Net3 ACN Gateway Crashing - N34G-4OUT

Hey All,

I'm a dealer as well as a freelancer here in Chicago.

Today I'm out at the set of Empire Season 2 helping them shoot a couple of shots in studio. They are having an issue that I need help troubleshooting. I sold them the hardware (new Ion, new gateway, and a bunch of other things) around June of this year, so I have a number of vested interests in getting this fixed for them.

They have this gateway setup on a very simple network: Netgear Prosafe Switch FS108P, Ion 2k, Airport WAP (for Ipad Mini), and this NET3 gateway. They have an identical setup for some other stages here and are experiencing the same crashing issues. These rigs are outputting between 600 and 1200 addresses depending on which stage they are on on a given day. They are on for an average of 15 hours a day, and 5 or 6 days a week, and are power cycled at least once a day, usually twice a day (during moves).

4 times since July 1 they have had a gateway just completely drop connection to the consoles. The gateway doesn't loose power, it shows as not having connectivity to the console (all four ports flashing). They have cycled power on the entire control rig (including switches and consoles) and had it come back up. This isn't during fades, large changes or anything. Just sitting idle for hours, and then bang, nothing. I'm not clear if the dimmers maintain state or turn off, but I can find out if that would inform the situation.

Today being a shooting day, there isn't much I can do to troubleshoot, or really even poke around in the GCE. However, what should I have them look for?

The first things I thought of to check is:

Turn off RDM

Check ethernet cables

Ensure static IPs

Cycle power routinely (but they say they do already)

What else should I recommend. It is a pretty new node, and in fact, if I had to guess, it likely isn't the node that is the issue. To me it sounds like a networking issue. The FS108P is unmanaged, but either way if it was working great, I wouldn't think that switch would dump connectivity for no reason.

Also, this happens to both rigs, which are both almost completely new, so it sounds like a config issue more than an anomaly. Is there a firmware update for these gateways? What else am I missing.

Tech support, if you want to reach out, I can send SNs, software versions, or whatever else you might want to know.

Thanks all,

Casey

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murrro over 8 years ago

If you continue to have problems... Try connecting the console to gateway directly, with a network crossover cable, and powering gateway off of a wallwart. (Thus eliminating the switch and poe, for testing...)
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marcusbirkin over 8 years ago in reply to murrro

Just for your reference and convenience:

A cross-over cable is not required with any of our current generation consoles or gateways due to Auto MDI-X (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-dependent_interface#Auto_MDI-X
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KarenG over 8 years ago in reply to marcusbirkin

Is the more info on this thread? I have a brand new system which is crashing, network error sounds very similar. I have Ion, 4-port and 2-port Net3 gateways, net gear power safe 8-port network switch with 4-port PoE. All cat5e has been checked for standard B and length. IP addresses are in the correct 10.101.range. i appreciate any insight! I have not even be able to build a show yet because I can't get the system stable. Thanks.
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corey cascio over 8 years ago in reply to KarenG

Hi Karen,

What is crashing? Is the Eos Software on Ion crashing?

Could you list all three parts of the Ion, and Gateways here?

Network Address Settings:

Ion IP:

Subnet Mask: 255.x.x.x

Default GatewaY: x.x.x.x

Thanks,
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marcusbirkin over 8 years ago in reply to KarenG

Hello Karen,

What is the exact model number of the switch?

Are the symptoms by any chance: works for awhile (about 5mins) then stop?

Regards,

Marcus
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PhilipW over 8 years ago in reply to corey cascio

Corey,
This is Philip Wheeler, a tech working on this KarenG. This is Gamut Theatre install (#300439700, Job #15037024)
Ion is not crashing - the 'crash' is all lights out, then the Ion still functions but nothing happens
Two Net3 2-port Gateways, one Net3 4-port, all in PoE side of the switch, Ion and dRD12 unpowered
Still haven't confirmed IP address of the NetGear switch - all others (as KG stated) are in correct 10.101.xx.xx range
Subnet Masks are all 255.255.0.0
IP Gateways were all 0.0.0.0 (or 1.1.1.1, can't recall @ the moment)
BUT...all are Dynamic. A very clear next step to me is try with Static IP in the Gateways.
RDM Disabled on all Gateway outputs
If I can cause the light dump with any change to the control pathway - which I can - then (I'm guessing) anytime Dynamic IP considers a change it could be a cause.
All Gateways are PoE using the NetGear switch. Another next step could be wallwarts.

Once set, what must be altered in the Ion to ensure good continual control comm?
What can we check/confirm on the Ion to establish/verify this?
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PhilipW over 8 years ago in reply to marcusbirkin

Netgear Prosafe GS108PE
Main symptom: works most of the time, but some change is attempted and all the lights go out - see also my reply to corey
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PhilipW over 8 years ago in reply to marcusbirkin

Netgear Prosafe GS108PE
Main symptom: works most of the time, but some change is attempted and all the lights go out - see also my reply to corey
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marcusbirkin over 8 years ago in reply to PhilipW

Hello Philip,

The switch will be at fault in this situation.

This range of Netgear switches are designed as edge switches in small business, not as standalone products in a lighting network. As such the default configuration will cause problems.

You will need to download the "NetGear Prosafe Plus Utility" can configure the swich. The option you want to disable is "IGMP Snooping"

The manual for "NetGear Prosafe Plus Utility" can be found here: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/ProSafe_Plus_Utility_3_0%20_UM_23Sept10.pdf

Technical explanation on why these switchers don't work out of the box:

As stated above, these switchers are designed as edge switchers, intended to extend a network in a office when you need an extra port or two. It is there intension that a central core switcher is used.

The switch therefor doesn't want to do anything that the core switcher should be in charge of.

IGMP Management is the function of routing multicast (in the case of a lighting network - the ACN and sACN data) to the correct location. It requires two functions to operate: IGMP Querier (Only 1 per network - On the core switch) and IGMP Snooping (enabled on every device). With out the IGMP Querier, things will work for a short time and then fail.

These Netgear switchers don't support being an IGMP Querier as they expect this to be done by the core switch, however they do, by default, enable IGMP snooping (So that they are easy to install).

Regards,

Marcus
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PhilipW over 8 years ago in reply to marcusbirkin

Corey & Marcus:

We've disabled RDM and set Static IP addresses for all the Net3 Gateways in the system.
(Most were already disabled, but all of them had been dynamic IP)

We've also disabled DHCP on the Ion console.
This appears to have stabilized the system, as we've had no dropoffs since.

We were able to make these fixes and stabilize the system largely through your collective help here in this forum, and with extensive assistance from the Tech Support folks (special thanks to Ezra who worked patiently with me on the phone last Friday). Thanks you , all, for your expertise and assistance!
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