Maximum units reached / exceeded

Hi all,

I have a situation where I have reached the theoratical maximum of 100 units on the cbus network. At the moment the toolkit has registered 103 units and I have another 6 or so devices to be added to the network.

I have already done a search on the subject in the forums and some responses indicate that it might not be an issue if the network has more than the 100 units. At the moment there is no abnormal activity on the nework. Also by introducing a bridge, what is the method of moving current devices to the "new" network? How does one move relays / dimmers and retain the channel definitions? I also read about the mirroring of the Group Addresses to both sides.

Am I safe to let the network run as is at the moment and play it by ear as to whether it needs splitting or should I just bite the bullet and have it done?

Regards
Arthur

 

The potential problem is that you might be near the threshold of marginal operation. Although it is all OK now, adding a few more units may make things unreliable.

You could just physically move the units from one network to the other and it will work OK as long as the bridges have "application connect" selected. If you re-scan the network with ToolKit, it will pick up the units and their settings. You will also need to copy C-Bus tags from one network to the other using C-Bus ToolKit.

It is hard to say for sure. The practical limit for C-Bus is around 100 units. This isn't just a conveniently round number to use as a rule of thumb. However, this does not mean that a network of 100 units will be fine, then the 101st unit will kill the network. Adding more units will gradually reduce the performance, until at some point, it will stop working entirely.

 

Something else to consider is that the extra units may push you over the rated current of the C-Bus cable, which is 2000mA. If every unit on your network is a standard 18mA key unit you would squeeze under that limit but a few units with higher current consumption is going to push you over the limit.

You might also find that those few extra units require you to add another power supply. Again, if you've got more than 2A of supply on your network then you might experience problems, both in terms of network reliability or, worse, an insurance company with a creative eye for avoiding pay-outs.

Play it safe and split the network. That also means you're set when the next cool product comes along and you want to add it.