richard Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 I used an ETC puck the other day - a great little device for touring a show on, and for a very reasonable price. If bought with the LXkey (http://www.lxkey.co.uk/ then it's all you need for touring! They appear to have made one very annoying error however, in that they have only fitted it with three USB sockets - which means that if you have a keyboard, mouse and DMX interface attached (which you often need) you have to unplug one of them in order to save the show to an external stick! This seems really silly to me! Sure you could tour a USB hub but still. Moan moan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 This is God's (or perhaps ETC's) way of telling you the DMX is done, time to use sACN :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibbothegreat Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 This has been a source of bafflement and frustration to me for a while, starting back with the LS9. Who on earth think that naming files via cursor shift and enter is a good idea, when a simple USB keyboard does the job just SO much quicker? Wound up more by Strand's 250ML, suggested on their forum that the single USB port could be upgraded to take a keyboard only to be told the desk didn't have enough internal memory to deal with the necessary drivers! WTF! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/mad.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 To run a usb keyboard you have to be a usb host, this is quite a lot to ask of an embedded device which will often not have enough memory or resources to run the usb host stack. If the electronics is designed to run an OS like Linux or embedded Windows it becomes trivial. But if there is no OS then it is quite hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyro_gearloose Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 That LXKey keyboard does have a USB hub built in. Won't the mouse or memory stick work when connected through the keyboard? And if you don't want/can't afford an LXKey, then most Apple USB keyboards have a USB hub built in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRW Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 This has been a source of bafflement and frustration to me for a while, starting back with the LS9. Who on earth think that naming files via cursor shift and enter is a good idea, when a simple USB keyboard does the job just SO much quicker? Wound up more by Strand's 250ML, suggested on their forum that the single USB port could be upgraded to take a keyboard only to be told the desk didn't have enough internal memory to deal with the necessary drivers! WTF! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/mad.gif Something to be said for the original serial ports! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Unfortunately the motherboards available at that size don't have many USB ports.Still better than some laptops, it amazes me that anybody makes a machine with only one USB port. Many monitors have a built-in USB hub, so I usually use those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_s Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 I must say after chatting with Jeremy yesterday, the small size of the Puck is what would sell it for me (assuming I had a bit of spare cash). Having toured a hired Ion last year (two flightcases, one of which was three times as heavy as the kit inside), being able to pop a dedicated lighting system - Puck, keyboard and monitor into one bag seems like a great idea. I'm sure there have to be trade-offs somewhere to achieve this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 They're not cheap, though. I priced up a system recently and the cost was only fractionally below just buying an Ion. In the end, I've ordered an Ion for backup console duty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_s Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 They're not cheap, though. I priced up a system recently and the cost was only fractionally below just buying an Ion. In the end, I've ordered an Ion for backup console duty. That's interesting, and slightly disappointing.. I didn't go into details properly, because I'm not likely to be buying, but I got the impression that the Puck was around about the level of a Mac Mini. I didn't ask about the keyboard and dongle bit. I'd guessed (very speculatively!) that with the extra bits to make it work it would be in the area of a well specced MB Pro, which would be considerably less than an Ion. (UK prices) Jeremy did say the rack-mounted version was more expensive... hopefully the price might come down with a bit of market penetration... in my limited experience of buying consoles from ETC, (a couple of Congos 10 years ago) we did save quite a lot of money by sourcing our own monitors rather than buying them from ETC ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard Posted June 26, 2015 Author Share Posted June 26, 2015 If you are happy with only 256 channels then you can get a complete system for under £1k, it's when you start getting the higher channel counts that the cost difference becomes negligable - however you wouldn't really want to control a massive rig from one. And re. the comment about the LXkey having an USB hub - that is correct and helps, however the problem comes when you only have a normal keyboard.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 Prices publicly quoted in the US on lighting websites (as opposed to negotiated with your supplier) seem to indicate a 4 universe puck comes in at roughly half the cost of a two universe ion ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 Hmmm. Either I'm getting terrible prices on the Puck, or I'm getting great prices on the Ion... Did you calculate in the cost of the gateway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 I think I actually got confused between nomad dongle price and puck price - but a puck is about 1/2 the price of an ion I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 I didnt factor in any ancillaries, no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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