Entec Datagate

[samsc]

http://www.enttec.com/datagate.php

8 universes of dmx.
anyone used these yet?

[litemover]

http://www.enttec.com/datagate.php

8 universes of dmx.
anyone used these yet?
No but I would like to know if you think that the Enttec single univers openusb or open usb pro would be compatible with the Artnet framework you developed for OSX? They are very inexpensive and readily available in the US.

[samsc]

they have a horrible configuration menu system - one that you want to shoot yourself in the head after trying to configure.
and the web configuration is incomplete...you have to use the menus...
and their manual is not up to date with what they do.

they claim to not do all 8 outputs as artnet - but they do.
because we had them working in argentina.

seem to work.
had 6 of them driving 50 universes on a tv show.

[Marcin Michna]

I use Enttecs with Pixeldrive a lot. My overall impression is not very good, but most probably it's the Pixeldrive to blame, not the Enttecs. Personally I am quite happy with them. When I use them with pixeldrive I can drive 8 DMX lines, with Pixelmad or Catalyst - only 4. Is it possible to change this?? For quite a time I have had the intention of buying Pixelmad or more lines for Catalyst (upg), but this is the reason I didn't yet.

[samsc]

they seemed to work with 8 output artnet universes in buenos aires.
the manual said they didnt work like this--- but they did,
i saw it with my own eyes.

i accessed them directly using non-broadcast artnet - artnet data sent to each device.
we had 48 output universes - so we needed to do this.
i didnt have to set them up - gustavo did their settings...

maybe they need a firmware update of some kind?

[PerezLindo]

datagates are working good with pixelmad, Richard made pixelmad work with they, enttec support service is not good , in fact they says that is not possible use 8 ports at the same time with artnet , Richard did it possible in pixelmad.

[litemover]

Like anything else, you get what you pay for. Enttec is a very inexpensive solution for being able to output or input DMX via UDP ethernet. I've heard nothing but good things about the datagates and Catalyst/pixelmad.

They are available mostly within 1 day for shipping and they work. Any word on how the single kits work? I was thinking of buying the $70 kit to see if it would work as an input device.

Christian Choi

[ryanww]

A guy created a linux distribution which has his own version on it. It is made buy a guy at nomis52.net. It is under the projects and it is called LLA. It will take anything like artnet, sandnet, espnet and shownet and translate them back and forth with the addition of using either a single enttec usb open dmx (output only) or 4 usb pros input or output. I have played with it a little bit, but I could not get it to input to catalyst or output from catalyst. I don't have an acutal server, I was just playing with it on my mac book pro (in demo mode) and ran the LLA off of another pc I have. The cat would see it, but wouldn't show up as an input or an output.. probably because I don't know how to really use artnet yet and don't quite understand the ip scheming. The software is stable and in all of my playing with it, it hasn't froze or messed up. you can either configure it using the command prompt or it has a little web interface built in.

Ryan

[litemover]

A guy created a linux distribution which has his own version on it. It is made buy a guy at nomis52.net. It is under the projects and it is called LLA. It will take anything like artnet, sandnet, espnet and shownet and translate them back and forth with the addition of using either a single enttec usb open dmx (output only) or 4 usb pros input or output. I have played with it a little bit, but I could not get it to input to catalyst or output from catalyst. I don't have an acutal server, I was just playing with it on my mac book pro (in demo mode) and ran the LLA off of another pc I have. The cat would see it, but wouldn't show up as an input or an output.. probably because I don't know how to really use artnet yet and don't quite understand the ip scheming. The software is stable and in all of my playing with it, it hasn't froze or messed up. you can either configure it using the command prompt or it has a little web interface built in.

Ryan

set you ip address to begin with 2. e.g. 2.5.4.3
Make sure your Gateway is set to 255.255.0.0 if that doesn't work try 255.255.255.0

[ryanww]

Ok, I will try that. I have tried multiple ways but still was unsuccessful. I will try that today. I do not believe I tried that one though. I used a 10. router with a mask of 255.0.0.0 and 255.255.255.0 and neither worked. I will keep trying though when I get the chance. Thanks, Ryan

[samsc]

is there a configuration menu to select 2.x.x.x or 10.x.x.x on the datagate?

whatever you do - you need to have the mac and the datagate both on the same - either 2.x.x.x or 10.x.x.x

[PerezLindo]

I have used datagate in a new installation , some problems appear using all 8 universes with same ip , I just upgrade it to last firmware & use NMU application to configure datagate, problem solved. NMU have a couple of tips , in mac version channels setting appear as "2" when in fact "512", in windows version that´s ok.
Gustavo.

[Mike Redmer]

we have one in the office...

first eastern, then...

[jkumin]

they have a horrible configuration menu system - one that you want to shoot yourself in the head after trying to configure.
and the web configuration is incomplete...you have to use the menus...
and their manual is not up to date with what they do.

they claim to not do all 8 outputs as artnet - but they do.
because we had them working in argentina.

seem to work.
had 6 of them driving 50 universes on a tv show.

You're right, the old way of configuring them by menu buttons on the face plate was tedious and confusing. We have a free utility now that does it very well now, however. It's easy to see what you have, and change what you need to, all on one screen. The Node Management Utility makes this former chore a breeze, and lets you save and load profiles to disk, too.

We'll work on that manual to reflect this. The datasheets on the Enttec Website already do. More about the art-net 8 streams issue in a later post.

Jeremy Kumin
Enttec US Sales and Marketing Manager

[jkumin]

There has been some back and forth in this thread about how many Art-Net universes an Enttec Datagate could chug if a Datagate could chug ether. Well, something like that.

I'm not an engineer, so let me say that I'm only half scratching the surface of the problem with my knowledge of the topic, but here's what I've been told. There seem to be two issues here. One is what does the specification say, and the other is what can you in reality do.

Art-Net's spec says 4 out and 4 in is the max per node. Enttec supports that. Some people have made applications where they use a non-standard version of Art-Net which ignores that spec, and it works. We don't want to say "sure, it's easy, call it 8 whenever you like" because that simply won't be reliably true across the board. That being understood, there are a lot of times when it's been known to work, but we'd rather be conservative in our claims and sometimes give people a bonus gift than claim miracles that only happen for some customers.

Does this clear things up a little for anyone?

Jeremy Kumin
Enttec US Sales and Marketing Manager

[samsc]

Art-Net's spec says 4 out and 4 in is the max per node. Enttec supports that. Some people have made applications where they use a non-standard version of Art-Net which ignores that spec, and it works.

jeremy - thats a software protocol spec- but for a manufacturer-

all you have to do is have two ip addresses for one box- its called multihoming in tcpip language - or even more than 2 - and you can support as many universes - from a single physical box - as you want without doing anything none standard -

this is what i believe other manufacturers such as luminex do.

Richard