EtherDongle and older hardware compatibility

[jeffcoast]

I am not suggesting that I need this, but an idea I just got from reading this. Wouldn't it be possible to design a hub that would split up 1 pixelnet universe into 8 different universes of DMX? Like have 8 RJ45 outputs and you could plug into them. Or even to go further, have a splitter for the 4 universes of pixelnet into 32 DMX outputs on one board. The only issue I would see would be cost with not having that many people needing such an item to have the PCBs made to spread it out through.

Jeff how do you figure 8 dmx universes out of one pixelnet universe?

The EtherDongle with DMX firmware does 2048 channels which equals 4 DMX universes
Why would RJ spend hundreds of dollars to design and produce another board when the combine already does it?

Rick R.

I took 4096 and divided by 512. I was not saying it could be done with current hardware, but just wondering if it was possible if someone wanted to make something to do it. Since the current smartstring hub can split out the DMX using the jumper, I thought it would be possible to have a RJ45 jack connected to each of the outputs at once for 8. It was just a blue sky idea that I threw out there.

[mokeefe]

I took 4096 and divided by 512. I was not saying it could be done with current hardware, but just wondering if it was possible if someone wanted to make something to do it. Since the current smartstring hub can split out the DMX using the jumper, I thought it would be possible to have a RJ45 jack connected to each of the outputs at once for 8. It was just a blue sky idea that I threw out there.

It's not possible with the current hardware.  The EtherDongle only has four 485 driver chips.  Certainly a variation or a separate board could be designed to handle additional DMX universes, but I suspect that's not in the works.

-Mike

[jeffcoast]

I took 4096 and divided by 512. I was not saying it could be done with current hardware, but just wondering if it was possible if someone wanted to make something to do it. Since the current smartstring hub can split out the DMX using the jumper, I thought it would be possible to have a RJ45 jack connected to each of the outputs at once for 8. It was just a blue sky idea that I threw out there.

It's not possible with the current hardware.  The EtherDongle only has four 485 driver chips.  Certainly a variation or a separate board could be designed to handle additional DMX universes, but I suspect that's not in the works.

-Mike

I know it is not possible with current hardware, just wondering if it was possible to actually do it. I looked at the Hub traces, and saw it was just different pins on the PIC being sent to different headers, so thought instead of sending it to a header, just sending each trace to an actual connector.

[RJ]

That is not the intent. It is possible of course but when you get to large channel counts why would you want to struggle with blocks of 512 channels. It is costly and cumbersome at that point. It like trying to use a bike to deliver big screen TV's.

You would not do this would you? You move to a Truck to do that. Something designed to carry more channels. Thats what pixelnet is, it is the transport between my hardware that is not limited to small blocks of channels.

I mean as you said yourself why would someone wany to run that many channels of DMX equipment. The only thing I can think of is to try and run large counts of pixels on DMX. This seems again like using a bike to deliever big screen TV's. The logic would be what? "cause I know how to ride a bike" 

So yes I could increase the part count while increasing the size and cost to get 8 universe of DMX out of it, but think of this. I would increase size and cost to get half as many channels then it does now and make it harder to handle them in the yard.

I mean remember the etherdongle cost only a little more than a DMX dongle does so you are getting a lot of bang for the buck.

The reason Pixelnet is the way it is, was to get away from this. 

You can go with Ethernet all the way to the controller also but I already explained the reason I did not here :
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RJ

[jeffcoast]

Totally understand, and I stated that I wasn't needing it for myself. I see the benefit in using the SSCs and have quite a few to use.

[CourtBard]

I know what you're saying but I disagree Rick.  I think it was a great idea to create the two versions of firmware.  There are enough users in the DMX-Only world who will want to invest in the EtherDongle yet save money by not needing to purchase a SS Hub and PC power supply.  I think any confusion that is arising will be short lived once more info and the hardware if available to the masses.

-Mike

This was my point. I want to go with the etherdongle because it seems pointless to go with an older model if the newer one does everything the older one did and more, plus it is not that much more expensive. I do not have the money to invest in all of the RGB stuff at this point, so I will be sticking with DMX led strings for now, but want the ability to ugrade later without having to get another dongle, etc. I just wanted to know what the max channels of DMX were for the etherdongle. I don't plan on having nearly that many channels.

Two comments

Start slow

DLA rules - non-commercial use only

RM

I am planning on starting slow. Aain, just wanted to see what the potential was.

I understand that these are all for non commercial use as well.

[CourtBard]

Hi CourtBard,

I have no idea what you are getting at??

where do you see $85 for a SSC? (more like $8.00 per SSC)

Rick R.

I was including the $70 some odd for the 128 node string as well. Just trying to calculate the prices for a complete RGB string including the controller.