DMX out CHOP questions

Hello TD forum,

after watching Ben and Markus amazing video on youtube ([url]Intro to TouchDesigner for Pixel Mapping - Ben Voigt and Markus Heckmann - YouTube) I have a couple of questions regarding adding the IP address in the routing table and sending more than 16 universes.

Adding a column in the DMX routing table to insert a specific IP address for each universe seems a very neat option for large networks.
But then what happens to that IP address 10.0.0.1 typed into the DMX out CHOP in the Network Address field? (Iā€™m referring to the youtube video at about 1:25:36)
Does that address get bypassed/ignored? or should I leave that field blank and TD automatically knows to look in that fifth column called ā€œnetaddressā€? or do I need to tell TD to look to that ā€œnetaddressā€ column?

My next question is about subnet and outputting more than 16 universes.
I understand the principle that TD is able to outputting 16 universes per subnet. But then I am not clear what the TD setting should be and the physical hardware setup might look like for sending over 16 universes.
I am not overly familiar with IP addresses and networking, but will try to explain the best I can:

Letā€™s say I am sending 16 universes to my DMXdevice1 set to network address 10.0.0.1, and this device is capable of receiving 30 universes.
Iā€™d imagine the dmx out routing table will have 17 rows, and from row 1 the table will be filled with:
channel (name of that universe)
net 0
subnet 0
universe (output universe number 1 to 16 for sACN).

But then I am not clear what happens if I need to output another universe?
I would imagine that I will add another row to the routing table, and fill this row with:
channel (name of that 17th universe)
net 0
subnet 1
universe 1 (for sACN).

is that it? will my DMXdevice1 receive and output that 17th universe?
and how does my device know that itā€™s universe 17 if itā€™s called 1?

PS: side note: I always found hilarious the word ā€œuniverseā€ to refer to 512 lighting channels, and now more than ever since one entire ā€œuniverseā€ could easily be filled by using a single 5m LED strip :slight_smile:

Hello!

If a netaddress column is detected in the routing table, the Network Address field is ignored.
You can leave it blank or keep something in there, that doesnā€™t really matter.

For the addressing part when using subnets, Artnet actually just addresses 1281616 (32,768) individual universes which is saved as a 15 bit value into each ArtNet package. Some Hard and Software use just this as a sequential universe number while others, including us, use the split up version between 128 nets, 16 subnets and 16 universes. You will see in your hardware which version they support and you might have to convert between the 2.

Depending on the ArtNet device you are using, you will have a configuration utility which letā€™s you set the universe(s) the device should be listening on.

If you want to learn more about ArtNet, the terminology and protocol details, this pdf has proven very informative: artisticlicence.com/WebSiteMaste ā€¦ rt-net.pdf

Best
Markus

Thank you very much Markus for your help!
Itā€™s all clear now.

Fausto

This ā€˜netaddressā€™ column on the routing table - can we add that to the documentation?

Slainte,

N

I followed along with the video but am getting a warning about a reserved universe 0.

Any ideas?

Thanks

sACN universe values start at 1. The video in question uses Art-Net which allows a universe value of 0. Changing your universe cell value to 1 in the routing table will resolve the issue.

1 Like

Nice one, thanks Eric. I also switched to Artnet which solved the issue although Iā€™m yet to get my lights to illuminateā€¦ Iā€™ll hook up my artnet controller later.

Thanks