[PEJParticipant]

I went with this product series.

https://www.middleatlantic.com/products/power/horizontal-power-distribution/pds-series-rackmount-sequencing-power.aspx

[PEJParticipant]

I’d break it down in order narrow down were the problem is. Connect the AR directly to the GLD using the trunk cable only to first confirm the A&H components are not the source of the problem. Assuming this works fine, I would re-introduce the two switches and associated extra jumpers required, but I would complete a factory reset on the switches so they are basic layer 2 switches with no elaborate configuration. (I assume you have saved the existing config before resetting). If this works fine then you have narrowed it down to the vlan and tagged port configuration that A&H discourages.
My third debugging step would be to reconfigure from scratch only adding the basic vlanning/tagging required, retesting as you go. I expect the problem may appear sometime during this process.
Your options at this point will be to run dedicated wiring for the GLD-AR or turn on QOS. My experience with QOS in my day job (network engineer) has all been positive. I have not studied the d-snake protocol and processes so i cannot argue the A&H recommendation that goes against your config.

[PEJParticipant]

Interesting use of the lamp voltage. Just use shielded mic wiring and you should be fine from a stability point of view. Your amplifiers will turn on after the mixer powers up, but unfortunately they will power down *after* the mixer, which is the wrong sequence. Maybe you have a plan for that. I used two sequencing power bars, one at the amps and one at the desk to ensure everything cycles in the correct order at the press of a button. In fact I have two power buttons in different areas for convenience.

[PEJParticipant]

I expect that @ah_support also recommends that the dsnake and all connected ME-1 be on a private dedicated network and I would agree. No competing traffic and not need to enable QOS.
The original poster indicates that they running on a vlan’ed network supporting other traffic and this is not ideal as all the traffic queues up on the trunk(tagged) port. If a separate network is not possible in this situation then QOS would ensure the dsnake traffic does not queue behind other traffic on the trunk.

[PEJParticipant]

I would try a couple of things. Increase the mtu (maximum transmission unit) on the inbound and trunk ports to the maximum. Typically 9000 or 9600 bytes. The switches might be fragmenting the frames once the tag bytes are added.

Also enable QOS (quality of service) in the switches and give those inbound ports or IPs a higher priority over other traffic. This takes a bit of work but there are likely how to guides – Google QoS and you switch brand.

Peter

[PEJParticipant]

I have seen, actually heard, a radio station come in on a wired mic input. It was balanced xlr over very old install cable. I assume the shielding had broken down. We bypassed it with new cable and it cleared up. In another case of interference someone had used unshielded telephone wiring to build a mic cable.
Check the quality of the cable on ST3?

[PEJParticipant]

Maybe I am missing something, but why not just write the scene number next to the song in your song list on on the sheet music if you use it. The function knob will spin through the scene numbers very quickly.

[PEJParticipant]

I am blown away by my Qu-24 mixer and did take the survey. I am amazed that the apps are so powerful, fast and free. It seems A&H are looking for input on future directions. The survey did not provide a write-in section so I’ll be bold and add my requests here.
1. Channel selection on 18 multitrack playback rather than forcing it to ch1 to ch18.
2. Access to 14 or more soft keys through the apps to my QU24. Access to the maximum of any feature via the app where there is no horsepower limitation to the Qu-24 (or 16).
3. More choices on the Qu-Control app such as arm/record/stop so I do not have to dedicate three physical soft keys just to QuControl them. Or allow me to assign arm/record /stop to soft keys 11 to 14 so I do not consume physical buttons. See number 2 above. Other Qu-controls… Shutdown, and ??? drawing a blank since no iDevice at home.
4. Android version of Qu-Control.
5. Next gen Qu-16 and Qu-24 powerful enough to do 32 channels.
6. Next Gen Qu. All mono mix outputs with option to join for stereo. I know you have that loud and clear 😉.
7 Finally, a Qu-SB-8 xlr channel for $400 to really compete in low end product market or drop the expected price of the Qu-SB which looks like CDN$1600 to CDN$2000. Once you hook someone on an inexpensive Qu mixer, they will be back for more. Once they buy the competition low end model, you have lost them for life… It comes down to an App familiarity issue. Low price=zero profit but = ton of sales and tons of customers. IMHO.

Keep up the great quality product. Thanks.

[PEJParticipant]

To answer my own question… The upgrade to 1.9 on my Qu24 went well. I had the flickering screen on startup, but one shutdown/power down sequence cleared that.

Now all devices, including Android, are at the same level and auto update is disabled. I will not be burned by that again. Newbie mistake.
If I was to ask for one thing, it would be a better indication of progress either via the screen or the channel LEDs.

[PEJParticipant]

Did you resolve your stalled upgrade issue? What was the solution? Has anyone else experienced issues. And… How many can provide feedback on a successful upgrade??

Peter

[PEJParticipant]

Does noone heed warnings about automatic updates? ;(

I received the iPad just as 1.8 was released. I was excited to work with Qu-Pad and didn’t give it another thought. It is configured correctly now. 😞

[PEJParticipant]

Yeah. Was afraid of that. I recently had to replace a 5e run with 6 to solve and HDMI extender issue so wasn’t sure it was a distance or bandwidth issue. Putting 6 in fixed it.

This is a large room. The conduit route is just long. I don’t have much choice. What we ran is shielded CAT 6 but as mentioned I think I’m going to be at 350ish maybe.
Not sure where I can insert a switch that I can get power. Maybe near the end of the 300′ leg. Then rest is 100’Jackreel with Ethercons. I can and was planning on shortening it. That only really need about 50′ to hit the AB168.

In one post Nicola said max 120m but recommended 100. If it would work to 120m I can do it.

Nicola?

At 350+ you will likely see errors and retransmissions which is not good for real time data from an AB168.

Replace the long Ethercon with a basic 50′ utp jumper to keep it under 300′. Replacing broken jumper (without Ethercon connectors) as required is better than packet loss in an audio system.

Peter

[PEJParticipant]

The Ethernet limit for utp (unshielded twisted pair) is 100m no matter which cable you choose. That is 328 feet. Go over the limit and you will see issues.
The Category of the wire impacts the speed it can handle. Cat 5 and 5a can handle 10, 100, 1000Mbps. Cat6 can go higher…sort of, and has better noise/interference immunity at the slower speeds.

If you need 400 feet then add an active device, such as a switch, as was suggested above. Another option would be to use fibre optic cable, but that will require a media converter or switch on each end. It will certainly exceed your 400 foot requirement.

Peter

[PEJParticipant]

Most of the band members use Androids so I have to wait before upgrading. Hopefully Android 1.9 will be released soon.

My iPad is toast because Qu-Pad auto updated to 1.9 while I was out of town. I just disabled auto updates so this will not happen next time. Is it worth my time to figure out how to downgrade Qu-Pad?

Thanks.

[PEJParticipant]

Thank you A&H.

Back in December I asked for new functionality and even named it. With the release 1.9 Allen and Heath has released Qu-Control with the features I suggested and so much more. I could be smug and say it was based on my request, but with what they released, they had to have been working on it long before my initial post.

This no-charge value add will help sales in a whole new category. I continue to rave about the product so that is free marketing to ‘pay’ for the app😀

Time to upgrade and give it a test drive. I hope it runs on my version on iPod Touch.

Peter

[Author]

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