Aether addressing with EtherDongle

[txag2008]

I have 2 Aether II's that I need to address.  I have my EtherDongle flashed for pixelnet and plan on getting my DMX signal to the Aethers using my active hub. 

Is the only way to program the Aethers is by using the Lynx Address Utility?  Which would mean that since my EtherDongle is flashed for pixelnet and not DMX I have no other option??  I know what answer I'm gonna get, "Just flash the EtherDongle with DMX to address the Aethers".  That's a problem because I don't personally have a pickit 3.....

And for another dumb question....do the Aethers have to be addressed at all?  For right now I'm just wanting to cycle red/white/blue (for July 4th).   Those are the only lights I'll be running, I don't care what address they are set to, I just want them do get the signal somehow...

[pete peters]

If your aethers pic's have been flashed with the hex file  , then they automatically have an address of 1

[txag2008]

If your aethers pic's have been flashed with the hex file  , then they automatically have an address of 1

They came from this co-op (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login) and I can't find if they are flashed or not.  Even if they aren't, I can flash them with my Pickit 2.  If that's a solution to have them addressed to 1, that will work fine for me for now.

[pete peters]

Also see the thread" need help programming my aether 1.  Read from RJ's comments down if you need the procedure to manually set the addresses.

[pete peters]

Check with the Co Op manager.  He'll be able to tell you if he flashed the PIC's or you should be able to flash the pic's with hex file and the Pickit 2.

[tbone321]

If you have the pickit-2 then I would just reflash them anyway.  You can also edit the hex file to set the starting address manually to something other than 1 prior to flashing the PIC.  The device needs a starting address so that it knows which part of the "signal" to respond to.  If they are all set to the same starting address, they will all do the same thing at the same time which may be exactly what you want them to do right now.  You will also need a DMX output device for the Aether's because they will not work with a PixelNet output.  If you have an active hub, you can use its DMX output to perform the conversion for you if all you have is Pixelnet output.

[twooly]

Only way I was able to get my Aethers programed was using the vixen trick and from a USB DMX dongle.  I was never able to do it from an Etherdongle through the Active Hub.  You may be able to use the Etherdongle flashed with DMX into the Aethers skipping the hub using the vixen trick.

[taybrynn]

I honestly think the easiest would be to reflash the PIC ... so load up the firmware into the pickit2 or pickit3 software, then  edit the appropriate HEX address (see wiki, recently added) and enter the starting address (in HEX) that you want for each PIC (one PIC per aether).  That gets you out of worrying about which adaptor, protocol and skips using the lynx address utility software altogether.

[txag2008]

Lots of good suggestions here.  Thanks guys!

Looks like I'll end up just flashing the Aether pic with my Pickit2.  I'll then be able to control by Aethers through my EtherDongle/active hub.

[arw01]

I had trouble with an Aether II last year with a DMX USB dongle getting it to take the address. and a SSR4 that would not take it either.  Both were fixed up in a jiffy with the address hard coded into the hex file by hand.

[txag2008]

Earlier I flashed both aethers with the standard hex firmware. Testing them individually within Xlights I go to the test function and channel 1 turns my aether green, channel 2 turns it blue, and channel 3 turns it white.  It's my understanding that the aether is a RGBW output. Where is my red?? Hah


Is it possible that it's an Xlights set up air?


I'd like to try it in vixen 2.1, but I'm not sure how to set up vixen to interact with my etherdongle or if that's even possible...

[tbone321]

Red should be the first channel but it looks like either the Aether firmware default start address is not set properly or there is a bug in the Pixelnet to DMX converter firmware causing it to either drop or corrupt the first packet.  Also make sure that you are loading the correct firmware into the Aether II.  You can also set the start address of the Aether's to channel 2 by editing the firmware.  Then you can try sending data starting on channel 2 and if you get the same results, try sending data starting at channel 1 and see what happens.  While the problem still needs to be looked at and corrected, that might get you by for this holiday.

[txag2008]

Red should be the first channel but it looks like either the Aether firmware default start address is not set properly or there is a bug in the Pixelnet to DMX converter firmware causing it to either drop or corrupt the first packet.  Also make sure that you are loading the correct firmware into the Aether II.  You can also set the start address of the Aether's to channel 2 by editing the firmware.  Then you can try sending data starting on channel 2 and if you get the same results, try sending data starting at channel 1 and see what happens.  While the problem still needs to be looked at and corrected, that might get you by for this holiday.

Nice suggestion thanks!  Just flashed my aether with a start address of 2 and went back into Xlights and now within the test function Channel 2 turns the Aether red, Channel 3 green, & Channel 4 blue  (Channel 5 doesn't turn it white, not sure if it's supposed to or not).  Now I just need to play around with the color washes within Xlights. They aren't cooperating as I would expect them to for now.

[lonewolf41]

PICS WERE programmed BTW.  Not that they could not have gotten corrupted or something.

-Keith

[txag2008]

Thanks for the clarification Keith.  I ended up flashing both aethers with the standard hex firmware and just changing their dmx start value in the hex code.

I mounted them up in my tree for uplighting and had them cycling through red/white/blue for the 4th.  I ended up using a female cat5 pigtail wired to the aether so only a cat5 is used to carry data/power and it's worked great.

I intend on continuing to use the aethers for uplighting so I plan on drilling a hole in the aether case and mounting a small toggle switch that's wired to the 'manual' points on the PCB.  When I want all white uplighting I can just flip the switch and not have to worry about having my etherdongle/active hub/computer controlling the light all the time.