X-Dante Latency Affected By External Equipment

[MJKlein]

This is a good one and will probably need @GaryH to explain.

I have a Planet 22 Dante interface. The Dante connection is 100 MBPS and not a gigabyte connection. While the interface works really great the connection is slower than the Dante standard - probably because it is only a 2 channel I/O.

When this interface is off, the X-Dante and Rednet PCI card devices are set (in Dante Controller) to their minimum values. Typical packet timing is about 250 microseconds.

When I turn on the interface, suddenly my Dante Audio Network mutes. When I look in Dante Controller, the X-Dante card shows that I have fatally late packets arriving, typically later than 2 ms and the graph is red. If I change the X-Dante card to 5ms then the network unmutes and everything is fine.

I know that with Dante, the slowest device on the network sets the network speed, but I never experienced a situation where the addition of a piece of gear would mess with the X-Dante card packets.

When I'm done with the interface, I turn it off and set the X-Dante card back to minimum.

I wish I could explain what is happening but I don't have the background.

[pmaillot]

Far from being an expert here, but yes, not only in Dante, the slowest equipment on your network sets the speed for all, as far as I remember.

No surprise to me the latency rises from 2ms to 5ms, even surprised it would not be higher than 5ms. The late arrival of packets otherwise expected at a given time creates malformed packets in the network interface, and fatal errors.

[MJKlein]

It rises from 250 microseconds to over 2 milliseconds so I have to use the 5ms setting on the X-Dante card. This really blew my mind. What I don't understand is how it only affects the X-Dante card's data and not the PCI-e card's data. I'd like to use this interface as a 2 channel return from the DAW for a bus but now I don't want to leave it turned on all the time because it affects the network so much. Might be time to contact the company. I should probably do a video about it too.

[pmaillot]

It may de the Dante card uses manual settings in order to be able to tune latency settings to their minimal values, whereas a PCI card will auto adapt. As a result, if the Dante network per se is optimized for latency, the actual/complete PC to device travel may not be.

[GaryH]

I had a long winded reply and my computer died....sorry for that. I lost my train of thought. Anyway the gist was, can you post your Dante controller settings, multiple pages of them? Maybe we see something off there. What is the latency between the pcie card and the offending device? Is there a switch involved? If so how is the X-Dante card physically connected? I also found with other devices involved, X-Dante did not work well when set as ext card for its sync.

[MJKlein]

@garyh sure I can do that. Gimme a couple of days as I'm pretty busy doing production.

[MJKlein]

Far from being an expert here, but yes, not only in Dante, the slowest equipment on your network sets the speed for all, as far as I remember.

That's what I read and saw in Audinate's videos about Dante Audio Networking.

[MJKlein]

I also found with other devices involved, X-Dante did not work well when set as ext card for its sync.

Gary can you explain what you mean please? In the console setup I have the Exp. Card set as the clock source.

[GaryH]

@MJKlein If you are only using the console and No switch involved, that setting may be just fine. In my system (currently not together or hooked up) I have multiple Dante devices and a switch involved with the Wing set as master. If the X-32 is then set Ext, it will after a while, throw off errors In Dante Controller. My X-Dante primary cable went to the switch, secondary short cable to the x32 network port. All the other Dante stuff also to the switch. Now I guess I’ll have to set it all back up to jog my memory Dante (and Wing) stuff has been on my back burner due to other audio work commitments since early summer. Rusty old brain. I need to get back where I was anyway so maybe I will try to put it all back together and get back up to speed in the next few days.

[MJKlein]

I do have a switch @garyh. So, the console should be set to internal?