Why two Vixen Plugins for EtD?

[Night Owl]

Is there a reason for two different plugins for the EtD?  On the wiki for the EtD there are two Vixen plugins for the EtD, one for the DMX firmware (Lynx EtherDongle.dll) and one for the Pixelnet firmware (Lynx+EtherDongle.dll).  I only have DMX equipment available and I have been testing in different configurations.  First EtD flashed as DMX, then flashed as pixelnet and using an active hub to convert to DMX.

I flashed the EtD as DMX, I loaded the Lynx EtherDongle.dll file into the Outputs directory of Vixen and created a test sequence of 16 channels.  The EtD drove my Express with no problems.  Then I flashed the EtD for PixelNet, hooked it up to the Active Hub, hooked the Express up to the DMX out of the Active Hub and ran the same sequence.  Express responded correctly.

Then I realized that I had not put the Pixelnet plugin into the Vixen Outputs directory and the test sequence was still using the DMX plugin.  But it was still running the Express.

When I did put the Pixelnet plugin into the Vixen Outputs directory, now I see TWO plugins listed when I create a new profile in Vixen and both are named Lynx_EtherDongle.

So now I am wondering if it matters which plugin I use and how would you tell them apart in Vixen.  Is there a difference?

[rm357]

I would venture a guess that the DMX plugin only supports 512 channels per universe while the pixelnet supports 4096.

I don't use vixen so I really don't know.
RM

[pk]

Good question.  Perhaps Rick or RJ can chime in on this.  It could be the DLLs are actually the same since the DLL is related to Vixen communicating with the EtD.  Either DLL mentioned above appears as the same name in the Output Plugins section of Vixen.

[chrisatpsu]

one sends out 2048 channels  (DMX x 4 universes)
the other sends out 16384 channels (pixelnet x 4 universes)

[Night Owl]

How would would you be able to tell in Vixen since the names that are displayed in the Output Plugins window is the same.  Would you just delete the one you didn't want at the time?

[chrisatpsu]

yeah, i know it's a pain with the way that they are named.

but yeah, only place the one in the folder that you need.
when in doubt, delete them both,and download the one you want to use from the wiki.