Author Topic: EtherDongle Beta closed  (Read 2935 times)

Offline RJ

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EtherDongle Beta closed
« on: September 24, 2011, »
The EtherDongle beta has finished. All 7 beta tester and I voted to it was ready for release and so I will move ahead soon as I can get back on my feet from being ill to make a coop happen.

This thread is to let all users know the status and to allow the testers to openly discuss the device the beta or what ever as well as the users to ask questions about the device or beta.

Lets please try to keep the thread on these topics and not highjack it to other subjects so the users have one thread to read up on it.
Thanks

RJ
Innovation beats imitation - and it's more satisfying

Offline rm357

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Re: EtherDongle Beta closed
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2011, »
How do you program the IP address? DHCP? Fixed?
Robert
Warner Robins, Georgia, USA

Offline mokeefe

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Re: EtherDongle Beta closed
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2011, »
While internally the EtherDongle does have an IP address, it is not accessible to the end user and does not need to be programmed.  You simply connect the EtherDongle either to your PC's network port or a port on your router.  It will respond to multicast E1.31 data.  There is no need to configure an address in the EtherDongle nor the plug-ins for Vixen and LSP.

In the event that you need to run multiple EtherDongles, RJ will be providing separate firmware to load on each one.  The firmware will hard code for E1.31 universes 1-32, 33-64, etc. Most people will simply load the base firmware which gives you E1.31 universes 1-32 (16384 pixelnet channels).

There is also a DMX-Only version of the firmware for people not using SmartStrings.  This will give you 4 universes (2048) DMX channels. The passive combiner (used in reverse) breaks it out to 4 cables (universes) of DMX.

-Mike

Offline mykroft

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Re: EtherDongle Beta closed
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2011, »
ok, but how is this going to work in the future with ethernet to wireless adapters?  they have to have a ip address?

Myk


Offline RJ

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Re: EtherDongle Beta closed
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2011, »
It's works really well as I demoed in TX. You put an address in the adapter thats on your network. I believe a few of our beta testers can tell you they ran them wirelessly.

RJ
Innovation beats imitation - and it's more satisfying

Offline smartcontrols

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Re: EtherDongle Beta closed
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2011, »
I was one of the Beta testers for the Etherdongle. As usual from RJ, it is an amazing device. I will share a few of my experiences with testing it.

My experience with build and Vixen setup.
I was very impressed at how easy it was to build the Etherdongle. Partly do to the PIC coming already pre installed, but it just feels like you have room to get to everything. It is mostly resisters and caps so you only have a handful of parts you can get backwards. During the build, watching witch RJ45 jack is input and output is a must, they could physically be switched when you are soldering and you would be unhappy if you did that. For all that it does, I think I expected it to be much harder and have a lot more components. If you can build any of the other Lynx equipment, I don’t think you will have any problem building this.


I did all my testing with Vixen. I do not have LSP. My display uses 15360 Pixelnet channels and 1024 DMX channels. I was running my display before using 4 Lynx USB dongles flashed with Pixelnet. To change over to the Etherdongle, I opened my Vixen sequence, removed the 4 USB dongle plugins and added the Etherdongle plugin to the sequence. When adding the Etherdongle plugin to Vixen, you give it the start channel and the end channel; there are no other settings for it. I then unplugged the cat5 going to my hubs from the combiner and pluged it into my Etherdongle. Ran the sequence and I had the same blinky flashy I had before.


My experience with Etherdongle on Wireless
I unplugged the cat5 for the Etherdongle from my PC and pluged it into my AT&T wireless router. I took my laptop with my Vixen sequence out side and turned on its built in wireless card. Note: my wireless router hands out internal IP addresses, don’t know if that matters. I ran the same sequence. My firewall asked me to give vixen permission to use the intranet, I click allow, and I had wireless blinky flashy.

I have been told that running all the 16384 channels over the wireless was pushing the bounds of the wireless network and not recommended because some updates could get lost. When the conductor comes out it handles the wireless differently and that this would no longer be a problem. In my testing I did not “notice” any updates lost, but it is very possible that some were when I was not starring at it.

My setup now is my Etherdongle is in my house connected to my wireless hub. I have one cat5 running from it to my hubs outside. I already had that cat5 in place. I walk around my yard with my wireless laptop on battery and can control any channel in my display from anywhere. Not being able to easily control my display when I am outside working on it has always been a big problem for me.



My experience with Vixen on high channel counts.
Some things I noticed when switching vixen from 4 USB Pixelnet dongles to the Etherdongle.

First and obvious was that Vixen using 16384 channels on the 4 separate dongles would make it where Vixen did not want to respond to the keyboard while it was running. This completely went away for me with the Etherdongle. Vixen appeared to respond instantly.

Second and a biggy.  When Vixen was using 16384 channels and on the 4 separate dongles, not all the dongles updated at exactly the same time. You could see them stepping thru in blocks. This is a test video I made where you can see this.
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With the Etherdongle they now look like they update at the same time. This is a test video of the exact same sequence running on the Etherdongle.
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Third. With Vixen and it’s issues with com ports and the com port errors. When running the 4 com ports It would become very annoying. Now, because the Etherdongle is not on the com port you do not have that issue. I did see an error from Vixen not being able to communicate with the Etherdongle, but it was very rare. So rare I am not sure what I was doing to cause it.

To be able to run this many channels this easily is great. I am sure the other testers will be sharing their experiences with using it on LSP and other size shows.

-Jeff
 

Offline TAdamsOK

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Re: EtherDongle Beta closed
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2011, »
Wow that is huge!  Both the matrix and the difference!  Sign me up for one!

Offline RJ

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Re: EtherDongle Beta closed
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2011, »
Wow what a matrix!

Btw , your welcome!   :-[

RJ
Innovation beats imitation - and it's more satisfying

Offline wbuehler

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Re: EtherDongle Beta closed
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2011, »
I also ran the EtherDongle Wireless and it ran great.

My EtherDongle was plug into my switch.  My Laptop was on wireless and it had no issues finding the dongle.  In about 5 minutes I had Vixen setup and was playing last years sequences to some Smart Strings.

Bill

« Last Edit: September 26, 2011, by wbuehler »

Offline RJ

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Re: EtherDongle Beta closed
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2011, »
Quote
I have been told that running all the 16384 channels over the wireless was pushing the bounds of the wireless network

If this was taken from me I need to clear it up. I was not talking about 16,384 channels. When I say large channel count I am talking a number of EtherDongles. Also you can see issues at 16,384 if you have lots of other traffic on your wireless or multi access points in your area on the same wifi channel.

RJ
 
Innovation beats imitation - and it's more satisfying