Controller Setup for Wireless AP

[MichiganLights]

I'm giving wireless another go this year. When I go to setup my controller sACN E1.31 I get 4 options

Multicast Ethernet
Multicast Local Area Connection* 10
Multicast Local Area Connection* 11
Multicast Wi-Fi

Those are more options than I recall the lat time i setup wireless.

I'm running Vixen 3 on a mini PC into a router/switch that connects to a AC Mesh AP. The receiver in the yard is a ESPixelStick v3 running Renard protocol.

Which setup option is correct?

[MichiganLights]

multicast wifi it's the one you want.

Mike, I could not get multicast to work.

I was able to get Unicast to work on a test sequence, 1 universe, 512, one I/P address. I see data packets received on the ESPixelStick and lights blinking.

With multicast I see no data/packets at the ESPixelStick.

From what I read multicast is desirable so I would like to figure out why it does not work. Does multicast broadcast to static addresses?

[dirknerkle]

Not all routers/access points deal with multicast very well. We've found that Ubiquiti products are generally quite good with multicast transmission, and they also can be tweaked with scripts to fine-tune the communication. I've heard that routers that use DDWRT generally do not handle multicast properly, but I can't offer any references on it.

[ChiefWarrant]

I'm giving wireless another go this year. When I go to setup my controller sACN E1.31 I get 4 options

Multicast Ethernet
Multicast Local Area Connection* 10
Multicast Local Area Connection* 11
Multicast Wi-Fi

Those are more options than I recall the lat time i setup wireless.

I'm running Vixen 3 on a mini PC into a router/switch that connects to a AC Mesh AP. The receiver in the yard is a ESPixelStick v3 running Renard protocol.

Which setup option is correct?

My "show computer" is connected to my network via Cat5e, but it also has a built in Wi-Fi adaptor. Since I use Cat5e for my data, I select "Multicast Ethernet" as my option. The access point I use is a TP link Archer A6 v2.0 and run multicast to down stream to wired controllers. If your "Show computer" is using CAt5e to talk to the network, you should give that option a try.

Also ensure that your wireless controllers are listening on the right multicast universe and as Mike said, ensure vixen is transmitting on the universe the controllers are listening to.

-Tony

[MichiganLights]

My "show computer" is connected to my network via Cat5e, but it also has a built in Wi-Fi adaptor. Since I use Cat5e for my data, I select "Multicast Ethernet" as my option. The access point I use is a TP link Archer A6 v2.0 and run multicast to down stream to wired controllers. If your "Show computer" is using CAt5e to talk to the network, you should give that option a try.

That was it, setting to "Multicast Ethernet" got it working.

I'm running Mini-PC -> Ubiquiti ER-X -> Ubiquiti AC-Mesh AP.

Makes sense in hind sight.

Thx!

[jchuchla]

To add more clarity, those options you're seeing refer to multicast, followed the name of the network connection. So if you have four options showing, you must have four network connections on that machine. Generally, in windows 10. the one named "ethernet" is the first default one created for wired network connections. "WiFi" is the one that corresponds with the first default wireless connection. Those other two look to be holdovers from a previous version of windows. "Local Area Connection" was the default name on windows versions before win 10.

You can only have one ethernet adapter on a given network. When you're using unicast, the IP address itself informs windows which ethernet connection to use to send out the data. With multicast, the multicast address doesn't have the same implication. It could be multicasted to any network. So you need to tell it which connection to multicast over.

[ChiefWarrant]

That was it, setting to "Multicast Ethernet" got it working.

Good to hear.