Author Topic: Testing Etherdongle  (Read 3176 times)

Offline drlucas

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Testing Etherdongle
« on: July 14, 2013, »
I'll try to explain my situation but may resort to back of napkin drawing shortly..

PC is running xlights (I have wire shark installed and can see packets going to the .4 multicast address). PC is connected to network switch.

I have etherdongle connected to network switch and see the Ethernet port flashing lots on it. (Straight through cable)

I have active hub set to pixelnet universe 1. A straight through cable from the etherdongle to pixelnet input.

I have dmx universe set to 4 and dmx output from hub to three Daisy chained LEs. I can see the data light pretty much on solid on the three LEs so long as I connect the hub to the LEs so looks like dmx output from hub to LEs is working.

In xlights I have e131 with starting universe 4 and one universe. I have 48 channels set to chase pattern. Output to lights.

Yet unfortunately no blinky at all.

I have no ssc or DSc yet to test the pixel net output but was thinking I could at least get dmx tested and running.

Any thoughts on my setup where I may be going wrong?

Straight through network cables correct? I am not 100% confident that all 4 pairs are exactly the same for my network cables as I crimped them myself from years ago but at least 1,2,3 and 6 wires are good as my PC to switch works with all cables. Any posts or wiki articles to point me to for configuring xlights or even perhaps vixen to so some simple blinky tests?

I know the LE work because I have done previous USB dongle tests. Not 100% sure what firmware is on the etherdongle as I bought it 2Nd hand.

Let me know your thoughts on this one.

Thanks!

-Ryan Lucas-
- Pickering, Ontario, Canada, Eh?! -

Offline urthegman

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2013, »
What channel numbers do you have the LE set to?

Offline drlucas

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Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2013, »
The LE are channel 1, 17 and 33 for starting channel ... At least that's what is showing on the displays of them.

I've done some further troubleshooting and making some progress but I'm still clearly lacking some basic fundamentals of channel numbering.

I have pulled the network switch out of the equation and go from PC to etherdongle. I reflashed etherdongle with latest pixelnet hex file.

I moved the jumper to dmx universe 1.

I then go back to xlights and just use the one universe and presto magic I get blinky through active hub to LEs.

That makes me very happy as it shows that the little green led on the active hub is accurate. Green = good in my basic world.

So back in xlights I make 4 universes again. And move the jumper back to dmx 4. And no luck.

Do I need to multiple my thinking by 8 in xlights ? Since xlights counts by 512 and pixelnet goes to 4096? Or am I wrong on that. By trial and error I may figure it out, but at least for now I've ruled out more hardware possibilities.

Any further help on this appreciated. Thanks!!

-Ryan Lucas-
- Pickering, Ontario, Canada, Eh?! -

Offline tbone321

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2013, »
If the units are responding on universe 1, they will not respond on universe 4 unless you also have channels configured in X-Lights that correspond to channels in Universe 4.  I would say that in order to help you figure this out, we need a little more information.  What firmware is the EtherDongle using, DMX or Pixelnet.  What channels are configured in X-Lights that you are using for these tests.  Why are you trying to use universe 4?  It appears that the hardware is working so the issue appears to be in the configuration.
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Offline drlucas

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Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2013, »
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If the units are responding on universe 1, they will not respond on universe 4 unless you also have channels configured in X-Lights that correspond to channels in Universe 4.  I would say that in order to help you figure this out, we need a little more information.  What firmware is the EtherDongle using, DMX or Pixelnet.  What channels are configured in X-Lights that you are using for these tests.  Why are you trying to use universe 4?  It appears that the hardware is working so the issue appears to be in the configuration.

Pixelnet firmware.
My logic on using uni4 is because I have two active hubs. Uni1 for hub 1, uni2 for hub2. I'll be connecting 15SSCs and 8DSCs this year. Plan to leave uni3 free for next year if I add on another hub. That is why for dmx I have set that uni to 4.

Prior to my second post (aka second round of testing) I wasn't sure if hardware was the problem or not and figured it best to break it down. Now back to xlights config. I set up e131 and put universe starting at 4 and 1 universe and channels 1-512. I then just check the ones I have lights plugged into (one per LE) and start the chase. I can see on wireshark packets going out to 239.255.0.4 but again I think right now for me the hardware and networking and connections between devices is solid, it comes down to my math and lack of understanding how to count without using my fingers. Aka the config issue you have eluded too :)
-Ryan Lucas-
- Pickering, Ontario, Canada, Eh?! -

Offline rrowan

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2013, »
Maybe this chart will help.

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Located in Equipment Pixelnet Library

Rick R.
Light Animation Hobby - Having fun and Learning at the same time. (21st member of DLA)
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Warning SOME assembly required

Offline tbone321

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2013, »
Ok, lets make sure that you are setting the correct jumpers.  The Pixelnet universe jumpers on both hubs are set to universe 1.  The DMX jumpers are the ones that you need to set.  You also need to remember that the channel number in X-Lights is not always going to be the channel that the controller channel it is controlling is and it is a guarantee that they will not be when you are in different universes.  The chart that Rick provided the link to shows that.  Channels 1 thru 4096 are all Pixelnet universe 1 but make up 8 DMX universes.  DMX universe 2 starts at Channel 513 in X-Lights.  If you want the LE with a starting address of 17 to function in DMX universe 2, the channels in X-Lights would be from channel 529 to 544 (513 + 16).  Setttig up X-Lights for multiple universes simply increases the channel count and the logical to physical association but you still need to use the correct logical channel number for X-Lights to send the command to the physical channel you want it to control.
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Offline tbone321

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2013, »
Ok, looking at your configuration and setup. I think that I can see where you might be getting confused.  What I would do is setup X-Lights to work with a full Pixelnet universe.  This would be the first 8 E1.31 addresses.  This will give you a full 4096 channels to work with which is way more than you need right now but makes it easier to expand later.  Once this is done, I would reserve the first 512 channels for DMX use.  The purpose for this is that doing this keeps your logical and physical channel numbers the same which makes it much easier to work with them.  You can set the DMX channel on multiple smart hubs to the same thing (channel 1 in this case) if desired and they will all work properly.  Doing this will allow you to keep your LE's configured at their current starting addresses (1, 17, 33) and they will work properly regardless of what hub they are connected to.

I would start your first Pixelnet controller at channel 513.  This also keeps your logical and physical channels at the same number and keeps them out of the DMX range.  Remember, the DMX channels will also be sent out on the PixelNet channels as well.  I would probably start with your DSC controllers (first one at 513) since they have a fixed channel count and then add the SSC's since they have varying channel counts depending on their configuration.  With this setup, all of your hubs will be set to PixelNet Universe 1 and DMX universe 1 and all of the channels that you will use are the same number in X-Lights and on the controllers thenselves.  You can't get more simple or easier than that.  Good luck with your sequencing.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2013, by tbone321 »
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Offline drlucas

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2013, »
BINGO! I now understand. Between the chart and the last post I went back to the setup, put the computer and etherdongle back to the switch and put in the four universes (with pixel net jumpers each on 1 and dmx on 4) and then low and behold channel 1537 turned on.

I'm going to go back now and move the dmx jumper back to 1 and do as you recommend, reserve the first dmx universe for LEs and the SSRs that are coming in. That will give me more than enough space for the year.

All this is making sense to me know - which is key that I don't just brute force make blink, i really need to understand what's happening and why because if/when things get tricky (and the pressure is on in December)  I can best troubleshoot my setup quickly.

Once again - a big thank you to all that have helped me out!!! My next test will be moving over to Vixen and see if I can get that setup and running. I was going to be using HLS but for what ever reason I don't like the stability of that software yet. I've seen one folder get north of 750MB in size, then crashed and my sequence was corrupt so I had to start over...instead of starting over I've decided to give Vixen a try. Outside of that I might try LSP, but I really want to save my $ for more pixels this year. Anywho - thanks again!

Cheers.
Ryan
-Ryan Lucas-
- Pickering, Ontario, Canada, Eh?! -

Offline MrChristmas2000

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2013, »
Wasn't there a problem with DMX starting at any address other than address (DMX univ) one on any of the 4 pixelnet universes. I had to start all my DMX universes that way before I could get output from the etherdongle. I have not seen any posting about fixing this.

Offline RJ

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2013, »
 <la..
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Wasn't there a problem with DMX starting at any address other than address (DMX univ) one on any of the 4 pixelnet universes. I had to start all my DMX universes that way before I could get output from the etherdongle. I have not seen any posting about fixing this.

If there is I do not remember it.

RJ
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Offline peteandvanessa

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2013, »
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Wasn't there a problem with DMX starting at any address other than address (DMX univ) one on any of the 4 pixelnet universes. I had to start all my DMX universes that way before I could get output from the etherdongle. I have not seen any posting about fixing this.

I remember that, I don't know whether it was fixed, if I remember correctly, there had to be something in the first DMX block (ie something in the first 512 DMX range), in order for the commands to be refreshed in DMX addresses beyond the first block of 512.

My two Expresses are in the first 512 DMX block which is supplied their commands from my first 16 Port Active Hub and that is why mine are playing back correctly
« Last Edit: July 15, 2013, by peteandvanessa »

Offline RJ

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2013, »
The memory is the first to go! I can't remember what the second to go is.  :D

RJ
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Offline MrChristmas2000

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Re: Testing Etherdongle
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2013, »
I found the thread. It is here.  <yk..

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