WYSIWYG with Enttec USB PRO

[DonkiDonki]

Is any one out there using the Enttec USB Pro DMX box with WYSIWYG Perform? If so could you please state your setup and describe the performance?

 

I have tried it but am getting intermittent DMX input into wysiwyg, I'd like to see if the performance can be sorted out before I have to give in and buy the official wyg-it 2 interface.

 

That said, is anyone selling a used wyg-it 2? if so; please drop me a message.

[DonkiDonki]

Is any one out there using the Enttec USB Pro DMX box with WYSIWYG Perform? If so could you please state your setup and describe the performance?

 

I have tried it but am getting intermittent DMX input into wysiwyg, I'd like to see if the performance can be sorted out before I have to give in and buy the official wyg-it 2 interface.

 

That said, is anyone selling a used wyg-it 2? if so; please drop me a message.

 

 

To answer my own question after some experimenting it seems that the enttec-wysiwyg driver is a little fussy over the packet refresh rate. The default of 40 was causing it problems, it now seems to run smoothly with it set at 33.

 

Can anyone tell me what values are considered "normal" for Break time, MAB time and packet refresh rate?

[Tomo]

Can anyone tell me what values are considered "normal" for Break time, MAB time and packet refresh rate?

Erm, that's a difficult thing to say.

 

"Absolute maximum speed" for DMX-512-A is:

Break = 96uS (was 88uS in DMX 512-1990)

Mark-After-Break = 8uS (was 4uS in DMX 512, changed to 8uS for DMX 512-1990)

Mark-Before-Break and Mark-Between-Frames = 0uS (after second stop bit)

 

However, very few items are capable of transmitting that fast, and those that are are usually artificially slowed down for wider compatibility with 'slightly dodgy' receivers.

 

Some equipment cannot cope with absolute maximum speed, and it's considered bad practice to use the absolute minimum for the Break time.

ETC use a break time of approx. 176uS for this reason.

 

There is quite a lot of equipment that can't cope with the minimum Mark-Before-Break - I believe certain Strand/Genlyte/Philips nodes need a minimum of 200uS MBB in order to function correctly.

 

A good book is Adam Bennette's "Recommended Practice for DMX512", published by PLASA.

 

He is in the middle of updating that book for DMX512-A with RDM, but the current book is still valid.

 

However, for your purpose, none of this should matter as you are using the Enttec device as a receiver - it should be receiving at whatever rate the source is transmitting at.

I'm not entirely sure what the 'refresh rate' option does when receiving, but I would guess it's the rate of copying the contents of the Enttec Pro's buffer into the PC.

If that's right, then a high rate is completely unnecessary - your PC probably doesn't get more than 10-20 fps anyway, so a DMX update rate higher than 20-30fps is pointless.