Ethernet remote modem connect question

[Richard CSL]

I have a customer with a tablet style pc, but does not have a RJ45 Ethernet connection socket. he can however link into a modem, so can I connect my Artnet interface directly into the modem??

[James Remo]

Can he use a usb-c to Ethernet dongle?

[Richard CSL]

he could I guess but the remote tablet option appeals to him from an operators point of view

 

[James Remo]

Remote Desktop to a small headless nuc? 

[richardash1981]

Surely the "tablet style pc" has WiFi for networking, so that is how you want to connect to the Artnet interface. As the node won't be speaking WiFi, you will need to connect it to something that does (preferably the Access Point for the WiFi network, to avoid two hops of WiFi).

I suspect (hope) you are miss-using the term "modem", (which means the Modulator/Demodulator for a wide are connection, these days to the Internet. Some tablet type equipment does have a built-in modem, but is is always a mobile data (cellular) modem, which won't help you at all.

I'm inferring from "link into a modem" that the customer has a combined WiFi Access Point + Ethernet Switch (probably) + Router + Modem device - the modem being ADSL, VDSL, Cellular of whatever. You want to use the WiFi Access Point and Ethernet Switch component but not the other parts. Hopefully the combined device (which most people would label an "XXX router") does have some RJ45 Ethernet ports on it, most do. Given that, you should be able connect other networking equipment to the RJ45 Ethernet ports on the router, set an appropriate network address for the system (or configure it to get an address over DHCP?) and then connect to it from the tablet.

There are a few potential issues:

1. The router could be configured to keep WiFi clients separate from the wired network (whilst allowing both to use the Internet), but this is not usual for consumer equipment and can normally be turned off in the settings.
2. Artnet runs (normally) on broadcast packets, which may not work well over WiFi, or may be blocked/not passed on by the router, even through ordinary (unicast) connections are. sACN or the most up to date ArtNet versions (v4?) may be better from this point of view.
3. Depending on the WiFi connection quality, you may see noticeable latency over WiFi when you would not normally over a wired Ethernet connection.

[Tomo]

Not recommended because it's often hard to configure and the performance tends to be awful.

Most WiFi routers block Art-Net between the wifi and wired LAN ports by default.
Generally they will pass E1.31 sACN to LAN (but not WAN) out of the box.

Most WiFi Access Points (APs) will pass both by default.

It is very likely that some configuration will be needed, and domestic-grade ones (esp. those handed out free by ISPs) often don't have the options.

WiFi has highly variable latency by design, which generally makes fades terribly jumpy and steppy.

802.11n and older is very likely to be unusable, regardless of bandwidth.

WiFi 5 (802.11ac) on 5GHz might be ok for light use, if you're lucky enough to have little to no congestion.

The variable latency is less of an issue in WiFi 6, 6E (802.11ax), and WiFi 7 (802.11be), but APs and tablet PCs that support these new standards are fairly expensive as they were only ratified in 2021 and 2024 respectively.

[Richard CSL]

The customer started with ADJ my DMX go. However we had so many stability problems and could not get communication between the lighting software and the interface, so we dropped the ADJ approach. I then reprogramed all his showfile on Chamsys with an Art net interface. 

His apple laptop is a detatchable keyboard style and has no RJ45 socket. Hence my thought to use a dedicated hub / wifi modem to connect direct to the Art net interface and his computer. 

It sounds as if this is not going to be easy so a USB C adaptor and a wire to the interface are probably going to be the next best solution.

 

thanks to all here who have chipped in.

 

[richard_cooper]

11 minutes ago, Richard CSL said:

I then reprogramed all his showfile on Chamsys with an Art net interface. 

His apple laptop is a detatchable keyboard style and has no RJ45 socket.

 

Apple don't make a laptop with a detachable keyboard, that sounds like he's got an iPad with a magic keyboard. MagicQ doesn't run on iPads. There is an app to remote control MagicQ but MagicQ will need to run on a separate machine.

Edited September 12 by richard_cooper

[kitlane]

2 minutes ago, richard_cooper said:

Apple don't make a laptop with a detachable keyboard, that sounds like he's got an iPad with a magic keyboard. MagicQ doesn't run on iPads but there is an app to remote control MagicQ but MagicQ will need to run on a separate machine.

I think there needs to be some Chamsys hardware in the system to unlock remote control. A MagicQ Wing or MagicQ Interfaces but not MagicDMX.

[James Remo]

Artnet being tricky over WiFi and software needing to be unlocked - both avoided by running the software on a headless nuc and just using Remote Desktop to control it. 

[Richard CSL]

how do you connect to these headless NUC devices, is it wifi, and team viewer or is remote desktop built in?

 

 

[samchurchill]

They generally just run Windows, so you would use Remote Desktop (or any other  remote control solution for Windows).

Remote Desktop means you can use various types of hardware to control it from another Windows device to iOS or Android.