2018.5 - Crash when adding 4th LOR controller

[brichi]

So the new LOR button is great to add controllers but once i add the 4th controller, XLights crashes

how to reproduce on WIN7 2018.5 64bit

1. Go into setup and click "ADD LOR"
2. choose com port ( 4 in my case), BAUD 512,000
3. click add and add a few controllers

with 3 added everything works pretty good, once i add the 4th LOR controller i can no longer use XLights, It crashes once i enable the LIGHT OUTPUT button

heres a screencast video showing it all - https://youtu.be/Mmovu4hFMWo

This is also happening on my Mac, High Sierra , Here is the crash folder - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HFjPsASTsRC0OA_kuX29MknFfuyiszAG/view?usp=sharing

[Gilrock]

A couple things.
1) It would be best to not alter your setup with an open sequence.  Define your setup and then create a sequence or close the sequence to make changes. 
2) You are probably way past the limit of what you can do with one output at 512K baud.  It's not possible to send 8400 channels of data down the line at that baud rate within a 50ms frame.  In a best case scenario it would take 165ms to send one frame of data and that is if you have only 1 bytes per channel.  With the LOR protocol it will depend on how complex the effect is.  If you do simple effects you have a better shot but a Butterfly is close to worst case.

Now it shouldn't crash but that's probably a buffer I didn't make big enough but even if I increase the buffer its still not going to work without major lag.

[brichi]

so is there another way I can configure this in XLights?

In LOR I can have all 8 controllers running off 1 USB adapter and the show was perfect

[Gilrock]

I can probably fix it from crashing but I can't promise you can run as many channels in xLights on the LOR protocol.  Most people switch to DMX because then you send all your data with E1.31 at least 100 megabit instead of the 1/2 megabit you are using.

[brichi]

thanks!  my goal is to get off LOR controllers and all to E1.31 but I dumped so much into LOR last year and I would hate right now to have to ditch it all and buy all new controllers when I want to put the money into new props like P10 screens

[Gilrock]

You say 8 controllers....what exactly do you have?  I hope its not 4 more rgb pixels controllers on that port.  Do you know when you ran in LOR if you used the "Enhanced" mode?

[brichi]

here is a video of one of my sequences so you can see how my house is done - https://youtu.be/O2yAKJ6FLuc

Yes, I run in all enhanced mode, I have a pixie 16, 8 and the rest 4's

[Gilrock]

I don't have time for everyone's videos but I can say that xLights is running Normal mode and not Enhanced mode.  I can guarantee you that if you have all the channels hooked up and are using 512K baud that you have lag.

[iflights]

You might want to consider this...you can get a very nice 6 port E1.31 DMX Bridge for around $100.  I did it to simplify my configuration and set up with my LOR controllers and would never consider going back.  It is extremely cheap and easy to use the bridge and you get to keep your LOR controllers.

[Gilrock]

Well you know I forgot about these being Pixie's.  I don't think the Pixies work with DMX.  Its like they were trying to flood a bunch of users with cheaper hardware that ties them to the LOR network.

[iflights]

Agreed.  Didn't see it noted as Pixies.  That lower price point LOR pixel hardware does not support DMX.  Although a Google search does show links to documentation for a "Pixie4DMX" which does support DMX, but could not find in the LOR store.  Looks like that is/was intended to replace that iDMX1000 box.

[brichi]

I don't have time for everyone's videos but I can say that xLights is running Normal mode and not Enhanced mode.  I can guarantee you that if you have all the channels hooked up and are using 512K baud that you have lag.

yes absolutely im sure in normal mode it will lag, in enhanced for LOR I ran all 8 controllers and the show looked great!

I have 8 arches, 6 100 pixel spiral trees with stars, a 20 foot 16 string mega tree, 6 windows wrapped in leds, blowup with leds in it and a few small things like Tune To signs and such that all run off 1 enhanced USB adapter for LOR. I added a second network for a pixel net sign of about 400 pixels (if I remember correctly) to be safe and have it on its own

unfortunately LOR does get ya in on cheaper hardware which worked great but now I know I have to part with it to do P10 panels so I guess im going on a selling/buying spree, lol

[Gilrock]

I'm just speaking from experience.  Before I switched my show to all E1.31 and used DMX I thought my show "ran great" also.  After I switched it was an eye opener.  I was like wow that's what that effect was supposed to look like.

[Gilrock]

Even with the Enhanced protocol you still can have lag especially if you stayed with the 512K baud rate.  I could prove it just with math.

[brichi]

no need to prove it , thanks for the info though!  I am definitely looking forward to switching over to E1.31, fortunately its early so I have a long time to buy little by little and be ready for November to start decorating

I may just keep the Pixie16 for my mega tree to save me the expense of a new 16 output controller