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    hkmorgan87
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Dropping Dmx

About six months ago, my theater upgraded from an Express 48/96 with emphasis to an Ion, with RPU and RVI.  We currently three 4 port nodes, and five 2 port nodes, four CEM+ sensor racks, and a Unison ER system.  The nodes, unison, and sensor racks are running Net2.

The Ion and RPU are connected to a secondary un-managed switch, which then connects to the main switch in the dimmer room.  The nodes, unison, and the sensor racks connect directly to the main switch.  All devices have static ips.

We also added 15 moving led wash fixtures and 5 moving spot fixtures.  Each electric has one 2 port node.  The fixtures are connected with dmx cable, around 60ft worth per electric.  Currently no termination, which will change this week.

Starting this past week, all 4 electrics having been losing dmx, or network connectivity.  This happens on all 4 electrics at the same time.  The fixtures will return to their home values for a split second then return to recorded values.   There are no effects or macros running.

I wouldn't expect dmx termination issues to affect the network and separated nodes (but i've seen weirder things with termination issues).  I think the problem, is in the network.  The RVI and RPU never lose connection to the primary console, and I don't lose control of the sensor racks.

I'm thinking the issues are actually in issues with the nodes.  The ion is running NCE 4.3.1. It was installed by the install company.  All nodes should have 4.0+ software correct?  They are all currently under 4.0...most of them are 3.9.xxx         Would this cause issues like this?  

Any other thoughts or thing to check? 

 

Thanks Everyone,

Harley

  • I don't quite recognise the firmware version number of the nodes. Can you check the full version number?

    First of all, which hardware are they?

    Are they Net3/ACN DMX Gateways (Four-port or Two-port) or something else?

    ETCNet2 firmware in those will always be 4.x.x, other version numbers are ACN firmware.

    The fault description does indeed sound like a bad ethernet connection somewhere - most likely the link between the two switches.
    Try a different patch lead at each end, or a different tieline - most installs include a spare. (Do not connect both at the same time, this may cause issues)



    [edited by: Richard at 5:33 AM (GMT -6) on Mon, Mar 11 2013]
  • in reply to Richard

    They are all EtcNet2 two port and 4 port nodes. I'll update with full firmware numbers when im back in front of the console tomorrow.

  • Well after working a show today.  Things have taken a turn for the worse.   First off to clarify from my first post.  I was mistaken, all my nodes are running 4.0 software or later (I'm not sure where I came up with the 3.9 software version.  Probably just tired from the 15hr shift.).  None of them have the latest software.

    So today, I head into work.  I open up NCE to confirm software version, network settings, universe assignments to the ports.  Everything seems to be in order.  However, half way through the day, I lose control of all nodes.  Upon further investigation, they were trying to retrieve an address from a bootp server.  All nodes, sensor racks, Unison, Ion, RPU, and RVI all have a static addresses.  On the Ion (which is my primary), network services are on, DHCP server is turned off (since all devices have static addresses)

    I am confused as to why the nodes would all of a sudden decide to search for bootp server.

     

    Any thoughts?

  • in reply to hkmorgan87

    The Net2 4p nodes aren't PoE so this is a long shot...

    But I've had Net2 2p nodes occasionally drop offline or lose their configs and re-address themselves through bootp when my PoE switch was overloaded. After removing a few nodes (switch reports 87% poe usage now) it hasn't happened again.

     

     

  • in reply to line4

    I have five 2port nodes running on PoE. I think my PoE switch will handle 160W (around there) The three 4 ports are connected to wall power.  That's all thats running off PoE.   It was just weird, the nodes didn't drop off till I was troubleshooting a different issue.  But I did have NCE open to check settings.  So I could have caused that particular issue (but I don't think so).

    I updated all of my node software, I updated to NCE to 4.3.1 (which after installed shows up as 4.3.0).  That has me confused, but isn't the cause of my issue. 

    The original symptoms I had lead me to believe I have a dmx ghosting issue on the electrics.  But with all four electrics and four different 2 port nodes acting up at the exact time makes me think network issue. 

    The next step I want to take is hook the ION directly to the electrics via the local dmx output, and see if I have problems (if i do, then I suspect ghosting or the Ion). If I don't then its network.

  • in reply to hkmorgan87

    We discovered last summer that Net2 nodes cannot handle RDM data.  If they get those added packets it will cause nasty things with the rig and DMX.  Make sure RDM is off.

     



    [edited by: bkeith2 at 9:38 PM (GMT -6) on Wed, Mar 20 2013]
  • in reply to bkeith2

    Thats another great thing to check.  Thanks Brendan.  I know the fixtures do not support RDM, so i'll make sure it is off.

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