Support for DMX4ALL NanoUSB DMX-dongle

[ola-importer]

From jan.n.k...@rub.de on June 03, 2012 02:10:00

What steps will reproduce the problem? 1. connect to USB port on Linux
2. add /dev/ttyACM0 (on Debian Lenny) to ola-stageprofi.conf
3. start olad What is the expected output? What do you see instead? expected: working DMX-dongle
what happens: port is opened, test command send but no response received What version of the product are you using? On what operating system? ola 0.8.18 on Debian Lenny Please provide any additional information below. Using "stty -F /dev/ttyACM0 eol G" once solves the problem. It seems that the correct "EOL" is not send by the OLA-Plugin.

Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/open-lighting/issues/detail?id=185

[ola-importer]

From si...@nomis52.net on June 08, 2012 17:18:19

I'll roll this up with #169 as well.

Once I have a patch can you test it for me? I don't have a serial device, just a IP one.

Status: Accepted
Labels: Component-Plugin

[ola-importer]

From jan.n.k...@rub.de on June 09, 2012 01:34:38

Of course., I have a NanoDMX, not a StageProfi USB but it should use the same protocol (if you want, I can ask at DMX4All, they're just 5 minutes from my home).

[ola-importer]

From peterjne...@gmail.com on September 13, 2013 11:06:46

Labels: -Type-Defect Type-DeviceSupport

[cavoknosig]

http://www.dmx4all.de/download/software/dll_development.zip

in there, there is a nice documentation of the interface.
also, they work through a FTDI serial interface with an ID of "C850"
also standing by for an implementation :-)

[peternewman]

See also https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/open-lighting/Yf0xbAXDavY

[cavoknosig]

well, apparently the interface is very close to stageprofi. however, mine does not get detected by the stageprofi plugin. any idea where to start tweaking?

as deeplinking on their website does not appear to work, the protocol definition is under www.dmx4all.de then click on "Software" in the top menu and then it's the zip at the bottom "DLL Development in C++"

also, i tried to make a copy of the stageprofi plugin directory and started a tweak thereof but it did appear not so simple, resulting in build errors. any pointers what i may be missing? obviously renamed everything "stageprofi" to "dmx4all"...

lsusb gives 0403:c850 as device id

[cavoknosig]

!

[peternewman]

What build errors did you get when you started tweaking @cavoknosig? To be honest, if the protocol is very similar/identical, I'd leave them as one plugin, and just tweak bits of the plugin to make it work with your dongle. If you can get it working with your dongle, we can probably talk you through how to tweak it to work with your dongle and the original StageProfi ones.

[raymonvdm]

I have an DMX4ALL mini USB interface is it possible to get this supported as well. Did this issue got any follow up ?

[peternewman]

Hi @raymonvdm have you tried adding the port to ola-stageprofi.conf as mentioned at the start? What does olad -l 4 show once you've done that (pastebin it or something)?

How are you're development skills? I'm personally rather reluctant to get involved with implementing another dongle I don't have in front of me, given my last attempt got stuck and despite various offers, no-one has leant me one or offered further help debugging it #400

[nomis52]

Since this comes up a bit, I've updated the FAQ: https://www.openlighting.org/ola/get-help/ola-faq/

[cavoknosig]

My c++ knowhow was unfortunately not sufficient to adapt the plugin and get it working.
That and the lack of an architectural lighting "middleware" or API, led me to abandon the ola route unfortunately.
Ended up running a discrete selfmade python script running on a raspberry, which converts network commands to dmx and outputs it directly to the dmx4all as serial com via the ftdi.
I still believe, since LED lighting is increasingly commanded through dmx, ola would benefit from an abstraction layer / api (which was a feature request that got rejected at the time.)
Ola should handle dimming, color fades, transitions, mixing, grouping, patching of channels etc, while offering a generic API exposing things like On/Off, xx% with fadespeed, color xyz, color fades etc...