More than 96 LOR channels

[rando1957]

I have 7 LOR controllers for total of 116 channels.  I noticed in the xLights setup that the max of 96 channels baud rate of 115200. When looking at a youtube video, someone had mentioned that if greater than 96 that one would have to use a second USB connection or use DMX.  I really don't understand what is required for either one of these. Any LOR users have a solution.

[colonelcline]

I took that as  "recommended" value. LOR says you can get 900 or so per USB port at 56k. lights worked fine in the computer Preview with 744 channels on one com. I don't have that many hooked up now so I can't say that xlights can drive that many but think it can.

[sean]

It is just a recommended value. Lor protocol starts to lag after this. Switch your controllers to Dmx mode and you can do more channels with less lag. If you want to keep lor protocol, just put how many channels you have

[rando1957]

Thanks Sean.  I guess for my fellow LOR users, someone can provide me on what is needed to convert controllers to DMX.  I heard something about this but not sure how that is done.

[DDameron]

You just need one crossover cable (the first one to the first LOR controller)... All the other cables to the rest of the LOR controllers are just standard cat cables... No need for another crossover cable. Hope that helps.

Dan

[JonB256]

You just need one crossover cable (the first one to the first LOR controller)... All the other cables to the rest of the LOR controllers are just standard cat cables... No need for another crossover cable. Hope that helps.

Dan

The crossover cable thing - All LOR Controllers use wires 4 and 5 for their data. (The Blue and Blue/White pair). If you use any LOR USB dongle, they use 4 and 5.

The DMX world uses wires 1 and 2 (the Orange and Orange/White pair).

So, if you are using a non-LOR Dongle for DMX output, it will need a crossover cable to immediately swap the signal from 1 and 2 to 4 and 5.

Things can get a little wild if you use different controllers by different manufacturers. You may need multiple crossover cables each time the daisy chain of wires go from LOR to non-LOR.

Is it worth it?  I highly recommend using the DMX protocol instead of LOR. As my channel count increased with LOR, I got a lot of missed commands and skips and hesitations. When I switched to DMX, that stopped.

Newer LOR controllers will auto-sense the difference between LOR or DMX on input lines 4 and 5 and start working.

[rando1957]

Maybe this is simpler than I am making it but still need some help here.
First, hardware - so today I have the USB485 connecting from PC to LOR controllers and I will have a router connected to my E1.31 controller (Sandevices). Where does this crossover cable connect to in this scheme? I have heard some make their own cable but where is a good place to purchase one?
I know LOR offers iDMX1000 and other places offer Actidongles. Are these needed at all?

Second, software - exactly what is required to be done in SE? I have set up my DMX universes for the RGB lights I will be using with e1.31 controllers. What changes are required to manage my 'LOR' controlled lights? Does each one now need to be set up as DMX?

Thanks for the help. Randy

[colonelcline]

I have 7 LOR controllers for total of 116 channels.  I noticed in the xLights setup that the max of 96 channels baud rate of 115200. When looking at a youtube video, someone had mentioned that if greater than 96 that one would have to use a second USB connection or use DMX.  I really don't understand what is required for either one of these. Any LOR users have a solution.

96 is not a LOR limit. 900 channels is what they say per network and I've heard others running more. I ran 744 channels on one HS 485 adapter last year and 4 networks total. Keep it at one network as long as you can as it gets complicated very quickly. Now xLights may have a limit but I've not test that except in the preview mode.

Now that said, I moved all my LOR stuff to e1.31 DMX but left 80 channels in LOR on one network that was a good distance from the main groups. ELL's worked better than running cat5. Working with dmx channels is easier for me and I believe that is where we headed. IMHO of course.