dongle issue

[jnealand]

My bad, I got this thread confused with another one that was using the ETD.  I have used both the USB dongle configured for pixelnet and the ETD.  Both worked just fine until I went over 4096 channels.  Learning is part of the enjoyment of this hobby as well as part of the frustration.

[sirloinofbeef001]

Could the issue be caused by me having dmx for 512 channels and they overlay part of the pixel channels as well? I'm gonna have to put that to the test.

[rdebolt]

Could the issue be caused by me having dmx for 512 channels and they overlay part of the pixel channels as well? I'm gonna have to put that to the test.

You cannot output both Pixelnet and DMX out of the same Dongle! You need an active hub to convert your Pixelnet to DMX. They only mirror each other after the active hub.

[tbone321]

Could the issue be caused by me having dmx for 512 channels and they overlay part of the pixel channels as well? I'm gonna have to put that to the test.

I don't know what you mean by overlay.  Channel 25 is channel 25 and you can't have more than one of those. Now if your sequencing software allows you to assign that channel to more than one controller, then that may be an issue.  If you have your channel 25 assigned to a pixelnet controller, and that controller is connected to an active hub which is set to pull DMX from the first universe, then you would have a DMX channel 25 and a PixelNet chanel 25 which would be doing exactly the same thing "mirroring".  The squencing software would neither know or care about that, it is just sending your data on channel 25.

[Steve Gase]

Could the issue be caused by me having dmx for 512 channels and they overlay part of the pixel channels as well? I'm gonna have to put that to the test.

I don't know what you mean by overlay.  Channel 25 is channel 25 and you can't have more than one of those. Now if your sequencing software allows you to assign that channel to more than one controller, then that may be an issue.  If you have your channel 25 assigned to a pixelnet controller, and that controller is connected to an active hub which is set to pull DMX from the first universe, then you would have a DMX channel 25 and a PixelNet chanel 25 which would be doing exactly the same thing "mirroring".  The squencing software would neither know or care about that, it is just sending your data on channel 25.

Getting this straight in everyone's mind is a problem because we try to both over-simplify to make it more accessible, and then we jump into details when "simple" makes it confusing. 


IMO: We  need an integrated book/wiki/collected-videos that paints a complete picture, offers clear how-tos, and links to the details.  A troubleshooting knowledge base would be nice too!


The problem is that addressing changes based on the equipment's view of ITS WORLD.


When I use software, I am using channel numbers and a universe (in software terms a "network") that is potentially mapped to another universe.


Pixelnet uses a 4096-channel universe.  DMX uses a 512-channel universe.  It is normal to overlay (or overlap) your DMX universe on top of a Pixelnet universe.  The "simplest" way to do this is to have the DMX universe on an active hub map to the first 512 channels in the pixelnet universe.  In this way, channel 1 in pixelnet is ALSO channel 1 in DMX.


Describing only the "simple" picture does the noobie a disservice however.  If we describe this overlay/overlap as a magnifying glass... it helps people understand that the magnifying glass can be moved to look a different ranges within those 4096 pixelnet channels.  From the DMX world, the devices are still limited to 512 channels, numbered 1-512.  BUT underneath, you might have DMX channel 1 overlayed/overlapped/mapped to Pixelnet channel 1, ... or channel 513, ... or channel 1025, or channel 1537, etc.

[sirloinofbeef001]

I have the dmx ( 512 ) channels as my first channels on the dongle and  if I start the ss at 225, does this cause an issue? I'm not the best with putting these issue into words so please bare with me. The issue is with lsp, not anything else. So when I input the dmx controller (s) into the program, do I not have to designate them to an output source? This is where the conflict occurs as dmx or pixelnet is what I mean . I now understand that I need an active hub but the dongle is first in line. So its either the way in designating the channels or something else. I'm thankful for ALL of your help guys.

[aich75013]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but:
1.  USB dongle needs to be flashed with pixelnet firmware.
2.  All LSP devices need to be set as pixelnet (not E1.31 or DMX) (This is because of the dongle,not the end device)
3.  DMX Devices will use channels 1-512.
4.  Pixelnet (SSC) will use channels 513-4096
5.  USB Dongle connects to the Active Hub.
6.  Active Hub goes to SSCs and DMX out goes to your DMX Boards.

I believe this is the setup you are trying to accomplish.
I am assuming you are only using the USB Dongle and one Active hub.

Maybe tell us what equipment you are trying to connect and that will help some.

[keitha43]

For simplicity sake lets assume I have 1   16 channel DMX controller and 1 strand of Pixel nodes 50 nodes long. With all jumpers set to "1" on the active hub.

Lets say I have the DMX device's start channel set to channel "1". In LSP create a controller using Pixelnet/Smartstring as the controller protocol. And "Light Controller" as the controller type. For simplicity sake name it "DMX Controller".

Now lets say your Pixel strand's start channel is set to "17" then you create a "RGB Light Controller"(controller type)  also using "Pixelnet/Smartstring" setting as the controller protocol. give it 50 logical channels and a start channel number of 17. Notice this uses channels 17-164 because of 3 channels per node so your next pixel strand would have to start with channel 165. And your ssc would have to have it's start channel set the same. Call it Pixel Controller 1.

Now in the output configuration section create a Pixelnet/Smartstring output and it will say it is not configured. Click the configure output button and you must have your dongle plugged in and then you tell it which com port your dongle is on.

[sirloinofbeef001]

1) I started putting the smart strings in and designated them to start at 225
2) I added my dmx to start at channel 1 - 224
3) when I do this and run a test program the lsp program keeps trying to get me to keep configuring the output for the dmx repeatedly.
 this is what I have . I have a flashed dongle to 4096
 I have a passive hub and I know I need an active hub to replace it.
 this is as simple as I can put it.
 is there something wrong with the way I am trying to configure this?

[keitha43]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but:
1.  USB dongle needs to be flashed with pixelnet firmware.
2.  All LSP devices need to be set as pixelnet (not E1.31 or DMX) (This is because of the dongle,not the end device)
3.  DMX Devices will use channels 1-512.
4.  Pixelnet (SSC) will use channels 513-4096

Close. You don't have to start at 513 as the first 512 channels are outputing both Pixelnet and DMX. So you can start your Pixelnet controller at any number like I used 17 in my example above. In reality I leave a few channels between where my DMX devices end and my Pixelnet devices start in case I want to add a few more DMX devices. But I wouldn't want to waste a lot of channels by starting at 513 as I don't have enough DMX devices to fill all 512 channels.

[keitha43]

In the output configuration screen did you configure your Pixelnet/Smartstring output. The dongle must be plugged in and tell it the com port number. Also what is the com port number your dongle is using? I believe in needs to be 10 or less for LSP to like it.

[sirloinofbeef001]

My com port is 3. And the ss work awesome. I've been testing them all week without any issues other than where I copied and pasted. Its when I want to add the dmx the issue starts. At that point, not only doesn't it work not even the pixels work either. It keeps trying to get me to configure again and again the dmx

[keitha43]

What settings do you have set up in the controller you are using as the dmx controller? It should be Pixelnet/Smartstrings not entec pro or some other choice. And you should only have Pixelnet/Smartstring as your only output type.

[sirloinofbeef001]

I thought I was supposed to set the dmx controllers as dmx in the setup. I'm not sure if it is promting me to set them as dmx or pixel ( the 224 channels of dmx )

[sirloinofbeef001]

So set lsp as pixel only and let the active hub determine what is dmx and pixel?