Artnet support in Vixen..

[LabRat]

Last question before I crash.. (well try to).

Vixen appears to only sends an "EVENT" to the plugin when the data changes.
In DMX however, the data is constantly "refreshed" even if it hasn't changed.

Do you know for Art-Net (that's how they like it listed.. with the hyphen)), whether we would need to have the DLL to continuously "re-broadcast" the data or not? (Just adds a level of complexity if we have to spawn some type of thread to continuously re-transmit the data (though it might be possible with timers instead of a thread)).

I'll look at the sharp free tool suite tomorrow, if I can't find my VC++ disks.

When did you want/expect to see results?

First off thank you for your interest, second GET TO BED. ;)

You are correct in your assessment its not at all difficult. All we really need is data streamed via UDP in the artnet format from vixen. In fact its really a half step from the DMXPro or OpenDMX code, since artnet is basically DMX over Ethernet.
There are a number of resources out there some of which you found already, but below is one that will make things go even easier. DMX-Workshop is what we are using for our development on the firmware side. But for you the install contains a couple of example apps and dlls that you may find usefull. Further you can use it to test and debug as you are developing.

http://www.artisticlicence.com/softw...kshopsetup.msi

[DynamoBen]

Vixen appears to only sends an "EVENT" to the plugin when the data changes.
In DMX however, the data is constantly "refreshed" even if it hasn't changed.

Do you know for Art-Net (that's how they like it listed.. with the hyphen)), whether we would need to have the DLL to continuously "re-broadcast" the data or not?

From the spec:
"However, an input that is active but not changing, will re-transmit the last valid ArtDmx packet at approximately 4-second intervals."

So this driver would need to periodically stream DMX data via ArtNet. This goes back to my point about being almost identical to the OpenDMX plugin. You may want to take a peak at that code, KC seems to be the owner at the moment. I will do a little more research today to verify this.

[DynamoBen]

I've done a bit more research:

From the spec:
"Refresh Rate:
The ArtDmx packet is intended to transfer DMX512 data. For this reason, the ArtDmx packet for a specific IP Address should not be transmitted at a repeat rate faster than the maximum repeat rate of a DMX packet containing 512 data slots."

"The first complete DMX frame received at each input port is placed in an ArtDmx packet as above and transmitted as an ArtDmx packet containing the relevant Universe parameter. Each subsequent DMX frame containing new data (different length or different contents) is also transmitted as an ArtDmx packet."

So I compared this info against an application that transmits ArtNet (MagicQ). MagicQ seems to transmit all packets regardless whether they have new info or not at ~40Hz, just like DMX. In contrast DMX-Workshop seems retransmit duplicate packets every couple of hundred milliseconds. Regardless it looks as if a thread will be required to comply with the standard.

BTW I'm using wireshark for my testing.

[LabRat]

From the spec:
... KC seems to be the owner at the moment. ...

Google searching shows no signs of the "code", though it seems to indicate that you were involved in the original development. So, do you have a copy of the code in any form? I've sent a PM to KC.

[DynamoBen]

Google searching shows no signs of the "code", though it seems to indicate that you were involved in the original development. So, do you have a copy of the code in any form? I've sent a PM to KC.

I requested it some time ago but didn't follow up. All I have at the moment was the reference material from Enttec about it.

[LabRat]

Just an Update:

So the Art-Net developers suite already ships with an "Art-Net dll". Based on what I'm seeing here (so far), if we interface with this DLL, the entire issue of "refreshing the data" would be handled for us.


This is looking almost trivial (famous last words).

Short strokes (perhaps over simplified as I'm assuming a full universe of channel support right off the bat. So dealing with "fewer channels" etc may
require some further modifications.):

VixinInit - Call ArtNetInit - check for failure conditions
VixinEvent - Copy the channelValues to the TxDmx array, then call ArtNetReadWrite()
VixinShutdown - call ArtNetEnd()

I've got the Sharp Develop 2.2 installed and running, along with the DMX-Works install.

Will try and chase some more tomorrow.

[DynamoBen]

Thats good news. I figure if you can successfully speak to DMX-Workshop with Vixen you are cooking with gas.

Good luck and watch those famous last words. ;)

[LabRat]

Thats good news. I figure if you can successfully speak to DMX-Workshop you are cooking with gas.

Good luck and watch those famous last words. ;)

Installed... not running yet.. ;)

I'm quickly approaching the point where I will want to test if what I did worked.
I may have a binary for you to poke at as early as late tomorrow, depending
on the weather, and the shopping habits of my crew here ;).

But this is the "moving from reading/planning" to "implementing". So no promises just yet.

[DynamoBen]

Installed... not running yet.. ;)

I'm quickly approaching the point where I will want to test if what I did worked.
I may have a binary for you to poke at as early as late tomorrow, depending
on the weather, and the shopping habits of my crew here ;).

But this is the "moving from reading/planning" to "implementing". So no promises just yet.

No worries, take your time. BTW JEC, Mr. Packethead, and myself are all doing ArtNet stuff. However I'm the software tester of the group.

[budude]

Cool stuff guys - I'll be watching this one closely! Just need 802.11 wireless in the controller and it'll be sweet! If you need some beta testers let me know!