ethernet dmx question

[Row]

Hey Simon & List

Quick one,  I have a setup like this:

Control Processor  -- "Art-Net" --> PC1 (ola) --> sACN --> PC2 (GrandMAonPC)

The control processor is a crestron processor I have programmed to send "Art-Net".

I say "Art-Net" because it's not to standard Art-Net v1, it only sends ArtDmx packets on input changes and is dumb (no ArtPollReply).

The Art-Net is received to service ola_trigger, and is merged with olabob (boblightd) at the PC by OLA.

I then tried using Art-Net to GrandMAonPC from ola, and even though gMAonPC detected the node as 0:0 OLA it would not receive.

Im on the 10.0.0.0 network, with a gmask of 255.0.0.0 - I think MA is ignoring 10.0.0.0 and only listening to 2.0.0.0?

I can't waste time resetting my whole network to 2.0.0.0, so for the first time ever I used sACN... And it worked!

(it's funny the older you get the less time you have to spend doing fun stuff)

But it seems to be choking my network up (and I think Art-Net would also anyway).  And the control processor is being flooded with broadcasts.

Is it all broadcast udp? Can this be directed at one host and not the whole network, so my switch would do the work for me?

Cheers,

  Hip

[Simon Newton]

E1.31, streaming ACN or sACN uses multicast. One of the advantages of
multicast is that the IP addresses of the nodes don't actually matter.

The downside is that unless your network gear supports it, you can
have problems, which I suspect is the issue here.

What switch are you using? How did you decide it was choking the network?

Simon

>
>
> Cheers,
>   Hip
>
> --
> open-l...@googlegroups.com /
> http://groups.google.com/group/open-lighting
> To unsubscribe email open-lightin...@googlegroups.com

[Row]

Well it seems every port on the switch is receiving something, and my control processor is reseting now frequenty (due to flooding) but only when olad is running and sending sACN.

And my adsl modem has been acting strange also.

I have a Cisco 3500xl but i wouldn't know the first thing about configuring it :)
Maybe i should look into that.

[Simon Newton]

On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 4:09 PM, Row <dmx...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well it seems every port on the switch is receiving something, and my
> control processor is reseting now frequenty (due to flooding) but only when
> olad is running and sending sACN.
>
> And my adsl modem has been acting strange also.
>
> I have a Cisco 3500xl but i wouldn't know the first thing about configuring
> it :)
> Maybe i should look into that.

Yeah, I suggest you look at the switch. If you can try swapping it out
with something simpler and see if that helps.

Simon

[Mr.Goose]

Hi Hip, if your lighting setup is only streaming sACN, and if all your
devices connected to the switch receives this multicast traffic, this
means your ethernet switch actes as an unmanaged switch. IGMP snooping
doesn't sound to be enable on your switch. Check if you can get access
to the web interface of the switch (if enable), and activate this
feature. this will force the switch to correctly "switch" all
multicast packets to the right recipients ;-)
I hope this will help you ;-)
Mr.Goose

On Jan 6, 1:09 am, Row <dmx...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well it seems every port on the switch is receiving something, and my
> control processor is reseting now frequenty (due to flooding) but only when
> olad is running and sending sACN.
>
> And my adsl modem has been acting strange also.
>
> I have a Cisco 3500xl but i wouldn't know the first thing about configuring
> it :)
> Maybe i should look into that.

[Petr Vanek]

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 10:00 AM, Mr.Goose <goos...@yahoo.fr> wrote:

Hi Hip, if your lighting setup is only streaming sACN, and if all your
devices connected to the switch receives this multicast traffic, this
means your ethernet switch actes as an unmanaged switch. IGMP snooping
doesn't sound to be enable on your switch. Check if you can get access
to the web interface of the switch (if enable), and activate this
feature. this will force the switch to correctly "switch" all
multicast packets to the right recipients ;-)
I hope this will help you ;-)
Mr.Goose

+ at the same time try to disable anything that sounds like storm control as you can get to the other side of the spectrum - switch might start dropping packets that you do want to see on the other side...
P.

[Ryan Wilkinson]

Hip -

A crestron processor isn't really going to get you any kind of artnet packets. First, its only meant to send limited strings to control devices. Not a 30-40hz stream of data packets containing levels and artnet information. Its a much more intense protocol then the crestron os is intended to ever spit out. If you really need the processor to spit out DMX you really should be using something like the GLA-DMX512 which is a rebranded Interactive Technologies CueServer. (Cueserver is about 1/3 to 1/4 the price and the same exact unit, label and all). It is intended to accept standard control commands like firing off cues or sequences and sending them out through its dedicated DMX output port.

Now since you are using a GrandMA (even though its PC), it can take in Midi commands. I know with GMA2 you can telnet into it and control pretty much anything on it as its the command line for the console. Not entirely sure about GMA1. Using something like midi and separating the networks is best. 

And a Crestron processor is going to get flooded with packets. If its all on the same network, especially with MANet, its flooding the broadcast address and multicast addresses with packets at 30-40hz a second. The Crestron processor is looking at every one of them and parsing it. That takes up a lot of its processing power to do. Its just made for that. MANet will crush most devices on networks that arent lighting. It is a pretty intense protocol in comparison to even artnet or ACN because its not only spitting DMX out, it is meant for multiple consoles and multiple DMX processors (NSP's) in perfect sync.

One easy way that you can isolate the two networks is putting a router between your MANet network and your control network and just open up the ports you need. To avoid issues, I highly recommend you keep your MANet a dedicated closed network only between essential lighting devices and use MIDI to trigger it. Crestron makes midi boxes (CNXMIDI)!

Ryan

--

[Row]

Thanks Ryan, 

   Im sending art-net packets from the processor already, and it works fine.  I'm only sending occasional packets to trigger executors on MA, and ola_trigger, so it isn't a constant Art-Net stream. Using the module i've written I can get about 25fps for 64 analogs, depending on what else the processor is doing, but since I only need to send a couple of packets, it's not a problem. 

I thought it may have been sACN flooding the processor but it is indeed MAnet that is killing it, moving MAnet to a different network has solved the problem.

Cheers,

  Hip