Can we use LOR with PixelNet

[Nightowlz1966]

I was wondering if anyone has or has knowledge and using LOR with PixelNet as Light O Rama now supports E1.31 I was thinking
this might be a good time to try their software.

[keitha43]

You can use the lor controllers in dmx mode and use the dmx out of the smarthub.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk 2.

[Nightowlz1966]

You can use the lor controllers in dmx mode and use the dmx out of the smarthub.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk 2.

I am kinda confused at this LOL
I wanna use my etherdongle to my pixelnet controller to control smartstrings
Trying to figure out if I can make LOR do that.
Thanks  for any input.

[AverageJoeTX]

Sounds to me like you would go from the ether dongle to the active hub then pixel net outs to smart string controllers and dmx out of the hub to LOR via a cross over cable

[kevinpickett]

From what I understand you just connect your EtherDongle to the network card.  Then configure the E1.31 with the new network configuration software (Part of LOR 3.5) and set up the EtherDongle as a Multi-Cast DMX 1.31 device.

You configure your channels in the sequencer as DMX channels.  This part I haven't verified yet since I don't have the new Ether-Dongle yet.  Right now I have my pixels broke up into DMX Universes, one for each SSC.  Hopefully that will put me on the right path.  The way I understand it though, is the EtherDongle will take 8 DMX universes and convert them to Pixelnet for the ActiveHub to read.  Therefore you would create Universe 1 to be ch 1 - 512, and Universe 2 Ch 1 - 512 would be converted to Pixlenet ch 513-1024 etc.

The part I don't fully understand is in the LOR network config it is showing one univ per 1.31 network device.  So I don't know if LOR is using the term as a 1.31 universe or a DMX 512 universe.

Hopefully someone that has tried this will chime in a explain it in more detail how to configure the channels in LOR to work with the EtherDongle.  And if in the LOR Network setup we put in a 1.31 device for each of the 8 universes to go to the same network card by increasing the IP by 1.


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Kevin

[Jeffl]

Greg posted a "how to" video using LOR S3 and the Etherdongle to control and Express (DMX).  I hope to use this solution for my Lynx Express controllers this season using S3.

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As far as pixelnet ,I thought this was a different protocol than DMX.  I don't see this happening unless LOR implements a software change.

[Steve Gase]

With xLights and LSP, the EtD is configured as DMX, 512 universes at a time, and each universe has its own multicast IP address.

Over ethernet is it doesn't actually talk DMX or Pixelnet line protocols. 

It is up to the receiving devices (the EtD in this case) to convert the enternet packets to be Pixelnet line protocol.

So... LOR S3.5 should work fine... 

I have all of the pieces, but unfortunately I won't have the time to try it out for a few weeks to verify.

[kevinpickett]

Just to be clear, if I am understanding it correctly for LOR:

Set up the EtherDongle in the LOR Advanced E1.31 network configuration as:
Universe 1 - 239.255.0.1    Multicast - Port 5568       
Universe 2 - 239.255.0.2    Multicast - Port 5568           
Universe 3 - 239.255.0.3    Multicast - Port 5568           
Universe 4 - 239.255.0.4    Multicast - Port 5568             
Universe 5 - 239.255.0.5    Multicast - Port 5568             
Universe 6 - 239.255.0.6    Multicast - Port 5568             
Universe 7 - 239.255.0.7    Multicast - Port 5568             
Universe 8 - 239.255.0.8    Multicast - Port 5568

Same as you would in xLights. 

Set up the your channels in the LOR Sequencer as DMX Univ 1, ch 1 - 512, DMX Univ 2, Ch 1-512, etc. up to Univ 8 for 1st PixleNet Hub.

And the LOR DMX channels will be converted through the EtherDongle and the PixleNet Hub to relate as follows.

LOR Chan in Sequence relates to PixleNet Ch:
LOR DMX Univ 1, Ch 1 - 512 to PixleNet ch 1-512
LOR DMX  Univ 2, Ch 1 - 512 to Pixlenet Ch 513-1024
LOR DMX Univ 3, Ch 1 - 512 to Pixlenet Ch 1025 - 1536 
etc.

any unassigned LOR DMX channels in a universe (less than 512ch used in a single universe) would default to 0

based on the ChannelChart in the wiki.

Every 8 groups of 512 is a different pixelnet universe (4096 ch) selectable on the Active Hub.  ( i.e. DMX univ 9 -16 would require a 2nd Active Hub). 

 
Sounds easy enough.  I'm going to barrow a Etherdongle this week and document the exact steps, but this s68ounds correct based on the way LOR works and the way xLights works. 

I will also document how the iDMX and USB485 RAW DMX would play into the LOR/Pixlenet configuration. And if univ 1 only has 368 chan, does Univ 2 start as PixleNet 369 or since its based on the 512 ch universe it would still be automatically be set to ch 513.

Thanks
Kevin

[Steve Gase]

same port number.  the other tools don't require that degree of config, so I can't confirm the port numbers -- other than to suggest using the default value across the board.

each universe should be configured as 512 channels.

the ip addresses that you list below look great.

everything you describe looks like it should work fine!!!

[Steve Gase]

Sounds easy enough.  I'm going to barrow a Etherdongle this week and document the exact steps, but this s68ounds correct based on the way LOR works and the way xLights works. 

I will also document how the iDMX and USB485 RAW DMX would play into the LOR/Pixlenet configuration. And if univ 1 only has 368 chan, does Univ 2 start as PixleNet 369 or since its based on the 512 ch universe it would still be automatically be set to ch 513.

Thanks
Kevin

Thanks, Kevin!   If this works, please do send a writeup with screenshots to show the configuration that you use.
Documentation for a EtherDongle setup -- and separate documentation for iDMX are BOTH appreciated.

If it doesn't work, I will help to track down the EtD documentation for LSP and xLights so that you can look through more closely to find hints.

[kevinpickett]

As far as using your LOR boards.  IF the are being used as DMX Boards and NOT LOR protocal, than you would configure the DMX out port on the Active Hub and connect the LOR boards there.  Remember that you would have to set up the Active Hub to reserve the 1st 512 ch for DMX since LOR boards assign DMX chs from 1 to xxx starting at the lowest board ID.

Otherwise keep the LOR boards on the LOR dongle and use the E1.31 just for the Pixlenet.

[rm357]

My only concern is what I call boundary pixels. In pixelnet, the 8 E1.31 are combined into 1 pixelnet universe and the transmitted. I don't know what LOR will do if for example a pixel starts at address 511, which means its 3 channels are 511, 512, and E1.31universe 2 channel 1.

Vixen, LSP, and the etherdongle/smart string hub/ssc don't have an issue with this.
The San devices E681 doesn't support boundary pixels.

Whoever tests this let us know. Also make sure you have the latest firmware for the etherdongle. The earlier version did not handle the boundary pixels correctly...

[CW]

My experience last year was S3 with PixelNet programed to aux A network in S3 and that  went to COM 5 which had a Lynx dongle with PixelNet loaded.  And then I used Xlights to steer the networks and schedule the show. I had a total of 500 channels of smartstrings so it fit within 1 universe. I used unit 1 ID and 500 channels within that unit and it worked well.  When I experimented with unit 2 and and carrying on within the same aux A network this year, I had issues with cross talk.

So I changed to using 16 channels per unit on aux A and I am finding this to work better for the additional channels added of smartstrings.  Initial tests went well but since The Academy, I am adding a smartstring mega tree similar to the one RJ had setup there and have not tested that yet.  Hope to do so by this weekend.

I had hopes of using Etherdongle with S3 but I don't see that you can point a aux network to the E1.31. It only seams to be available in the DMX tab.  And that may be the way to do it, I just went down a different path, because I found it easier to use LOR add RGB device. I am good with Xlights so keep that in your back pocket as an alternate option.

Craig

[taybrynn]

LOR controllers run much faster under DMX than LOR protocol.   My show was lagging badly under LOR and I didn't know it.   I'd just use xlights to play the show and use LOR to sequence with if you want.   I found LOR to be a little slow with 4300 channels in 2011.

[ratroder]

Lor s3 does not do pixelnet protocal at all.

Lor can only comunicate to the etd directly is when the etd is flashed with the dmx firmware.

If one wanted to use an etd with lor with the pixelnet protocol is to set it up as an aux network and use xlights to convert the lor language to pixelnet language. Then if lor controllers want to be run on the same network they would have to be plugged into the dmx out of the active hub and be running in dmx mode. If one also wanted they could run another network for the lor controllers directly.