Vixen & WiFi

[Brad Riley]

Guys,

I posed this question on an older Vixen thread, and thought I would see if this thread would generate more response.
I want to try to have a display on 2 houses next year. Mine and the house across the street. A good friend offered this as a possibility.
Use a Wireless Printer Server located across the street, controlled by my LAN/PC. This way, my computer would have 2 parallel ports, 1 across the street, 1 at my PC.
The WPS would control a Grinch , and my PC a Grinch.
What do you say.....

Brad

[ben]

I will ask my dad if we can disconnect our printserver and test it. I have a wireless router that I can use and if it works I can buy another print server. One thing I am curious about is the print server I have is it has aUSB output noa parallel one.

Ben

[ben]

http://www.amazon.com/Dekcell-CPA-1029-Parallel-Printer-Adapter/dp/B000K04SB2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1198292061&sr=8-1

Found that. I'll see if I have a cable I can hack and hook it up to the USB. That sounds like a very cool idea.

Ben

[NogginBoink]

I doubt it'll work. I don't think the 'print server' will allow Vixen to directly address each pin on the port; rather it abstracts a printer driver to the host PC's operating system.

However, creating an ad-hoc WiFi network between the two computers and running Vixen in client/server mode should work.

[Brad Riley]

NogginBoink,

I don't know what that means. "Abstracts a printer driver to the host PC's operating system".
Why couldn't my computer be this host?
Also, you say "Vixen will not directly address each pin on the port".
Other the ground, the zero pin is the only one used.
Just trying to figure this out.
Thanks for your input.

Brad

[NogginBoink]

Brad,

Vixen works by wirting directly to the hardware. By writing certain values to certain memory addresses, Vixen turns the pins on the parallel port on and off. (These pins are the data, clock, and strobe pins for the Olson 595.)

A 'print server' device such as this one doesn't have registers at memory addresses. Rather, it's a USB device that must be accessed through the USB protocol. And it's not going to have commands that allow individual control of the I/O pins. Rather, it will have a Windows driver that makes the device appear to Windows like a printer. It will support priting operations but not low-level I/O operations.

So, the bare hardware (the pins on the I/O port) is 'abstracted' from Windows and made to appear as a printer.

This is how virtually all USB print servers work. I would be EXTREMELY surprised if the device allowed individual control of the I/O pins. And even if it did, it would require a separate Vixen plug in to work, because the data would have to be written to the USB device and not to a 'real' parallel port's hardware I/O addresses.

[Brad Riley]

NogginBoink,

Thanks for the explanation. Guess I won't run out and buy one now.
Back to my original plan, a second computer.
A second computer WiFi'd to my LAN should work without any additional Vixen Plug-ins, correct?

I really appreciate your input. The computer side of our hobby is definitely not my strong point.

Brad

[Macrosill]

Brad,
By using the Remote Client function in Vixen you can synch two computers around the world as long as they both have broadband internet access. Other than that I do not know of a way to use 2 machines for a single show.

[Brad Riley]

Brian,

You told me about Remote Client a few weeks ago, in a Vixen thread. It's not that I didn't believe you. I thought there would be latency issues using the internet. T 1 is not available in our subdivision.


Thanks,
Brad

[Macrosill]

Brad,
As I understand the Remote Client's workings the on/off signals are not sent over the internet. The entire sequence is uploaded to the second pc and then the 2 pcs execute the sequence simultaneously.

[NogginBoink]

Brian,

You told me about Remote Client a few weeks ago, in a Vixen thread. It's not that I didn't believe you. I thought there would be latency issues using the internet. T 1 is not available in our subdivision.


Thanks,
Brad

So don't use the internet. Set up an ad-hoc wireless network between the two computers.

[jstlucas]

I posed this question on an older Vixen thread, and thought I would see if this thread would generate more response.
I want to try to have a display on 2 houses next year. Mine and the house across the street. A good friend offered this as a possibility.

I also haven't found any actual WORKING setups, just lots of talk. Good to see that people have decided on ways that won't work. My two neighbors really want a piece of the action next Christmas so I'm interested also in this whole topic. We all have internet via cable. I'm not up to string hundreds of feet of cable across our two neighbors yards if I don't have to.

[JaysonH]

If a person is across the street, depending upon what type of street it is (cul-de-sac for example) a single cat5 might be able to be run to create a giga LAN situation, which would have faster response times than running over the Inet, or depending upon controllers used, could be used to bypass networking altogether. Take a look at FireGod's system for example. One cat5 could operate a 16 channel field module which may be enough?

[ben]

If a person is across the street, depending upon what type of street it is (cul-de-sac for example) a single cat5 might be able to be run to create a giga LAN situation, which would have faster response times than running over the Inet, or depending upon controllers used, could be used to bypass networking altogether. Take a look at FireGod's system for example. One cat5 could operate a 16 channel field module which may be enough?

I thought about something so I could light up the trees down the street that are in a line. I would need to run a 3/4" or 1" PVC pie under the road for Cat5 and power. Think that would be an issue? ;) : :lol:

[Brad Riley]

Brian,

Both houses or computers would be controlled within Vixen? Initiated by my computer? Great!!!

From the other responses, it looks like there may be, at least theoretically,
more than one way to do this. Not sure if smart enough though...

I live on a narrow street, About 24', 2 houses from the Cul-De-Sak.


Brad

[grages]

Brad,

You might want to look over this thread started by Firegod

32 Wireless Channels in a Bucket

http://www.christmasinshirley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=666&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[jstlucas]

If a person is across the street, depending upon what type of street it is (cul-de-sac for example) a single cat5 might be able to be run to create a giga LAN situation, which would have faster response times than running over the Inet, or depending upon controllers used, could be used to bypass networking altogether.

Sort of what I was thinking. I don't want to have to rely on the neighbors having their computers up and running along with mine for a display. My thought was to take the last output of the 595, run a couple hundred feet of cable to the neighbors, that way they only need the 595 and ssrs.
However, the wire in the ethernet cable is something like 28 gauge. How far can one run without draining the parallel port? Maybe a simple TTL level line driver on my end could pump enough power to get that going so it won't drain my 192 channels.

[ben]

If a person is across the street, depending upon what type of street it is (cul-de-sac for example) a single cat5 might be able to be run to create a giga LAN situation, which would have faster response times than running over the Inet, or depending upon controllers used, could be used to bypass networking altogether.

Sort of what I was thinking. I don't want to have to rely on the neighbors having their computers up and running along with mine for a display. My thought was to take the last output of the 595, run a couple hundred feet of cable to the neighbors, that way they only need the 595 and ssrs.
However, the cable is something like 28 gauge. How far can one run without draining the parallel port? Maybe a simple TTL level line driver on my end could pump enough power to get that going so it won't drain my 192 channels.

www.computerchristmas.com On the How to there is a signal booster for the Cat 5. I am going to make one since I plan on running about 900-1000 feet of Cat5 down the street

Ben

[jstlucas]

www.computerchristmas.com On the How to there is a signal booster for the Cat 5. I am going to make one since I plan on running about 900-1000 feet of Cat5 down the street

There's a HowTo post on general CAT 5 testers, but I didn't see it specifically mention signal booster. (John Wilson). Is there another one I'm not seeing?

Right now I'm thinking that the 595 needs +5V, Gnd, and three TTL lines. Using a differential TTL driver for the three TTL signals will use all eight ethernet lines, completely doable. (in theory, I've not tried this yet)

[RavingLunatic]

I think you are looking for this:

http://computerchristmas.com/index.phtml?link=how_to&HowToId=30

It wasn't referred to as a signal booster but as a High Speed Differential Line Transmitter/Receiver.

[ben]

I think you are looking for this:

http://computerchristmas.com/index.phtml?link=how_to&HowToId=30

It wasn't referred to as a signal booster but as a High Speed Differential Line Transmitter/Receiver.

sorry. I call it a signal booster :p

Ben

[jstlucas]

I think you are looking for this:
http://computerchristmas.com/index.phtml?link=how_to&HowToId=30
It wasn't referred to as a signal booster but as a High Speed Differential Line Transmitter/Receiver.
sorry. I call it a signal booster :p
Ben

Whatever it's called...

Ok, how about the AM26LS31/AM26LS32 QUAD driver and receiver by Texas Instruments, or the DS26LS31/DS26LS32 QUAD driv/rec by National Semi? Jameco has both, Mouser has the TI for about the same price as Jameco but Mouser wants $2.50 each for the Nat'l Semi chips. The TI's run, at most $0.75 each, total of $1.50 (plus a ton of shipping). The DS9737/9738 are dual drivers and run $1.25 each, you need a total of four of them. Why not go for a QUAD drive chip instead of two duals?

In any event, this depends upon being able to run a hard line between setups, no problem for me as my neighbors are on the same side of the block.

[P. Short]

Or consider the 26C31 and 26C32 chips, similar to the 26LS31 and 26LS32 parts that you mentioned.

--

Phil