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ETC Ethernet to Lx console
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:45 am
by nizer
Does anyone know how to hook up a macintosh via cat 5 and a ETC network? Can I do that with just LX console and the information for the network?
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 4:42 am
by admin
ETC Net 3 supports sACN and you should be able to connect a Mac running LXConsole to the network with a ethernet cable and be able to control the sensor dimmers.
You may need to configure the Mac's IP address for the network. However, that is likely not to matter as sACN is multicast to addresses based on the universe.
In sACN, there is a priority setting in each packet. This is so that devices can override others and take control of a lighting rig. LXConsole uses a default neutral priority of 100 (out of 0-200). You can change this with Terminal.app when LXConsole is not running:
defaults write com.claudeheintzdesign.lxconsole acn_priority -int 150
The other possible issue is with the specific ETC Net on the system. Older ETC Net versions used the draft standard of sACN. LXConsole outputs the ratified standard. And, even earlier versions of ETC Net did not use sACN at all...
ETC puzzle
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 2:54 am
by nizer
So Lx will only work with networks running ratified sACN? How do now what it is running?
2 dmx outputs?
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 2:57 am
by nizer
Can I send sACN out my macs Ethernet port and DMX out via USB for my local network.
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 12:02 am
by admin
sACN View is a windows application that might help with testing the system with non-ratified sACN.
The latest build of LXConsole 4.6.6 (10615.1) allows USB DMX output at the same time as sACN output. This is brand new and alters the main output loop. So, as with any latest build, do not try this in the middle of a working show. Test throughly before putting it in front of an audience. For the most part, using USB or Art-Net/sACN by itself should not change very much. There may not be many people who want to do both at the same time... So there's less opportunity for testing/feedback.
Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 4:10 am
by admin
The latest build of LXConsole 4.6.6 (10617.1) has even more flexible output options. You can independently switch on/off USB, Art-Net and sACN output.
USB output has a starting address which may be useful because house dimmers are going to be fixed in the lowest universe. By setting the USB starting address at 512, the second universe in LXConsole's patch will be output using the first universe of the USB Pro Mk 2. So, sACN can be used to control the first universe. You can select to send only a particular universe via sACN. This could be important if the house system has something in the second universe. Because although you might set the start address to send that with USB, all patched addresses (up to the 4 universe limit) will also be sent by any other enabled interface (Art-Net or sACN). Limiting sACN to only universe one solves this problem.
ALL of the warnings about a latest build that changes the output apply to this version. Test well before using in a performance situation.