[QLab] MSC with GrandMA

[James]

Hi,
I'm having problems connecting a QLab to a GrandMA console over MSC
via ethernet. I've successfully connected two Macs together before but
this one has me stumped.
I've created a session in Apple's Audio MIDI Setup and added a new
entry in the directory for the GrandMA console:
Name: GrandMA
Host: 192.168.0.22
Port: 6004 (as on the MSC panel in the MA)

Other details are:
Console IP: 192.168.0.22
Macbook Pro IP: 192.168.0.86
Port: 6004
Device ID: 1

The message I keep getting when trying to connect is:
"192.168.0.22:6004 didn’t respond to the connection request. Check the
address and port, and any firewall or router settings. (12:39:53)"

Does anyone have any idea what is going on. I've looked through the
forum but can't find anything about this specifically. I've turned off
Airport and placed ethernet over all other network connection in the
service order.
HELP!

Thanks
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[Rich Walsh]

On 12 Oct 2009, at 03:44, James wrote:

> I'm having problems connecting a QLab to a GrandMA console over MSC
> via ethernet.

Three simple things to check, if you haven't already:

1. Can you ping 192.168.0.22 from the MacBook Pro?
2. Is port 6004 open in your MBP's firewall? It's not immediately
clear how to do that, so perhaps try turning the firewall off
altogether...
3. What happens if you Port Scan 192.168.0.22 on port 6004 using
Network Utility?

This should tell you that the network is OK; then you can move on to
whether the GrandMA is configured correctly. Incidentally, my Mac
seems to default to 5004, not 6004, so is this a deliberate choice -
or a possible typo somewhere?

Rich

[Charlie Richmond]

On Sun, 11 Oct 2009, James wrote:

> Hi,
> I'm having problems connecting a QLab to a GrandMA console over MSC
> via ethernet. I've successfully connected two Macs together before but

The GrandMA probably still doesn't communicate via the mac RTP-MIDI protocol
yet. I have spoken with Ernst Albrecht about this and they are aware of the
need for it but they had not yet done it as of a couple of years ago. You
should contact MA Lighting and request that they proceed if they have not yet
done it. They definitely have the protocol document because I sent it to them
at that time.

Good luck!
Charlie

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[Søren Knud Christensen]

ma-share.net

http://www.ma-share.net/forum/read.php?f=3&i=493&t=483#reply_493

Its internal MA, you can't use it with mac / pc (except for GranMa
onPC ofcourse)

I wish it worked too :-)

[James]

Thank you all very much, although it is annoying that it won't work I
am happy that I have an answer why instead of trying again and again.

Rich, in answer to your suggestions: I previously tried pinging the
desk and got the correct packet transmissions but when doing a port
scan no port 6004 was seen. MA defaulted to 6004 and the mac to 5004;
I tried both with no success. All firewalls were off.

Thanks. If I want to get this working I'll use a midi to USB convertor
and do it that way.

[Taylor John]

On 13/10/2009, at 11:52 AM, James wrote:

Thanks. If I want to get this working I'll use a midi to USB convertor
and do it that way.

Hello James,  We use Qlab with MA OnPC (also no luck with the midi over ethernet) and found that the only reliable Midi to USB for the MA machine was the MOTU Fastlane. It would even let me hot swap via USB to a backup machine without having a "Windows moment!!" Other than that the MSC works perfect right down to .001 cue numbers. 

cheers

John 

[Pierre-Luc Brunet]

Hi guys, I know this is an old post but I thought I'd reply anyway. This information can be useful.

So somewhere in between then and now things must have changed and it is now possible to use midi over ethernet with GrandMA.

I've just done some tests where the GrandMA send MSC over ethernet. The receiving machine is a windows machine using ipmidi. It probably also works with macs and ipmidi.

Here are the important things to know. 

-First of all set both the GrandMA and computer in the same IP range.

-on the GrandMA go to "Tools" -> Midi Show Control -> then choose either the MSC IN or MSC OUT click on the bottom left button (Disable, Midi Enabled, Ethernet Enabled) are the choices. Choose Ethernet Enabled.

-Set the Ethernet port (important part). IPmidi uses specific ports for each of its midi virtual port so you have to use those one. They are listed in the ipmidi manual. 

So Ipmidi port 1 is 21928

port 2 is 21929

port 3 is 21930 and so on. So set the ethernet port to 21928 (for example) in the GrandMA

-Set the MSC options correctly (device #, MSC type, etc)

-Choose which Executors is going to output the MSC (unfortunately you only the choose Default Executor or ALL Executor, not a specific one as far as I know.) The default one is the one with the Green Highlight and you can change it. This one will also be the one that reacts to the big yellow GO buttons on the GrandMA.

-Create a cue list in the correct executor and when you press GO it should output the information.

Now the other big thing to know is what message it is outputting. It's a standard MSC messages but it often or always includes the info of the cue list (executor) and cue number .000 

Executor 5.2 = Cue list 5.2

Cue 7 = MSC cue 7.000

And if you don't have that correctly it won't work. Took me a while to figure out but I used MidiOX on windows to have a look at the details of the message coming in. On mac you could use something like midi snoize or midi monitor... one of those.

So if you want it to trigger Qlab (which I haven't done) you probably would have to name your cue list something like 1.1 or 5.2 or whatever number you chose as the sending executor. Then set your cue numbers as 1.000 , 2.000 , 3.000 , 4.000 etc. Unless Qlab has an option to deal with the Cue list information in the MSC message differently.

And that's it! It was a tricky to figure out but once you know the important bits it's pretty easy.

I hope this is helpful and have fun everybody!

[John Huntington]

On 7/29/2013 04:17, Pierre-Luc Brunet wrote:
> Hi guys, I know this is an old post but I thought I'd reply anyway.
> This information can be useful.
>
> So somewhere in between then and now things must have changed and it
> is now possible to use midi over ethernet with GrandMA.

Interesting. If I recall correctly, GrandMA also echoes out most
commands in plain 'ol ASCII. We use the command line commands to run
the board on port 30,000:
http://controlgeek.net/blog/2010/10/14/controlling-a-grandma2-via-tcp-and-medialon-manager.html

And I think GrandMA uses port 29,999 for its own communications. If you
monitor that port I think you can get all the status info, including cues.

John





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[Pierre-Luc Brunet]

Interesting.  If I recall correctly, GrandMA also echoes out most
commands in plain 'ol ASCII.  We use the command line commands to run
the board on port 30,000:
http://controlgeek.net/blog/2010/10/14/controlling-a-grandma2-via-tcp-and-medialon-manager.html

And I think GrandMA uses port 29,999 for its own communications.  If you
monitor that port I think you can get all the status info, including cues.

John

Also very interesting. I'll definitely spend some time playing with that. I also wondered if the GrandMA can output custom ASCII commands (not sure about that...) That way one could now control Qlab from it. :) And a bunch of other devices as well as we know.

[Cat Chot]

Hi,

Could you guide me on how to set the port for MSC in MA2 console to 21928 please?
I can only set the port between 6000 -6100. Not sure that there's something change in MA MSC windows or I do something wrongly.