Maestro Ethernet Spec

Martin AA6E

This should be an easy one.  The Maestro Datasheet, revised 4/16, says it supports 10/100 Mbs Ethernet. The Maestro User Guide and the Flex-6000 Datasheet are mute on supported Ethernet rates.  So what bit rates are officially supported? 10/100/1000?

I hope 1000, because my unit is perking at that rate.

Chris DL5NAM

... in earlier days was written 1000 - now docs shows 10/100 and that's OK. No need for 100 or more

EA4GLI

When I plug it into my Smart Switch it senses it as 1000M Full

Martin AA6E

If 1000 is not truly supported, we should be able to at least turn it off.  As it is, it seems to run at 1000 if your Ethernet supports 1000.  I'd say that a solid 100 is better than a somewhat flaky 1000, but this is not easily controlled by the users if you have a 1000 network.  You'd need to get a 100 Mbs switch, probably.

KC9NRN

Has it been reported as flaky at Gigabit??

Mike va3mw

I believe engineering told us it was 100mb/s max.  I'll see if I can find the note.

Mike va3mw

Chris DL5NAM

June 2015




Dec 2015

KC9NRN

If Gigabit isn't supported your switch will connect it at Fast Ethernet speed, no need to turn anything off.

KC9NRN

The Wireless option is faster than Fast Ethernet so it looks like it will never be plugged in.

Martin AA6E

@NordicPC
Speed isn't the issue.  It's about reliably delivering a continuous packet stream.  WiFi is subject to upsets that Ethernet doesn't have.

@Chris
Are these specs for supported capabilities?  Not necessarily. For example, I suppose BT4.0 is supported by hardware, but not by software yet.  So 1000 Mbs is allowed by hardware, but does software reliably support it? 

It works, depending on your definition of "work".  I'm seeing .03% error rate now FWIW, which is worse than my WiFi. With a 100 Mbs switch the error rate is zero.  The dropouts could be cabling and switch issues, but maybe Maestro is contributing.

KC9NRN

Martin, unstable wireless in a congested environment might not be reliable, wireless can easily deliver reliable data streams if configured properly. Now that of course doesn't mean the "device" will deliver reliable data streams, either via Ethernet or WiFi if their implementation of either is poor. Some devices have zero configuration taking us out of the equation meaning we have to hope who ever made the device got it right.

Ethernet isn't subject to "upsets", really, I beg to differ, the chances of Ethernet being more stable is much higher but is certainly not a guarantee. Latency is key, Ethernet delivers that in spades but then my wireless at home is 1ms, my Gigibit Ethernet is less than 1ms (I kept trying ti use the less than symbol which gets deleted?)

Thankfully my neighbors seem intent on running theirs on the same channels making the channel I use much less worrisome and stable. It would be more so if on 5GHz.

Walt - KZ1F

Martin, I specifically asked Steve on that issue some months back, and his response validated 100Mb, as 100Mb was more than sufficient to pass Maestro traffic with plenty of cushion.

KC9NRN

10MBps is more than sufficient but I still would like to see Wireless AC as it can be on a less "busy" wireless network.

Ed Woodrick

So, first, Maestro is running on Windows. So the network support is what Windows supports. Since EA4GLI indicated that the port does connect with GB protocols, then its pretty safe to assume that it is using a 10/100/1000 MB chipset. That means that it's going to basically talk to anything that you plug it into. (Even if it was 10/100, it would talk to a 1000 port, since that's part of the Ethernet protocol)
So unless you are having some issues, there's nothing to worry about.
Is 1000 Mbps better than 100 Mbps, from all indications no, the Maestro will never use that amount of network.
Is plugging it into a 10/100/1000 switch better than a 10/100 switch? No, its a switch port and inside the switch, everything is translated to at least 1000 Mbps. And it doesn't matter how much other traffic is on the network, as long as the Maestro and 6000 are plugged into the same switch.

Is the wireless going to be better than 100 Mbps? Only in rare situations. There's a lot of misconception about the faster wireless protocols. Take a look at the actual wording on your wireless routers, its actually "aggregated throughput" that gives you the higher number. The actual speed from your computer is probably a lot slower than you may think. (And the use of a 350 Mbps wireless connection to access a 10 Mbps Internet connection is quite comical)

But you have to go back to what the device actually uses. It doesn't use 100Mbs. At this point, it could have a 100000000Mbps connection and it wouldn't really change anything