Can you run an AR2412 and AR84 through a switch or does it need a direct path from S-LINK port and daisy chain?
You need a direct connection from the SQ to the AR2412 and one to connect the AR84 to the AR2412 expander port.
See https://www.allen-heath.com/media/SQ6_SLinkConnections_V1_2_0.pdf for more information.
If I’m not mistaken the dSnake protocol (40x40) runs on standard layer two networking and would work just fine through a switch.
Caveats are that the switch needs to be unmanaged or the traffic needs to be on its own vlan.
Note that in addition to what lightingman117 said, the part by Mfk0815 about the AR84 being connected to the AR2412 via the expander port is also needed (from how the dSnake protocol seems to work) – connecting both stageboxes directly to the switch is unlikely to work (mixed signals about which stagebox is the main one, audio signals for channels, etc).
Depending on the venue / network topology, you could in theory use a managed switch with isolated VLANs to emulate the chaining of stage-boxes.
Say the boxes were routed into patch-panel inputs as needed; you could then patch them to a managed switch, with unique VLANs for each path, eg VLAN-2: S-LINK + AR2412, VLAN-3: AR2412-extender + AR84, and so on. Obviously this burns 2 switchports per (non-final) stagebox, but may offer flexibility where direct-Ethernet isn’t a trivial option for whatever reason. The same concept could apply to ME-units as well.
I don’t think dSnake is routable. It’s point to point AFAIK.
@jens-droessler it can be routed through a switch, but the traffic needs to be on its own VLAN (and the switch needs to be able to handle all the data; for managed switches there are some settings that may need to be disabled to avoid problems). dSnake uses Layer 2 Ethernet (no IP), most of the packets use MAC addresses for their source (though multiple instances of the same device type e.g. Qu mixer seem to share the same address, so several on the same network/VLAN wouldn’t work) and the broadcast address for their destination.
@zyfihi neat idea, would be interested in hearing how that works if anyone tries it – as long as the VLAN is based on ports and not MAC addresses it seems like it could work.
Ok Im going to try it, our system is being delivered on Aug 26th s Ill update the post after I try it.