Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere - quick search and I couldn't find it.
So I have all my controllers setup so I can neaty daisy-chain the cat5 around the front of the house, but this year I need to setup a controller way up at the front of the yard (a DIO32). Can I use the RJ11 connection on one of the controllers IN ADDITION to the two RJ45 so I can effectively make a T-junction to branch off to the yard? Or do I have to send a long length of cat5 up and back again to be included in the daisy-chain?
Funny you ask this, as I just tried this about 4 hours ago, as I was in the same boat you are in. (it will save me a few hundred feet of cat5 cable)
What I found out is I could run a phone cable from the computer to 1 controller, and then 2 cat 5 cables from that controller to other controllers, so the 1st controller does have all 3 ports being used, and all controllers were found.
Last edited on Sat Nov 7th, 2009 02:05 am by bwaldrep
It is not a supported configuration. As long as it works, it won't damage anything. But if stuff acts wierd, it is the first thing you will need to change away from. The rs485 network is like one long resonant tube. Keep it as one path with 2 open ends and you get a pure note. Add a Y and some more tubing and now you have an extra reflection, and no way to predict how it will behave.
-klb- wrote: It is not a supported configuration. As long as it works, it won't damage anything. But if stuff acts wierd, it is the first thing you will need to change away from. The rs485 network is like one long resonant tube. Keep it as one path with 2 open ends and you get a pure note. Add a Y and some more tubing and now you have an extra reflection, and no way to predict how it will behave.
Hmm, interesting. I'm having some minor instability maintaining sync (steady red light) on some of my controllers, periodically the red light blinks a few times and then goes steady again.
I originally thought it was because I was trying this Y-split idea (although hadn't plugged any controllers in to those ends yet) but after taking the Y-split cabling out things seemed to improve, but not completely. As I said, I don't have all my controllers plugged in yet and I have a cable just hanging in the open at the moment so that might be causing this problem, but I'll keep an eye on it.
