I've only had very limited success getting any of Enttec's USB DMX devices to work reliably on my mac in several programming environments. Even when they work, they don't seem to have the bandwidth to do alot of dmx channels at once. I guess I gave up a few years back and now they just sit on the shelf.
I personally think Artnet is the way to go. It processes so much faster than trying to pipe down those FIDI drivers.
Now Enttec does have a box I like, the DMXEtherGate MK2 It converts 5 pin DMX to Artnet or vise versa. It does have a hefty price, $600, but does do two universes or 1024 DMX channels.
I guess it depends on the scope of your project if that is needed.
Similarly to @stuart, I burned a bunch of time on the ENTTEC USB gadgets a few years back. Not much success. The device I had, at least, had flaky USB drivers, and during the rare instances those drivers didn't kernelpanic, the DMX output was unusably unstable.
ENTTEC's "Open DMX Ethernet", however, works nicely with Kineme Art-Net Tools (and is about half the price of the box @stuart mentioned).
I got some patches in Max/MSP working with the Ennttec but very computer depending. Diffrent types of mbp's ended up in diffrent results. I also think it has flaky USB drivers. uDMX had some better results but stoped working from one day to another.
Now I'm working with artnet it seems a lot more sytem independent. I us the 2portNode from grand MA
I’ve actually been having a look at the DMX USB Pro myself recently, and I think I have it successfully sending DMX. Receiving DMX is slightly more annoying, but it should be quite possible too. Haven’t seen any problems with drivers.
I haven’t made it into a QC plugin yet, but it should be possible.
(I’ve really been planning to use this in my other Mac lighting software soon, but would love to make a QC plugin too http://douglasheriot.com/ )
I’m using the FTDI D2XX driver, which just comes as compiled object files you can build into whatever you want – no other separate kernel extensions or anything for users to install.
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX.htm
It definitely needs more testing, but so far seems to work ok.
Is this something people are still interested in?
I agree Art-Net (and E1.31 sACN) is much better for a whole range of reasons, but USB may be more convenient with a lower barrier to entry for some people.
(I haven’t worked with the Open USB DMX yet - it’s sitting on my desk though)
I’ve only had a little look at this over the last few months, and have also concluded there must be something wrong with the FTDI drivers. It works for a little while, and then just randomly crashes somewhere inside the driver.
(I haven’t ruled out it’s not my fault, but I don’t think so…)
In the meantime, I actually do have a working solution, but it’s a little more complicated to setup. The Open Lighting Project’s OLA software supports the DMX USB Pro quite well, so I’ve got a QC patch that can send DMX into OLA, which can then send it out to an Enttec USB DMX Pro (and many other things).
http://www.opendmx.net/index.php/Open_Lighting_Project
The OLA patch isn’t quite ready for release, but if you get in touch and send me an email, I should be able to give you a copy to try out:
http://douglasheriot.com/
I've only had very limited success getting any of Enttec's USB DMX devices to work reliably on my mac in several programming environments. Even when they work, they don't seem to have the bandwidth to do alot of dmx channels at once. I guess I gave up a few years back and now they just sit on the shelf.
I personally think Artnet is the way to go. It processes so much faster than trying to pipe down those FIDI drivers.
Now Enttec does have a box I like, the DMXEtherGate MK2 It converts 5 pin DMX to Artnet or vise versa. It does have a hefty price, $600, but does do two universes or 1024 DMX channels.
I guess it depends on the scope of your project if that is needed.
Similarly to @stuart, I burned a bunch of time on the ENTTEC USB gadgets a few years back. Not much success. The device I had, at least, had flaky USB drivers, and during the rare instances those drivers didn't kernelpanic, the DMX output was unusably unstable.
ENTTEC's "Open DMX Ethernet", however, works nicely with Kineme Art-Net Tools (and is about half the price of the box @stuart mentioned).
I got some patches in Max/MSP working with the Ennttec but very computer depending. Diffrent types of mbp's ended up in diffrent results. I also think it has flaky USB drivers. uDMX had some better results but stoped working from one day to another. Now I'm working with artnet it seems a lot more sytem independent. I us the 2portNode from grand MA
I’ve actually been having a look at the DMX USB Pro myself recently, and I think I have it successfully sending DMX. Receiving DMX is slightly more annoying, but it should be quite possible too. Haven’t seen any problems with drivers.
I haven’t made it into a QC plugin yet, but it should be possible. (I’ve really been planning to use this in my other Mac lighting software soon, but would love to make a QC plugin too http://douglasheriot.com/ )
I’m using the FTDI D2XX driver, which just comes as compiled object files you can build into whatever you want – no other separate kernel extensions or anything for users to install. http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX.htm It definitely needs more testing, but so far seems to work ok.
Is this something people are still interested in? I agree Art-Net (and E1.31 sACN) is much better for a whole range of reasons, but USB may be more convenient with a lower barrier to entry for some people.
(I haven’t worked with the Open USB DMX yet - it’s sitting on my desk though)
a qc plugin would be great !
still have the enttec usb dmx pro, and i use it to play around with a few led par lights (but only thru modul8).
definitely still interested.
Oh yes !!!! I'm waiting for an USB-DMX Pro plugin for a long time now ! Please do ! :-))
I’ve only had a little look at this over the last few months, and have also concluded there must be something wrong with the FTDI drivers. It works for a little while, and then just randomly crashes somewhere inside the driver. (I haven’t ruled out it’s not my fault, but I don’t think so…)
I’ll be having another try sometime, but using the open source libftdi drivers instead http://www.intra2net.com/en/developer/libftdi/
In the meantime, I actually do have a working solution, but it’s a little more complicated to setup. The Open Lighting Project’s OLA software supports the DMX USB Pro quite well, so I’ve got a QC patch that can send DMX into OLA, which can then send it out to an Enttec USB DMX Pro (and many other things). http://www.opendmx.net/index.php/Open_Lighting_Project
The OLA patch isn’t quite ready for release, but if you get in touch and send me an email, I should be able to give you a copy to try out: http://douglasheriot.com/