Artnet beginner

[Jack]

After having used the DMX King ultraDMX Micro for some time I thought it would be a good idea to upgrade to an eDMX4 PRO.

That device needs Power over Ethernet, so ordered that one too. I connected all the pieces and now I'm into the process of configuring the setup.

For the eDMX PRO a configuration tool can be downloaded, the eDMX Configuration v1.13.

The setup is as simple as I could think of. A single par in three channel mode.

Started the eDMX configurator and from the menu, I selected "View" subitem "DMX Display".

A new window opens and the DMX Display is shown.  There I click on Transmit.

When I click in the topleft corner, the par shines Red light. The cell next to it makes the par shine Green light and the one next to that makes it shine Blue.

Wonderful.

That must have happened over the ethernet cable as no other cables are attached.

But I'm a bit worried about the number in "DMX Display".

I have downloaded the ArtNetominator and when I select adapter 2.2.2.101 I can see what's happening.

I attached a picture of what's going on.  (Green machine)

So, there is reasonable success.

But now I want LightJams to control the light. And I haven't figured out yet how to do it.

Some things are obviously going okay,... but not when I try with LightJams.

Are there any other Artnet beginners that had startup problems too ?

[Jack]

LightJams shows a few red and a few green lights.

[Jack]

To get some light out of the par I added in the computer's adapter settings an extra ip adress: 2.2.2.101 with subnet mask 255.0.0.0

But I don't felt good about it and deleted it. But that was not a helpful in getting LJ to control the par.

[Jack]

Playing with LightJams and finding out which settings to use is fun. Disco time haha.

It seems one doesn't need Artnet Input at all to send out dmx packets. Sounds logical. After some trying.

Artnet input is for input signals I guess. Must be logical.

[Mathieu]

You can put your mouse over the red indicator to see the error message.

For Art-Net, patch your lights in the Art-Net universe instead of the USB-DMX. Then follow the eDMX user manual to configure the IP address of the device and your computer so that they can see each other.

[Jack de Visser]

Should there be a green Artnet indicator ?

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[Jack]

I got rid of the red indicators by basically disabling them. Put them on 127.0.0.1 which seemed to help.

And about that manual.. haha. It's not very helpful. It's clearly not directed at users who know shit about networking.

[Jack]

When I put music.1.starband in the formula section and hit Enter, no green rectangle appears. music.1.powerband neither.

 

[Jack]

Now that it's working I tried to minimalize the configuration. So, I deleted everything that didn't affect the working.

I started with the adapter settings.  I deleted the 2.2.2.101 ip. There are only two ip's left.

LightJams ArtNet output adapter selected on the first adapter's ip adres: 192.168.178.110

eDMX Pro's output adapter selected on the second adapter's ip adres: 192.168.178.111

The eDMX configuration tool has the nasty habit of needing to be restarted to show an actual status of adapter settings (Network Adapter IP Adress.

There is not even a refresh button to find the adapters around.

Anyways.. the setup is still working. All Trial and Error stuff.

But now I would like The Artnetominator to see what's going on. When I start it, I get an error message.

So, that is the onliest problem that is left. How to let Artnetominator participate in monitoring the stuff going on ?

[Mathieu]

Hi,

You shouldn't need two IP addresses for your computer unless you have two network cards. I guess you're running the eDMX config utility at the same time you're starting the Artnetominator. Unlike Lightjams which doesn't lock the port, the eDMX utility does. So first close the eDMX utility.

However, the Artnetominator will not see anything in your current setup since Lightjams is unicasting DMX (sending data directly) to the eDMX. It's a more advanced topic, but you could edit the subscribed universes for the eDMX in Lightjams and remove them all to broadcast DMX instead. The downside is that your network may have some performance problem with broadcast, so remember to revert back to unicast after your testing.

[Jack]

ah. I'm gone try that. Only one IP address and I will close the eDMX utility. Much is getting clearer. (The patching went okay from the start by the way. Must therefore be very intuitive).

[Jack]

Okay. I've tried it. First I made sure there's only one connection active. Closed the wifi thing connection.

 

I have only one ip adress in the computer's adapter. It's in this case: 192.168.178.110

 

Out of curiosity I started eDMX at this point. And it gave me a sort of error message. No network cards configured. lol

After clicking away that message the eDMX program appeared with everything disabled. It seems it's a helpless program without a network card that it can find or likes.

So, I put my hopes on the Artnetominator itself. I started the program, but I got an error message from the Artnetominator too.

The funny thing is dat LightJams is still running and the eDMX is still sending dmx to the light all the time which is working fine.

It's like once the eDMX has appropiate network settings, it will keep working like it should.

The proposed settings, only one IP adress, gives problems with the eDMX and the Artnetominator.

[sightsoundcookeville .]

Of course you have to select a network adapter in eDmx configurator. On my rig I have 3 network adapters, so it does not select one by default. 

eDmx configurator and Lightjams do not like to share a network adapter. Run one program at a time. 

It seems like you should learn a bit more about networking in order to be better at art net. Art net works without much effort when the network is properly set up, most of your issues have been with network set up. 

I've actually gotten so good at networking for lighting I started doing networking for a living. 

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[Jack]

"eDmx configurator and Lightjams do not like to share a network adapter."

That seems to be the case. With "do not like to" replaced by "can't". Which was very confusing.

When I close LightJams and start eDMX configurator it finds the adapter on 192.168.178.110

On Sunday, 18 June 2017 15:02:01 UTC+2, sightsoundcookeville wrote:

Of course you have to select a network adapter in eDmx configurator. On my rig I have 3 network adapters, so it does not select one by default. 

eDmx configurator and Lightjams do not like to share a network adapter. Run one program at a time. 

It seems like you should learn a bit more about networking in order to be better at art net. Art net works without much effort when the network is properly set up, most of your issues have been with network set up. 

I've actually gotten so good at networking for lighting I started doing networking for a living. 

On Jun 18, 2017 8:51 AM, "Jack" <jackde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Okay. I've tried it. First I made sure there's only one connection active. Closed the wifi thing connection.

 

I have only one ip adress in the computer's adapter. It's in this case: 192.168.178.110

 

Out of curiosity I started eDMX at this point. And it gave me a sort of error message. No network cards configured. lol

After clicking away that message the eDMX program appeared with everything disabled. It seems it's a helpless program without a network card that it can find or likes.

So, I put my hopes on the Artnetominator itself. I started the program, but I got an error message from the Artnetominator too.

The funny thing is dat LightJams is still running and the eDMX is still sending dmx to the light all the time which is working fine.

It's like once the eDMX has appropiate network settings, it will keep working like it should.

The proposed settings, only one IP adress, gives problems with the eDMX and the Artnetominator.

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[Mathieu]

If the eDMX utility doesn't detect any network adapter, maybe you should restart your computer to be in a known good state. Then start the eDMX utility only (not Lightjams and Artnetominator). Then configure the eDMX and close the eDMX utility.

To see DMX in the Artnetominator in your current setup (Lightjams unicasting to the eDMX), see my previous comment.

[Jack]

I was unaware of the inability of LJ and the eDMX configuration utility to share one network adapter.

But now that I know to avoid running those two together I'm getting somewhere.

In LightJams there are two nodes detected.

1. ArtNetominator

2. DMXking

Which looks very solid and expected.

The Artnetominator is free of error messages now. But it's not showing the dmx traffic.

I think I'll have to try the restart entire computer advice.

[Jack]

Lightjams and the eDMX configuration utility don't go well together. The same is the case with the Artnetominator and the eDMX configuration utility.

1. If you start eDMX configurator first, the used adapter's address becomes unavailable in LJ and Arnetominator.

2. If you start LJ or Arnetominator first the used adapter's address becomes unavailable in eDMX configurator,

The programs basically mutual exclude each other's use of the same network adapter.

 

On Sunday, 18 June 2017 15:14:32 UTC+2, Mathieu wrote:

[Jack]

According to LightJams the Artnetominator is monitoring the dmx traffic.

 

But the Artnetominator doesn't show anything.

 

I was expection green lights flashing on the first three dmx channels. 

In have resetted everything with a restart of the computer and powering off the par and the eDMX device.

 But still no activity on the Artnetominator.

I'm gone reinstall the Artnetominator.

[Mathieu]

Yes, that's a known problem of the eDMX utility. You can contact the DMXKing and let them know about it.

[Mathieu]

From a previous post:

[Jack]

LJ or Artnetominator cause the same for the eDMX utility.

It's not only the eDMX utility, it's LJ and Artnetominator too that cause problems for the eDMX utility.

Mutual exclusion of the same adapter.

[Jack]

I should have reread this comment. Sorry for that. But I was trying to figure out the thing with the eDMX configuration utility and so I didn't reread this post.

Reinstalling the Artnetominator was silly I guess. I'm just trying to understand.

On Sunday, 18 June 2017 16:29:09 UTC+2, Mathieu wrote:

[Mathieu]

Well, without going into the technical details, the eDMX utility tries to open the network socket with an exclusive access. So if any other app is using the socket, it fails. Lightjams and Artnetominator allows sharing the socket.

[Jack]

It's working!.

I deleted universe 0 unicast, forcing it to broadcast. Now I see the Artnetominator in action as I expected.

I guess the unicast is directed traffic and the broadcast is going to the eDMX as well as to the Artnetominator (and probably anything else connected).

That was easy with a good result. Very satisfying to see channel action in the Artnetominator.

On Sunday, 18 June 2017 16:29:09 UTC+2, Mathieu wrote:

[Jack]

Well, it sounds completely logical. And explains the behaviour.

[Jack]

LightJams can detect there is another adapter, but it cannot claim it because it is exclusively assigned to something else.

Can't LightJams show the adapter adress in red or so and add a hoovertext the adapter is exclusive in use by something else ?

It was very confusing. And that way one would not have to blaim some other program. Maybe there are good reasons to try to get exclusive access to that adapter for the eDMX. probably I would think.

[Jack]

The eDMX configuration utility manual has this text in chapter 4:

4. CONFIGURATION UTILITY

The eDMX Configuration utility provides a simple interface to all device parameters. Only version 1.9 and above is compatible with eDMX4 PRO devices. Typically these are set once during initial configuration and left untouched. If you are not confident in setting up network IP Address, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway parameters please get in touch with DMXking.com support and we’ll walk you through the process. DHCP is not currently supported.

Special note: Once you’ve finished configuring your eDMX product close the application before starting your lighting control application if it’s run from the same computer.

So, there is a note in the manual that says to not use the configuration utility and the lighting control software at the same time.

The note doesn't say what happens if you don't close the configuration utility. And why it should be closed.