SOLVED!! - no results with Vixen->ED->LE

[rrowan]

Try the wiki library

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first pdf = pixelnet Specs (draft)
page 6

Rick R.

[mmorlan62]

SUCCESS!!

Well, sort of.  I have the LE responding perfectly to a DIY DMX tester I built with a;

• Boarduino;
• the Tinkerit DmxSimple library;
• an RS485 chip, and;
• a bare-wire to RS485 patch cable.

The Arduino runs a simple 1-512 ramp cycle on channels 1-16.

So, the LE is working.

This, at least, isolates our problem to the ETD.  (Good thing since this entire thread has been in the ETD sub-forum. 

So;

FAIL...

Now that I've isolated the problem to the ETD, what board-level diagnostics may I perform?  I don't have a scope or logic probe yet.  (That's next on my list.)

Thanks to everyone who has helped thus far.  Despite my frustration with the hardware, I've really enjoyed the support and graciousness of everyone here.

Michael

[caretaker]

Have you done a packet trace yet to see what packets are going from Vixen to your ED? I would check that first to see if Vixen is talking to the ED and if that is good then trouble shoot the DMX output of the ED.

[mmorlan62]

caretaker - not sure how to do that.  I installed Wireshark but the interface is so dense I don't know where to begin.

Here's a new problem:  I believe I've burned out two RS485 chips on my DIY tester.  They both got damned hot and the LE stopped responding.  After a cool-down, the formerly hot chips still don't work.  Is it possible I have the data lines reversed?  What might be causing this?  The chips are the Maxim MAX485 wired per this page:

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Meh.

[tbone321]

What vo;tage were you powering the 485's with.  An over voltage will cause them to get hot.  I don't believe that they have a thermal shutdown so if they stopped working, they probably were toasted.  Also, you did just use pins 6 and 7, right.  The refrence signal is not used.

[caretaker]

caretaker - not sure how to do that.  I installed Wireshark but the interface is so dense I don't know where to begin.

Meh.

Start Vixen and load your sequence and then start Wire Shark. On the left side of Wire Sharks screen is a box marked "Capture" below which is "Interface List" select that and it will show you what interfaces you have connected to your computer (most likely just your network interface) select that and hit start then start your routine in Vixen and Wire Shark will show if any packets are being sent to the ED.  Once you can confirm whether packets are being sent or not you can stop the capture and if they are you can save the results RJ or someone else here will be able to tell you if the right info is being sent to the ED.

[rm357]

The 485 chip should not get hot.
I would not put the 100 ohm resistor in the circuit. Maybe a 1k... That resistor is just loading an unused output, which is going to draw a fair amount of current depending on the output voltage... If its 5v TTL it could pull 50 mA, which would make the chip warm.

RM

[mmorlan62]

re: DIY DMX Tester:

The voltage drop across the rails supplying the RS485 is around 4.3v and I doubled-checked the wiring so I'm not sure why the chip is overheating.  I'll try the 1k resistor to reduce current across those pins.  Odd that no one has challenged the 100ohm value since that circuit has been on-line.

(Let's drop this DMX Tester thread since it's outside the bounds of this forum.  We've determined the LE is working now.)

--------------------------------

re: ETD Packet Trace

I captured the packet stream going to the ETD.  At first glance, it appears to be correct.  See attached Wireshark output file.

[bisquit476]

Are you sure you are running DMX? When I looked at you Wireshark packet, it shows Pixelnet. I just tried wireshark with my ED, using xLights, and it shows xLights as the output.

[mmorlan62]

bisquit476:  All I know is I'm sending packets from Vixen to the Lynx_EtherDongle plugin.  I have no control over the content of those packets.  I presume it is the job of the EtherDongle to interpret the packets based on its firmware load.

This particular stream was generated from a Vixen file with 16 channels and a random blink pattern.

Michael

[bisquit476]

Hi Michael,

I've attached a couple of pictures of how the xLights setup is on my computer, maybe try that and see if it works. Good Luck,

Bill

[bisquit476]

The reason I say try xLights is because that is what I used and got it to work. If your computer is putting out pixelnet, and your ED is flashed with DMX, (which according to how I'm reading your Wireshark file is being output from the computer) it will not work. The computer is outputting one protocol and the ED is set to receive another. I hope I'm explaining this correctly,

Bill

[mmorlan62]

I understand your explanation and will try xlights again, following your setups screenshots.

Michael

[rm357]

Hmmm,

My assumption is that the e1.31 packet would be the same, regardless of the etherdongle firmware.

A DMX etherdongle would just receive and output 4 e1.31 universes as 4 universes of DMX and the pixelnet version would receive 32 e1.31 universes and output the data as 4 pixelnet universes.

The e1.31 specification doesn't address other protocols like pixelnet...

RM

[rm357]

When I looked at your wire shark listing,  I didn't see any channels turned on. All of the channel data was zero...