uDMX and Vixen 3

E

ebolam

New member
I've been playing with Vixen 3 for a few weeks now, and got the first chunk of my sequence done. I ordered some DMX dimmers, and a uDMX dongle, only to find out that the plugin works for vixen 2 not 3. Is there any plans to get support for vixen 3?
 
Which plugin do you use for vixen 2? Do you know if the uDMX is a clone of something else?


--Jon Chuchla--

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I've been trying to get it to work with Vixen 3, as I like that interface better, and started my show sequencing with it. I did download Vixen 2 (2.1.1 if I remember right, whatever was available on the site yesterday), and used the plugin I downloaded from two different places, and the one that came with the disk for both 2.1 and 2.5 (all of them matched md5 hashes). In all cases when I tried to output to that module, it would give me a memory error and die. Note I am using windows 8.1 64-bit. My final machine will actually most likely be a windows xp box (old extra lying around), but I would like it to work with the laptop for easy testing.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a clone, but I was able to get it working without issue with freestyler using the uDMX output and was successful in getting it to dim my lights.

Exact purchase is here from amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009B5MX0K/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
I've found myself in exactly the same position (Just bought a couple dimmer packs and a DMX dongle that claimed to support Vixen). After a little bit of digging, it seems there are 3 options available, and I was hoping someone could offer a little perspective on how difficult the first two would be...

1) Can Vixen 3 be configured to output ArtNet? There is an Artnet to uDMX application available from ilLUTZminator.de which some sites recommend for use with applications that don't directly support uDMX hardware.

2) How big of a challenge is it to port a 2.1 or 2.5 plugin to 3.0? Is it simply a question of changing a few method names or data types, or is it a fundamental change to the way the module works?

3) There's always the option to kiss goodbye the $45 spent on a uDMX dongle and just buy a properly supported one...
 
sbernath said:
1) Can Vixen 3 be configured to output ArtNet? There is an Artnet to uDMX application available from ilLUTZminator.de which some sites recommend for use with applications that don't directly support uDMX hardware.
Click to expand...
Not currently. But ArtNet is reasonably similar to sACN which it does output. You might be able to get something working here. you can use a sACN to ArtNet translator OLA does this and is free and runs on the $35 raspberry pi (or a windows machine with some extra work)
It should also be possible to create an ArtNet vixen output controller module patterned off the sACN module.

sbernath said:
2) How big of a challenge is it to port a 2.1 or 2.5 plugin to 3.0? Is it simply a question of changing a few method names or data types, or is it a fundamental change to the way the module works?
Click to expand...
It's fairly significant. I'm not the best one to answer this technically, but from what i understand it's pretty significant task. I think it'd be easier to start with the sACN output module in V3 and make a copy of it tweaking it to work with the ArtNet protocol rather than sACN.

sbernath said:
3) There's always the option to kiss goodbye the $45 spent on a uDMX dongle and just buy a properly supported one...
Click to expand...
This may be your best option at this point. everything else involves spending about the same money to make it work, or involves a lot of work.
 
Thanks for the feedback!

I decided to cut my losses and cobbled together an OpenDMX device out of some spare parts. Works like a charm!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the thorough response. I decided to cobble together an Open DMX since I already had most of the parts laying around. Will be attempting to return the uDMX to Amazon.
 
I ended up using Open Light Architecture to convert from e1.31 (supported by vixen 3), to artnet on my server (any linux machine will work), and then used the uDMX program to go from artnet to uDMX. Works great actually. Next year I think I'll change my setup to:
Virtual windows machine running vixen 3 - Outputting e1.31
Raspberry Pi with wifi - Receiving e1.31, outputting uDMX

That way I can put the Raspberry Pi out in the yard, close to the lights to serve as the central controller. I plan on using plastic tubs to keep it weather proof.
 
Now uDMXArtnet supports ACN / E1.31.
So, just use E1.31 output module and start uDMXArtnet.exe (after installing the uDMX driver).
uDMX should work with vixen this way.

uDMX_vixen3.png
 
It would work on a small scale, but still not really recommended as this puts the burden of translation on the same PC running vixen. If you're buying new, You're still better off choosing something that works directly with vixen.


--Jon Chuchla--

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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