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DMX USB advise needed (again)

vvvv beta general
#1

Okay, I don’t know what is wrong with me, but I can’t seem to find an affordable USB DMX sollution, that is fast enough.

In Ricos we had an ARTNET -> DMX device, very cool 8 universes, very fast, but also very expensive.

I have an Enttec Dongle, connected to another computer it reads out VVVV artnet, and is also very fast.

I wanted a solution that can work with vvvv direct. So I read, and looked, and I found DMX4All StageProfi dongle, and I saw there was a native vvvv patch, so I bought one. But it is slowwwww when I want to change more than 10 channels. :(

I realy would like some advise on what to get next, I just want to spit in 256 channels, like I can do with Artnet.

Working with RGB LED’s, and would realy like to use only 1 computer.

Please Help, sugest, what ever, I started vvvv cozz off DMX, and now I am realy stuck…

PS Sorry for the angry tone, it is late, and I am frustrated…

#2

i didnt do any performance measurements, but my impression was that the DMX4all interface isnt prohibitely slow - did you try @MSBERGERs Blockmode patch or the patch on the
DMX4ALL page? iirc the serial format itself was quite compact…

#3

we used that cinectix dmx controller http://cinetix.de/interface/usdmxbox.htm for that fahrplan led installation and were able to change 196 channels with a good frame rate (dont remember the exact fps anymore but as far as i remember there was no difference if we changed 1 led or all 196 at the same time). first we tried also with dmx to all but it was really slow!

there is a patch for that device too: http://vvvv.org/tiki-index.php?page=UserPageMSBERGER&highlight=cinetix

and wolfgang schemmert of cinetix was really really helpfull and gave us tons of detailed technical informations.

im sure kalle can help you with more exact infos. i think he worked with kinetix hardware too for driving leds.

#4

@elektromeier:
the “Stageprofi” mentioned by West is pretty new, but it deals with the same protocol.

#5

back then we tried both modules for dmx4all. yours and the blockmode patch. with blockmode it was sigificantly faster around 4 times as far as i remember but still to slow to change more than 20 channels simultanously. but since then the dmx4all hardware has changed, maybe its faster now. nothing against dmx4all, its ok and inexpensive but it was not so fast, at least the old version we used.

#6

F…K!

just deleted a long post by accident.
ok, once more (shortened now) :

@West:
try MSBERGERS blockmode patch and be sure that you have set max Baudrate on both Interface and RS232node.

tell me when you are not confident: i’m going to phone Markus Siwek then; i have his number and know him a little bit.

because he definitely advertises:

DMX: 38 Updates pro Sekunde bei 512 Kanälen

@all:
did somebody ever try SIUDI 6 EC ?
the name of the DLL are reminding me to the Soundlight USBDMX2, which is one of the fastest Interfaces i had.

#7

Thnx for the replys people. Offcours I used MSberger BlockMode patch. I even patched my own ASCII sender, wich to my own suprise worked (but even slower).

Seems like I have a weird problem. I was testing the dongle in a single screen, and it was slow. Weird thing is that when I clicked on an different windwosscreen (like the explorer) the whole speeded up again to normal speed!! (I was testing it with a 20 blinks/sec LED patch, changing 150 spreads).

Okay, so now I wonder… could it be my slow computer (PIII, 800Mhz) low memery (128 mb) or a driver error off some kind… need to retest some more now, with more up to date machines before I draw any conclusions…

#8

i have no understanding of anything, but just reading your last comment: “when I clicked on an different windwosscreen (like the explorer) the whole speeded up again to normal speed!!” i’d suggest playing with the mainloops ‘foreground fps’. particularly setting it to a low figure…

#9

could be related to a funny behaviour I’ve noticed today: when in foreground, vvvv runs with 60fps and when vvvv looses focus and runs in the background the timing node tells me, that vvvv runs with 110fps. mainloop is set to 120fps for fore-and background.

#10

There was another thread saying that ampop, initially put down to dual cores, but It happens on a single core I run as well. I’ve not noticed the speed up with loosing focus, I’ll check that, something for the bugs thread?

#11

@west: do you have a EX9 renderer in the patch you have problems with? does this make any difference?

#12

&@west which exact ARTNET DMX converter did you use at rico´s ?

#13

@Oschatz:
i think it’s ok to answer for West here: Its the
ENTTEC Datagate

i think its a little slower than the artistic licence gate, but West’s Brother gets pretty good prices on this device.

when you need to control 18.000 dmx channels…

#14

Think I can fix the trouble with the Mainloop node, need to test it proper, will post here. Weird thing is, that I just tested only the DMXnode from MSberger, and than the speed dropped, but than I opened that patch inside the patch I am working on, with a Renderer (EX9) and now it speeds up again…

It is a clean WinXP SP2 instalation, no updates yet, is there some thing in some off those updates, wich I don’t have yet, that might cause this behaviour? (I didn’t want to hook this machine up to internet)

@ Oschatz, Yep, that is the one, a bit too much for my little application ;) (actualy, also too much for Rico’s…)

#15

@west; thanks. as kalle hinted - we will need to hook up six of these enttec boxes to vvvv…

#16

Hmzz… seems like mainloop doesn’t do anything, unless I set it to a lower value than I am currently running, but I want speed… not slower. (I use the Timing node top check that).

Also try the Boost node, still wonder if that does anything though.

I am stuck at 14 fps or lower :(

I only use some Quads with 128x128 .png files.

Without the DMX node I run 20 fps, can’t imagine sending a 120 value spread to a comport costs me 6 fps…

Sigh… other idea, if I make the DMX node a different thread and send the info via UDP, is that an option worth try-ing??

#17

hi west,

i cannot see you suffering.

i cannot imagine that your patch is the reason for bad performance.

would you like to zip it to me?
i’ll see what my old lappetop makes from it.

#18

That is nice off you Kalle :)

Do you actualy have a DMX4all device over there??

I am currently in the process off rebuilding the GUI, so I switch quads off when not used, now I just grouped every GUI page and switched between them with a Switch (node), see if that helps. (or at leats gain a few frames)

The whole thing with the slow framerate happenes when I simple build a Linearspread, with an LFO, to get constant changing, 120 slices, connected directly to the DMX blocksend node from mr. Berger.

It seems it also drops speed on my ‘big’ computer, that went from 30 to 20 rames, just by turning on or off the DMX send node. Just have a feeling the RS232 node isn’t working optimal (or not)

#19

@ Kalle, the DMX4all module on your userpage is ASCII and NOT block??

#20

@west - the rs232 usb driver of your machine might be a suspect. is it a real rs232 port or an usb dongle? latest drivers etc?

&@west&kalle - yes its about 18000 real dmx channels, so we really need a lot of universes. the manual says that one ENTTEC Datagate deals only with four artnet dmx universes as outputs (and with another 4 as ins) - i´d love to have just 8 outs. do you have any informations if this will work?

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