Etherdongle + conductor + external controllers

[peteandvanessa]

So I have a question about the Etherdongle + conductor and external controllers.

I'm using LSP for my sequencing and I have the following set up:

LSP for sequencing
Etherdongle (Pixel net F/W)-> 1st 16 Port Active Hub (Pixel Net F/W) -> 2nd 16 Port Active Hub (Pixel Net F/W)
Connected to the 1st Active Hub are 16 Smart String Controllers (using nearly all of the 4096 channels) - > 16 LED Flexstrips
Connected to the 2nd Active Hub is a single Smart String Controller (using 180 channels) - 1 LED Flexstrip
Also connected to my Laptop is a single USB dongle, that connects to two D-Light AC16 controllers via Cat5 (these controllers are NON DMX and using the D-Light USB dongle)

Now all of this works together currently

I'm hoping to move to the Conductor (if I snag one in a future COOP)

Then hopefully I can export the sequence from LSP into the Conductor format, but it's suddenly occured to me that if
I export from LSP to the conductor format, what happens to the two D-Light AC16 controllers?

I'm assuming, I can't use my current USB dongle to control the AC16's since the sequence will be run by the conductor?

There is an option to convert the AC16 controllers over to DMX, so I therefore assume that this is my only option if I want
to use the conductor for my lights?

[dpitts]

Sounds like a good solution. Convert to DMX.

[tbone321]

It's either that or sell off the D-Light equipment and pick up 2 Expresses. 

[peteandvanessa]

I've just ordered the new chips for the AC16's so I can convert them to DMX.

That then gives me the condutor option in the future.

I'm using the etherdongle with Pixelnet F/W and using E131 protocol. Do I need the "cable converter" that I see referenced on the D-Light forums, or do I assume the AC16's will work just fine if I plug an ethernet in the DMX output of the 16 Port Active Hub and plug that into the input port of the AC16's.

I'm assuming the it's the DMX out of the 16 Port Active Hub method, correct?

[tbone321]

Yes, the active hub puts out a DMX universe on its DMX port.  That port uses the same pins as the Lynks DMX dongle wich IIRC are pins 1 and 2 with data high on pin 1 and data low on pin 2.  If your D-Light contoller uses those same pins then you are good to go and if not, then you will need to make an adapter.

[Nightowlz1966]

Hey Pete


How did easy was the changing to DMX on the dlight boards ?
I just ordered new chips for 11 A/C 16's that I have as I wanted
to go to DMX and get rid of the ever failing Dligh firmwares where one
work with LOR one works with LSP and none working that great, I figured
I would go to the Industry standard DMX this year...

[MrChristmas2000]

Have you logged into the d-light board and looked here?

Open Firmware
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OpenACx16
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Considerations for use of the new firmware
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Walks you through the change.

Lots of good reading and guidance.

[peteandvanessa]

Hey Pete


How did easy was the changing to DMX on the dlight boards ?
I just ordered new chips for 11 A/C 16's that I have as I wanted
to go to DMX and get rid of the ever failing Dligh firmwares where one
work with LOR one works with LSP and none working that great, I figured
I would go to the Industry standard DMX this year...

Changing the chips was easy.

I had to make the cross over cable as well, that was pretty stright forward, I had to swop pin 1 to pin 4, pin 2 to pin 5.

I shouldn't have had to swop these pins, but I swapped them anyway (I couldn't get it to work without doing it)

Pin 4 to pin 1 and pin 5 to pin 1

Now, the firmware and setting addresses has it's quirks. I flashed the chips to the latest f/w from the D-Light board.
Then you have to set the Unit ID of the controller in HEX, but you MUST also set the Start channel of the controller in decimal.

Now, I had issues with 032 version of the firmware (it wouldn't work for me), so I dropped back to version 031, which is working ok, but on some channels on my two controllers, some of the ON commands don't work well, so I had to repalce those with fades.

Also, I had to load up the light look up curves, and set the maximum ON to 254 (rather than 255) otherwise I had problems with some on commands.

So, yes, changing the controllers over to DMX can be done, and some found it straight forward, I had a few issues, but mostly they are fixed now for me.
Nice that everything is working over DMX now.

[caretaker]

My experience from changing my D-Light ACx8's to DMX similar to PeteandVanessa's, your have to make a converter cable as Lynx and most other DMX equipment use the White/Orange stripe and Orange/white stripe while D-Light/LOR equipment use the white/blue stripe blue/white stripe for communication.  As far as programing the pics for my D-Light ACx8's I needed to program the start address with my PIC3 as the dewey config (D-Light DMX config) utility only works with a Open DMX  dongle.  Besides that just converted them to DMX devices in LSP2 an was good to go.

[Nightowlz1966]

Thanks for sharing your experiences with changing over your Dlight boards to DMX
I gotta make some post over at D Light also as it looks like their forum is saying thier
usb485 will also output DMX as well as my Dlight protocol that I used it for last Christmas.

[caretaker]

Yes the D-Light USB dongle V3 will output DMX with some modifications but you would be much better off using the Etherdongle either in DMX mode OR use a LYNX USB dongle. The D-Light dongle is similar to how the Entec open DMX dongle works in that it uses the computer to produce the DMX stream while the LYNX USB dongle or the Etherdongle the dongle itself produces the DMX stream reducing the load on the computer. You may still want to use your D-Light dongle to run the Dewey config program for setting ID's and such but I would recommend the either LYNX product for your show.

[JonB256]

One of the options mentioned was selling off your D-Light controllers and getting Lynx. I think you'll find that the market for used D-Light controllers is pretty weak. Instead, they can be converted to DMX with minor effort. Their design is very robust and have served me well; my kit built ACx8s are going for their 7th season. The Open DMX firmware does allow for light tables, though it is, admittedly, not as nice as RJ's since the PIC used is an 8-bit processor instead of the 16-bit processor on an LE.

I converted all my D-Light controllers, about 20 ACx16s, 6 ACx8s, 6 FireFlies and 8 DCx16s,  from D-Light firmware to DMX. I was heavily involved in the alpha and beta testing of all the Open DMX firmware, so I have made all the mistakes that can be made with it.

I didn't just buy new chips. After I "proved to myself" it worked solidly, I erased and reprogrammed the existing chips. (that burned a lot of bridges, since you can't reprogram your own D-Light firmware with a PICKit). My 2011 show was 100% DMX and my most dependable (and highest channel count) ever.

I use a D-Light RS485/USB to configure the DMX chips. It works the best with the DeweyConfig tool that you use for virtually all changes. We started on a Wiki for DeweyConfig and stalled. Perhaps it is time to start again.

To run the show (LOR S3), I used one ENTTEC Pro and two Lynx USB Dongles. LOR does not yet support any E1.31 option. Some time in June, that could change.

But - if you have specific questions, it is probably already answered on the D-Light "Open" forum. If you can't find the answer or it just isn't clear, ask another question. I check there almost as often as I check here.