artnet Projector Artnet Control through Watchout

[fraggle]

I am trying to figure out how to control a Panasonic PT-RW930 through art-net. I want to be able to control the light output so that instead of a 0 count hard shutter, I can fade the actual light output. Under Art-Net Setup in the projector, I set the Net and Subnet as 0, set the Start Address as 1, and put each projector in their own universe. Under watchout, I created a DMX-512 output with the universe of each projector, and set the channel as 6 since the settings in the projector say that channel 6 is Light Output. But it doesn't seem to be working. I don't have a good understanding of DMX or addresses, so if anyone could offer any wisdom, it would be much appreciated!

 

 

[Morgan Wong]

you need go online in order to have actual artnet dmx output.

and try to use some artnet monitor on another computer, make sure everything go through.

[Mike Fahl]

We have a basic but very useful Artnet monitor available here:

https://github.com/pixilab/artnet-monitor

The file to run using the instructions on that page (ArtNet-Monitor.jar) is located in the dist directory.  This will let you verify that WATCHOUT is outputting the exected Artnet data on the expected universe and channel.

Artnet addressing can be a bit confusing – especially related to the universe numbering schem, which sometimes is 1-based and sometimes 0-based. So trying one universe up/down can help figuring this out.

Mike

 

[Benoit]

Hello Trnhnnh,

For the projector to execute your DMX orders, you also need to add an output universe 2 channel 7 and the projector only execute your commands if this output is above 50% if I remember correctly.

Best,

Benoit

[fraggle]

Hi all, thanks for your responses so far. I am online and I go an artnet monitor. I added the output universe and channel. I can see from my other computer that the production computer is outputting data from universe 2, channel 7, but if I'm reading the artnet monitor correctly,the data doesn't seem to be reaching the projectors. 

Is it possible it's the IP address? I currently have everything on a 10.101.100.x on subnet mask 255.0.0.0. Under the projector settings, it had "Art-Net SETUP" and I set it to ON(MANUAL) so it would follow the IP address of the projector under Network setup. When I had it set to ON(10.x.x.x) or ON(2.x.x.x), I couldn't connect to the web control.  

[Benoit]

Hi,

Can you share your Watchout output window or your project file?

Benoit.

[fraggle]

Attached is my project file. I would appreciate any ideas. For reference, we have 4 Panasonic projectors. My thought had been to put each projector on its own universe and have them each have a start address of 1.

HowToBreak MAIN.watch

[fraggle]

For all of those who were struggling like me and couldn't find any straighforward answers, I finally have some solutions after a lot of trial and error. In my specific example, I left the Art-Net setip on manual.

The only numbers you really want to change is the Universe and Start Address. More on those specific numbers later. In my case, I had 4 panasonic projectors. I learned that you have to set a dummy DMX output in Watchout for Panasonic that's set to 1 at all times. If I had a projector on Universe 1, then I would send data to Universe 1 on Channel 512. I guess Panasonic doesn't like listening to Watchout unless something is getting sent to every channel on a universe.

Theoretically you could set every projector to different universes with a starting address of 1, you would just need to send a dummy cue to each of those universes. I learned that you could set one dummy cue to Universe 255 and it would send something to everything, but that might be too extreme. You could set all projectors to the same universe and offset the starting address. So I guess you could do Projector 1 at Universe 1, Starting Address 1 and Projetor 2 at Universe 1, Starting Address 50. So Projector 2's channel would start at 50. Each projector theoretically only takes up 11 channels, but to be safe, you could create bigger offsets. But this way, you only need to send one dummy cue to one universe.

You also have to set an output in Watchout to Enable Artnet. In this case, if I'm using Art-Net setup 1, I would send something to Universe 1, Channel 7. After that, you might want to delete the enable output in Watchout because that's where things got sticky. You could also then change the channel in a custom user profile on the projector and get rid of the Enable feature once it's set. Alterntively, you just have to make sure Enable is always set to 1 in Watchout. I also discovered that when you initially Enable Art-Net on one of the default profiles, the projector powered off because Watchout sends 0 to the other channels in that universe because of the dummy 512 channel and by default, 0 to the Power channel, powers off the projector. For projectors where you can't set a custom art-net user profile, you have to send the neutral default values. For example, I believe for Panasonic, you want ot send 50% to Lens Shift H and V for it to do nothing.  

I also found that sometimes commands weren't being received by the projector at all, so I turned off Art-Net under Art-Net setup and turned it back on. I would also delete the outputs in Watchout and recreate them and then it would work. 

I hope this helps someone else because it sure was a journey for me, even though this has been a feature for many years. This process is also different for other projectors. From what I hear, it's pretty straightforward for Barco, but for Epson, you have to potentially set more dummy channels.