C-Bus network speed

I have a client looking for per-channel control across their site from a head-end.

It looks like I have 91 units (a mixture of 4, 8 and 12-channel relays), comprising a total of 712 relay channels, spread across 8 networks joined via bridges. Most of them, if this is relevant, will be the older units (not DIN-rail).

Assuming the worst case that I chose to turn on all 712 channels individually at once, how long would it take for those 712 messages to transmit across the networks assuming no major network problems (but probably assuming the network is not perfect either)? Would C-Gate be happy buffering that many commands or would I need to do that in my application logic?

Obviously I know this isn't going to be optimal, but it's useful to know the worst case before I work out how best to deliver what they need.

 

Just to clarify, as I've used some sloppy terminology here...

In order to control channels I need to assign groups to them. 712 groups does not work in one application, so my thinking is to have a different application per network and then a separate group address per channel on each unit on the network.

(To my knowledge there's no way to control individual circuits without allocating a group address to them?)

So my question is basically: if I need to send 712 group ON messages through C-Gate in one go, how long will it take?

I'm hoping that the answer will either set my mind at rest or give me a good argument to go back to the client with!

 

Like I said, that is worst case. I'm hoping that they can be talked into something less drastic.

Thanks, I'll see how this plays with them.

I assume that this would significantly reduce if many of the lights were already on, since C-Gate wouldn't (I assume) send the command to the network in those cases. It's quite likely that they'll want to have all lights on, but unlikely that they'd generally be doing it from an "all lights off" starting point.

It'll be via one CNI then out via one of 7 bridges.

Unless I can talk them into 7 CNI's but that would mean adding the network backbone as well. It'll probably be easier to talk them into grouping related circuits together.

Is there a supported way that my app can assign channels to groups without going via Toolkit? (Ie send commands via C-Gate.) The issue they have is that they don't want the change of use of a circuit to require re-commissioning, which I could avoid if I were able to assign the groups from software.

 

If you command C-Gate to switch a light on it will send the command regardless of the current state. There are good reasons for it working this way.