague answer because we really need to know more about what you are trying to do.  I'm not sure what you consider to be a "LOR channel".  I ran 798 of what I call LOR channels last christmas but that's because I run my LOR equipment in DMX mode and I was controlling them from an FPP.  If you are running with the LOR USB dongle there is a much lower limit to what you will be able to control.  Also how do you plan to run your show?  Are you driving it from a PC using xLights?  When you ask was version 4 can handle do you as far as creating the show or as the show scheduler?

[jerrymac]

LOR CHANNEL as a single channel using LOR's protocol thru a USB 485.  Not DMX through LOR.   A.C. single control  output.   Had been told there was a 97 channel limit (not sure where the info came from).  Question is if there is a limit in XLights 4.xxx as to the maximum number of LOR channels it will control.  Currently have 25 LOR controllers (not including DMX through E1.31).

[Gilrock]

I've seen Sean post advertised limits for the LOR USB dongle and it was based on how many channels you could run without getting lag.  If those are 25 sixteen channel controller that's 400 channels and you probably have lag already if using the USB dongle even if you are running with LOR software.  Or maybe you've already done what I did when I was using only LOR software which is I had to run 2 dongles to reduce the lag.  When I switched it all to DMX the lag problems disappeared.  I've never run my show from xLights.  When I switched to DMX it was the same time I switched to using the FPP and I ran all E1.31 with a single wire going out to my yard to a 5 port switch.  Then just use one of the many E1.31 cards that has a DMX output, create a DMX to LOR crossover cable for the first LOR controller and then daisy chain from there like normal.

The problem is most people are afraid to change everything once they have something working.  What I did was waited till the day after Christmas 2 years ago and I switched everything over to the FPP and E1.31 data all in one day.  I was willing to take the risk that last week but wanted to test while everything was still up in the yard.  It worked so beautiful and I didn't touch the FPP for a week.

[sean]

Jerry; we keep getting asked why the USB lor setup window says there is a 96 channel limit (per dongle). Matt brown wrote this code in 2010. I think the limit is only that after 96 channels it starts to lag. How many total channels do you have? How many lor dongles do you have. The recommendation is to switch your dongles to dmx mode as it can drive more channels .