Pixel Toy, Etc Congo and network erratic behaviour?

[weazel91]

Hey Guys!

 

I have just recently downloaded pixeltoy which we were looking to use with numerous LED battons however I have had a play with this software recently and have noticed it having some erratic behaviour.

 

Connecting our Congo straight to the laptop that has this software on it then the congo controls the software fine and works a charm (This is not connected to the rest of the network) Straight Desk to Laptop.

 

Connecting the laptop to the network through our switch which outputs to 4 dimmer racks and numerous other Net3 Nodes it works fine in playing back effects (Without the desk connected)

 

However here is where my problem lies. When I connect all things together, desk, laptop into the network to control the pixeltoy the software becomes really erratic and the connection light (Top left) (Looks like a wireless symbol) flashes randomly and effects jump and flash as if there is some problem with all these connected to the network...

 

Can anyone shed any light on this problem?

 

Our current setup is that we are running 2 venues running through 1 network, both of which are on different logical networks, however at the time of trying this software only 1 desk was connected and powered on and in this network. Out of this switch are numerous nodes and also a Unison control which is also included within and passes through the same switch. (Could this pose a problem?)

 

If you require any more information please feel free to ask... I hope someone managed to help me get to the bottom of this bugging issue.

 

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[Tomo]

Software Versions?

 

What sACN Universe numbers are each of them using as input and output?

 

It sounds like you've overlapped the patch with other things on the network - remember, all universes on the network are available everywhere and able to control anything.

- Or Pixeltoy is is outputting the same Universe it's listening to, thus controlling itself, which would of course be Bad.

 

About > About Congo will tell you the sACN Universe Map in use at the Congo end, as that doesn't have to be 1:1 (and usually wouldn't be in a two-system network.)

(Edit in System Settings, but you probably don't want to change this.)

 

- "Logical Network" is irrelevant, this is purely telling Congo which other Congo(s) it should use as Server/Backup/Clients.

 

sACN View (look on SourceForge) is a great tool for finding what's sending what levels.

 

Finally, you're not using WiFi are you? That basically doesn't work for real-time control due to the nature of how WiFi works.

[mark_s]

Finally, you're not using WiFi are you? That basically doesn't work for real-time control due to the nature of how WiFi works.

 

Off-topic, but why not? Not a challenge, genuinely curious.

[philis]

 

- Or Pixeltoy is is outputting the same Universe it's listening to, thus controlling itself, which would of course be Bad.

 

 

This make sense as Chris was playing using led pars that the congo usually controls itself so unless he changed the universe on the gateway they would be on universe 1

 

is it ok for the congo to output to the same universe as pixel toy as long as it is not the one pixeltoy is patched to?

 

or would it best to output to a totally different universe?

 

Phil

[Tomo]

Finally, you're not using WiFi are you? That basically doesn't work for real-time control due to the nature of how WiFi works.

Off-topic, but why not? Not a challenge, genuinely curious.

It's half-duplex, so data goes in one direction for "a while", then it turns around and goes in the other direction.

If a chunk of data (less than a packet) doesn't make it over the radio link, it gets re-sent until the radio gives up and reports the whole packet as 'lost'.

Then there are usually multiple radio hosts in a (more-or-less) round-robin fashion.

 

So you get late packets, out-of-order packets in UDP, missing packets etc. All of this gets sorted out by the protocols (TCP etc), but takes time.

 

So while you've usually got plenty of throughput, your latency is highly variable.

This generally manifests itself as occasional steppy fades and 'slow' response.

 

In some cases that doesn't matter - eg when you're using a focus remote, does it matter if it sometimes takes a moment for the light to respond?

 

 

- Or Pixeltoy is is outputting the same Universe it's listening to, thus controlling itself, which would of course be Bad.

 

 

This make sense as Chris was playing using led pars that the congo usually controls itself so unless he changed the universe on the gateway they would be on universe 1

 

is it ok for the congo to output to the same universe as pixel toy as long as it is not the one pixeltoy is patched to?

 

or would it best to output to a totally different universe?

 

Phil

It's fine for them both to output to the same lights (Address.Universe), you just need to pay attention to what's overlapping.

 

If both pixelToy and Congo are outputting the same addresses, then the 'highest' level wins.

 

For example, both patched to the same RGB fixture:

Congo: Red @ 0%, Green @ 100%, Blue @ 100% (Cyan)

PixelToy: Red @ 100%, Green @ 0%, Blue @ 0% (Red)

 

Result: Red @ 100%, Green @ 100%, Blue @ 100% (White!)

 

So to get the 'pure' Pixeltoy output, make sure Congo is outputting 0% for all, and vice-versa.