eDongle Wireless recommendations

[MrChristmas2000]

In another post RJ mentions that there is a beta in process for recommending a low cost wireless solution for the eDongle.

Has this beta completed?

When will the recommendation be posted?

I am preping my July 4th show and would like to test a wireless solution.

[tbone321]

At this point I would bet that even if completed, he will hold up all info on it as well as the conductor beta until the Academy.  He did indicate that some new projects concerning the ED and Conductor would be revealed during the class at the Academy and with it being only a few weeks away, I doubt that anything new or just reaching completion will be talked about until then. 

[MrChristmas2000]

I was kind of afraid of that. The Academy is just too close to the time frame for getting a July 4th show changed or modified.

[dpitts]

I bought several Cisco Valet v1 wireless n routers from Walmart for 25.00 each. I then flashed them with DD-WRT firmware. Now they have ability to be either AP, bridge, repeater, repeater bridge.  They seem to be solid.

[PJNMCT]

Nice. Didn't know you could do that!

[twooly]

I'm going to use an airport express myself works great

Time Capsule -> Airport Express -> ETD -> blinky

Wireless between the time capsule and airport express and then a wire from the airport express to the etd.

[dpitts]

Nice. Didn't know you could do that!

Yeah. Neither did I. Check out the DD-WRT.com website. You will be suprised at the list of routers the firmware supports. I also turned my good ole Linksys wrt54g into a bridge. You can get those off Ebay for 10.00.

[PJNMCT]

Great! Thanks for the scoop.

[rm357]

Yup, and it works like a charm too.
My first EtD test was off of the DD-WRT bridge in my entertainment center...

[wftxlites]

Just wanted to add 2 cents here.

I am using a spare ATT DSL Wireless Router that I had to do wireless testing to the ED. I doubt the range is that great since it is talking to the wireless NIC in my animation PC, but have not tested the range. The PC's NIC range would be the issue.

So, my animation PC has a wiresless NIC as well as a wired NIC as I mentioned and it connects wirelessly to the ATT DSL Wireless Router and the ED is connected by wire to one of the Router's wired ports and then of course the ED's DMX out to blinky devices. I have not tested Pixelnet FW on the ED. I'm sure it will work, however. Anyway, this configuration works great for testing in close proximity. I was trying to avoid the price of an AP or Wireless Router that can run DD-WRT, but will probably buy one for the show unless I just place the ATT Router right outside the house near my animation PC.

I thought I would post this config for anyone who may have a spare DSL wireless router laying around.

Also, I had to disable the wired NIC for this to work. It may be possible to bridge the NIC's in the PC or maybe just have the wireless NIC use the Multicast Protocol only. I played with bridging the NIC's, but never got it to work correctly.

[rm357]

All of the wifi traffic will go through the AP - traffic does not flow directly from one wireless client to another unless you are in ad-hoc mode, which I would not recommend. With a normal wifi setup, each client device establishes a connection with the AP and only with the AP... The AP then acts like a router, directing traffic where it needs to go.

RM

[Night Owl]

I was thinking, could you use an ethernet over powerline adaptor?  I don't think it would work if you were trying to send control signals to your neighbor's system if you were trying to bridge a show across two houses.  But for stuff on your own circuit, it might work.

[rm357]

Power line adapters should work fine within your home. If you and the neighbor are on the same transformer and you get lucky and plug them both into the same phase, the signals might make it... incidentally, if it doesn't work between two outlets in your home, it is usually caused by the outlets being on different phases. Most US homes are single phase 240v with a neutral so that you can use it as two 120v phases...

If they are on a different transformer, you are just out of luck...

RM