How many F16's can be daisy chained?

[JonD]

Ethernet standards should be the same, but unfortunately that is not the case a fair amount of the time.  A $20.00 2-port switch from amazon will not load test very well for example.  I have seen others imply they would not hold up and I incorrectly assumed the Falcon was using cheaper electronics that did not perform to loads well.  I have troubleshooted enough line issues over the years, I know the Falcon's do not perform as well as switches, but like I mentioned I have cascaded a few of them together without issue.  Appreciate being corrected... Thanks!

[darylc]

I know the Falcon's do not perform as well as switches

Why do you think this?  The Falcons literally have a 3 port switch built into them.  2 ports you see via the connectors on the board, the 3rd port is used to connect to the controller.

[tbone321]

For the same reason as all switches of the same rated speed do not perform at the same level under load.  Lower cost components usually either run a bit slower and or are less dependable.  Putting in high speed switching components could significantly raise the cost of the controller and is really not needed in most situations so it becomes a matter of cost over value.  I would rather have a lower cost that is put into reliability, even if it is a little slower in switching speed.  

[JonD]

Why do you think this? 

tbone321 summed it up well.  There is typically a lot of performance difference between a cheap $30 switch, and higher end commercial switch even though they have the same rating.  Especially with higher network loads.

The Falcons literally have a 3 port switch built into them.

I suspect technically it would be called a "network splitter".  They are meant to do exactly what they are doing, which is allowing two devices to cascade off the same network cable.  As a general rule this technology is not known for performance.

I am not sure how the Falcons speed would compare to a $30 home user class switch.  All of my switches are higher end layer 4 commercial and the Falcons are noticeably slower.  With that said, I still cascade them in a few places in moderation and get along with them fine. 

[Poporacer]

I am not sure how the Falcons speed would compare to a $30 home user class switch.

I can speak from experience that you can probably daisy chain more F16's than you think. I work on a large commercial drive through show and they commonly will daisy chain 4-5 controller and in one place they actually have 7 in the chain. I had my doubts it would even work, but they said that is how they have done it for years. Maybe they were lucky. 
But I personally wouldn't recommend more than 2 or three. But I think the limit has more to do with the total Universes in the chain and Dave Pitts probably knows more than others.

[darylc]

I suspect technically it would be called a "network splitter".  They are meant to do exactly what they are doing, which is allowing two devices to cascade off the same network cable.  As a general rule this technology is not known for performance.

No, it's literally a 3 port switch chip on the PCB. 

[darylc]

I am not sure how the Falcons speed would compare to a $30 home user class switch.  All of my switches are higher end layer 4 commercial and the Falcons are noticeably slower.  With that said, I still cascade them in a few places in moderation and get along with them fine. 

If you are talking about the web interface being slow, that is completely unrelated to the 3 port switch on the falcon.  I feel like you are just making random stuff up now.  We've tried to explain, I give up mate.

[JonD]

No, it's literally a 3 port switch chip on the PCB. 

I will take your word for it.  I work with industrial equipment all day long and typically these are called a network splitter.  A quick Amazon search suggests the same.  "https://www.amazon.com/s?k=network+splitter"   Possibly two names for the same device, and I am just used to them being called something else?

If you are talking about the web interface being slow, that is completely unrelated to the 3 port switch on the falcon.  I feel like you are just making random stuff up now.  We've tried to explain, I give up mate.

I am not talking about the web interface.  I use wiretaps and industrial equipment, but a simple iperf or imix test would show the same.  I suspect even a simple ping test would display the same results.  Connect 2-3 in a chain and look at the time-milliseconds response times with no show running, and then run your display and watch the times get slower.  If they start to drop packets, or response times start to greatly increase on a local connection, that could imply you are stressing the connection.   I stand by my comments, but always willing to learn something.

[JonD]

Maybe they were lucky. 
But I personally wouldn't recommend more than 2 or three. But I think the limit has more to do with the total Universes in the chain and Dave Pitts probably knows more than others.

That is my experience as well.  Regardless if the root cause is a component issue, or universe issue on a 100mb line, or a combination of both, the bottom line is you can bottleneck them out if you try to make them do too much.  They work fine if used in moderation.