No Output on Lynx Ethernet Dongle (SOLVED)

[wftxlites]

I am trying to do some testing with the latest XL version on Win7 and have no output on my Lynx Ethernet Dongle, but do have output on my Lynx USB Dongle.

SETUP:
Univ 1 Multicast 1-512
Univ 2 Multicast 513-1024
Univ 3 Multicast 1025-1536
Univ 4 COM4 USB 1537-2048

I know this must be something simple.

[gerry]

Hi,

I don't know anything about this hardware , but which channels of your setup correspond to the Ethernet dongle that wont light up and how have u defined that in the setup screen ?
- have you tried the test output ?

[wftxlites]

Universe 1 to 3 channels 1 to 1536

I'm wondering if XL can output only DMX and not Pixelnet.  Now that I've thought about it.

[Gilrock]

I wouldn't think we would have PixelNet in the selection box if we didn't support it.

[jnealand]

We need more info.  What are you connecting to?  And how are you connecting?  I am running my whole show from the etherdongle. which is then connected to an active hub.  I'm using all 4 pixelnet universes.  Post a screenshot of your setup screen.

Gerry the etherdongle is an e1.31 device that outputs 16k channels, usually pixelnet (multicast only) or with a firmware change DMX.

[wftxlites]

Here is the Setup. The firmware is Pixelnet and connected to Active DLA Hub.

[Gilrock]

So you don't have any Pixelnet outputs defined.  When you say "Add USB" and change the drop-down to Pixelnet then that's what you will see listed for the output type.

[wftxlites]

I see that in USB, but what about Ethernet? Or I am I missing something?? The pixelnet firmware is on the Ehternet dongle and not USB.  The USB is DMX Firmware and works fine.

Thanks,

Greg

[Gilrock]

Sorry I don't know enough about that hardware or how Pixelnet works.

[jeffl]

What you are connecting too and that the Etherdongle is flashed with Pixelnet firmware are needed.

[jnealand]

Your setup looks fine.  If you are pulling DMX from the DMX Out jack on the active hub then you need to delete the dmx row.  DMX from the active hub will come in the 512 address block that you select with the jumpers.  I dedicated the first 512 to dmx and I suspect most folks with active hub do that also.  I do not connect any pixelnet stuff to channels 1-512.  Just understand that whatever block you select for DMX, the channels are output to both pixelnet and dmx.  ie. 16 mini trees (one color) set to channels 1-16 will also have pixelnet channels 1-16 be the same exact effect.  All the DMX out does is copy and convert the designated channel block to dmx protocol.

[wftxlites]

Right I have an additonal DMX universe setup and that is why I added the extra USB dongle.

So, for next year I want to use XL to redesign my show. To get the full understanding of how XL works I am building a test seq in XL and trying to test all the outputs directly from XL while my display is up. I have the output turned on and have also tried the test tab in XL. I am getting no output to my Lynx ethernet dongle. I also have a USB connected to my computer and setup in XL. The USB dongle is outputing DMX just fine. However, the ethernet dongle which is connected on my network and then to a DLA Active HUB that outputs the pixelnet to my megatree is not outputing to the mega tree pixels. I am running my current show with no problem using an Rasberry Pi FPP with fseq file that were converted from LSP by an earlier Beta version of XL. So, I know that on the FPP the ethernet output is setup the same way for multicast as XL to the ethernet dongle. In my opinion both XL and FPP is setup the same way. So, I can't understand why no pixelnet output to the ethenet dongle from XL.

I am considering taking the test seg and making the fseq file and placing it on the FPP and see if that might work.  At least it may tell me something.

Hope this all makes sense.

[wftxlites]

I have loaded the XL test seq file into the FPP and the outputs are working to both the ethernet and USB dongles.

Playing the test seq directly from XL doe not work on the ethernet dongle. I doubt this is by design, so I am wondering if this is a bug.

Could someone test this on the newest version of XL 4.3.0.

[Gilrock]

So from Jim's description the etherdongle is a E1.31 device so I assume you are sending it E1.31 data and it converts it to Pixelnet?  If so then we know E1.31 data outputs is working.  There is no way xLights would even know you have a device converting it to Pixelnet so there can't be a bug in the E1.31 output.

[wftxlites]

So, how does the FPP know that it is pixelnet? Likewise, XL does not have any "pixelnet data" settings either. I am not aware of any FPP setting for E1.31 data related to pixelnet output. The only settings in FPP for pixelnet is related to using an FPD! When the fseq file is played on the Pi player it works fine, but not straight out of XL on the PC. You can see why I am confused about why XL E1.31 output is not driving the ethernet the same way as the FPP natively from XL on a PC. The data stream has to be in a particular format for the DLA Active Hub to translate it.

Still confused......... and at this point only way to test the sequence is to put the fseq file on the FPP and play it.  I would think either way would work. But, apparently not.

I'm thinking that the XL E1.31 output is only being interpreted by the E1.31 device into whatever protocol the devices firmware supports.