Distributing Code Among Multiple Masters

remeolb

I am programming a residential system with 4 NetLinx masters. Two NI-3100's and Two NI-2100's. My question is, what are some strategies to distributing code among the four masters so that the system runs as smoothly as possible? I will try to include as much detail as possible but please ask if you need more info. Right now I only have code on System 11. Systems 12,13, and 14 all have blank code loaded. The system works but it is kind of sluggish. This is the first big system I have programmed so I may be missing some obvious things. Any help/questions appreciated.

System 11 (NI-3100)
-RS-232
-denon bluray
-denon bluray
-denon cd changer
-sonance iPort
-onkyo pro tuner (am/fm)
-onkyo pro tuner (xm)
-denon surround receiver
-IP
-Vantage InFusion lighting control
-MET-ECOM
-4 NXD-500i touch panels
-4 ZigBee gateways
-6 MIO-R4 Remotes
-IR
-4 Motorola cable boxes
-Apple TV
Relay
-Doorbell Interface
-3 Garage Doors

System 12 (NI-3100)
-RS232
-7 LG TV's

System 13 (NI-2100)
-RS232
-Autopatch DSP 18x18 switch
-Autopatch 8x8 video switch
-Axlink
-6 Metreau 6N keypads

System 14 (NI-2100)
-RS232
-2 LG TV's

Bigsquatch

I've never done job with 4 masters but I'm thinking a good first step would be break things down into what devices will only be used locally and put code for them on their corresponding NIs and then keep code for devices used throughout the house on system 11.

remeolb

Everything is distributed throughout the house. I don't know how I would assign devices based on any sort of locale.

a_riot42

That's a lot of masters for this size project. With 4 I don't think you will be hurting for processing power, so unless there is a compelling reason not to, I think I would use one master for all the UI processing so that the system is as snappy and responsive as possible, and offload the slower I/O type processing onto the others. But there are an almost infinite amount of ways to do it, so depending on the circumstances you have many options. Should be a very fast and responsive system if its done right.
Paul

kbeattyAMX

There's many ways to approach this project. Any devices using duet modules should be local to the device it's controlling. You can use send commands and channels to control these devices from any master. All UI function should be on the master that has the largest number of TPs connected to it.

DHawthorne

I've done the overkill with masters on jobs in the past just to isolate the systems in case one locks up or falls off line; that way the rest of the system won't fail as well. Because of that, my strategy has usually been to make each local area as independent as possible with all necessary code residing on the local master. Each master has definitions of all the UI devices, so they can all be accessed by every panel. Typically, I'll have one master do all the distributed functions, like lighting control and HVAC and multi-room audio ... then individual masters control the room or rooms they are local to for theater or TV functions. But there is no reason you can't distribute processing loads in a completely artificial way. For example, if you have really busy system, you might want a master to dedicated to media server comm and UI modules ... stuff like that. But I always ask myself, what will fail if this master drops out? I have one customer with a very large estate who hasn't even noticed when there were issues with his "main" system because the TV in his bedroom suite worked just fine. These are all considerations, and I wouldn't lock myself into any one particular way of doing it, but rather let the job dictate the system architecture.