Mac and PC usage...

[jamills6377]

I am typically a Mac user - and I see that Xlights can run on a Mac.
I, having been a LOR user for several years, also have a PC laptop dedicated strictly for my shows.
Now that I'm playing with Xlights on my PC I am thinking how nice it would be to have more screen real estate to work with - and the PC laptop certainly doesn't offer it!!!! However, my Mac has two large monitor on it.
SOOOooooooo....the big question.....
is there a way I can work with Xlights on my Mac to complete my setup, layout, and sequencing - making use of my large displays/screen real estate...then transfer the resulting sequences to my show PC for testing and ultimately playing of my show?

The reason it must run from the PC is because, at the moment, my pixels are all still LOR and must run on the LOR RS485 networks from the PC's USB. And, I don't want to "tie up" my Mac during show season even if someone would tell me that those RS485s would run from the USB on my Mac. I have the show laptop and so I might as well use it.

[Gilrock]

We use the same files on Mac and PC so you can switch back and forth anytime.

[jamills6377]

Great!!!! Thanks!

[dkulp]

One "slight" complication is that serial ports for the RS485 things are named differently on the Mac compared to the PC.   On the Mac they are /dev/cu.##### vs the COM# numbering.   Thus, if you have them configured, I'm not sure if you would get an error like "cannot open port" or similar.     If you do get errors like that, let me know.   We could probably delay opening up the serial ports until the Output to lights is turned on (if it isn't delayed already).

[jamills6377]

I wasn't planning on attaching the RS485s to the USBs on the Mac...just doing the sequencing (once I get it set up) so that I can take advantage of my large screen realestate.

I'll actually test the lights with their associated com ports on the show PC.

So - do I leave them all as "Not Assigned" on the Mac and then once the setup is stable on the Mac, copy it to the PC and set up the com ports there only?

[dkulp]

In general, you should be able to use the exact same show directory (and thus output setup) on both machines.   What I'm not sure about is what happens if you configure a serial output on one and load it on the other.   Ideally, if that output is disabled, it would be ignored and no error would occur.  I'm not 100% convinced that's the case though.   

Basically, give it a try and let me know if an error pops up.   

[jamills6377]

Will do! Thanks!!

[keithsw1111]

It shouldn’t display an error unless you try to output to lights. At that point the comport will fail to open. So you should be fine.


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[jamills6377]