Author Topic: DMX dongles and props. Setup and visualiser  (Read 3102 times)

Offline AAH

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DMX dongles and props. Setup and visualiser
« on: October 04, 2021, 08:41:44 PM »
This is a multi part question and will also be copied across to the Xlights FB page. I'll copy relevant answers across if any posters don't.
Setup 1.
You have an open dmx usb dongle that you add to the controllers tab of Xlights.  No vendor as it's just generic, assign the com port and leave the channels as 512 so that a full universe gets used.
Change to the layout tab and create a 16 string tree, set the string type to single colour, type to "dmx open" and save.
At this time if you go back to the controllers tab look at the usb dongle and under the models it lists the tree there but no way to visualise it.
Is there a way to visualise?

Setup 2.
 You have a pi cape with dmx output that you want to use dmx fixtures on.
You just add an e1.31, set the vendor as fpp, set the model as pi hat and save.
Add the same 16 string tree and either set the type there as dmx open or temporarily leave it as 2811. Then save.
Change to the controller tab and look at the visualiser for the e1.31.
If you set it as dmx open it's there under serial port 1 as tree.
If you left it as 2811 you can drag it across to serial port 3. When you change back to the layout tab the type will have been set to dmx-pro. It will need to be changed to dmx-open.
Visualiser and everything works as normal

Setup 3.
You have a Pi or Beagle  that you want to put a usb dongle on to control some dmx fixtures.
You add the E1.31, add Vendor as FPP but there is no option to just have an open dmx or lor or any other sort of dongle attached.
If you have a RGBcape48 type cape or similar that has pixels but no dmx output you can force some channels onto it but on the visialiser it comes up with an error although it does add a line for a serial port.

 I can all of these scenarios to work as far as the right lights coming on on the right devices but the visualiser is an issue for nearly everything. Some pro tips and/or a good video would be helpful as I am trying to  people out with their setups and the old school way that I do it works but most are now using or are being encouraged to the controller centric new Xlights setup and the visualiser.


Offline dkulp

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Re: DMX dongles and props. Setup and visualiser
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2021, 05:43:29 AM »

Not sure on the visualizer stuff, but for #3, you can add a USB in xLights, select the Vendor/Model as FPP, and it will allow you to enter the ip address/proxy information for the FPP device you've attached the dongle as well as the USB port on the FPP instance.   The "Upload Output" option can be used to push the configuration for that usb instance to FPP.    That should be working in 2021.28+ I believe.   Basically, if you are adding a USB dongle anywhere, use the "Add USB" at this point.     That said, it's not really integrated into FPP Connect to attach itself to one of the controllers that it's configuring.   Thus, not as seamless.

I started trying to figure out how to add the other various things that FPP can control (i2c devices, GPIO's, etc...) but aren't built into normal capes, but can work with capes attached.   It's very complicated and will require some VERY significant changes in xLights.  Right now, xLights really just visualizes the static entries in the various controller XML files.  That works perfect for the ports that are built in and always available with those devices.   For stuff plugged in later, it doesn't work.   For each FPP based controller (or other controllers that are extensible if there are any), I'd like to have a button or something in the right panel to specify the number of "extra devices" and for each extra device, allow some configuration such as port/type/etc...  Would work similar to the LOR Enhanced protocol stuff for USB.  Thus, you could add a USB device or a PCA9685 or MQTT or GPIO or whatever.   Like I said though, this requires some major changes to how the controller capabilities are handled internally in xLights.   For now, the above "Add USB" extension was fairly easy to implement without a ton of major changes. 

Daniel Kulp
Framingham, MA

Offline AAH

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Re: DMX dongles and props. Setup and visualiser
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2021, 06:32:12 AM »
Thanks Dan
I possibly wasn't doing myself any favours by using 2021.16. I guess I'll allow it to do an update tomorrow so I can see if anything changed with my issues