Art-Net Output Delay after version 4.10.2

alexdeleonmusic · Fri Jun 09, 2017 6:30 pm

Hello everyone!
I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I have searched the forum and was unable to find anything related.
First of all thank you Massimo and everyone involved, I love QLC+ and use it for my wedding and corporate band lighting and it is fantastic.

My problem:
I am outputting Art-Net from QLC+ 4.10.5b running on my mid-2015 MacBook Pro running macOS Sierra to a device called the Heroic Robotics PixelPusher. The PixelPusher is basically a hardware driver for many different kinds of LEDs (in my case WS2812 strips and strings).

The PixelPusher does not natively support Art-Net/DMX protocol but instead communicates with a piece of intermediary software specifically designed for the PixelPusher called the Art-Net Bridge that (in my case) runs on the same machine as QLC+.

I have experimented with using both Art-Net output addresses (127.0.0.1 and my local address) and am experiencing the same problem regardless:
A 10 second delay of transmission every 10 seconds (on and off). So I get perfect transmission for 10 seconds, then it freezes for 10 seconds, then it repeats forever this way.

The funny thing is, if I roll back to QLC+ 4.10.2 (and previous), the problem goes away completely. It is only occurring for me in 4.10.3 and later versions of QLC+. This is why I think it is a QLC+ problem and not a problem with the PixelPusher Art-Net Bridge.

The Art-Net Bridge is a javascript that runs in the Terminal on my Mac.

Here is a transcript of what the Terminal displays when running QLC+ 4.10.2 (when it is working perfectly):

Code: Select all

Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (3355) Power Total (32530) Delta Sequence ( 0) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge
Updating pusher from bcast.
Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (3369) Power Total (32530) Delta Sequence ( 0) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge
Updating pusher from bcast.
Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (3369) Power Total (32530) Delta Sequence ( 0) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge
Updating pusher from bcast.
Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (3351) Power Total (32530) Delta Sequence ( 0) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge
Updating pusher from bcast.
Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (3374) Power Total (32530) Delta Sequence ( 0) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge
Updating pusher from bcast.
Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (3374) Power Total (32530) Delta Sequence ( 1) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge

(above just loops over and over)

And here is a transcript of what the Terminal displays when running QLC+ 4.10.3 and later:

Code: Select all

Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (100000) Power Total (35080) Delta Sequence ( 0) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge
Updating pusher from bcast.
Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (100000) Power Total (35080) Delta Sequence ( 0) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge
got artPoll, sending reply
 <Art-Poll> VerH: 0 Ver:14 TalkToMe: 2
got artPoll, sending reply
 <Art-Poll> VerH: 0 Ver:14 TalkToMe: 2
got artPoll, sending reply
 <Art-Poll> VerH: 0 Ver:14 TalkToMe: 2
Jun 09, 2017 2:10:08 PM com.heroicrobot.dropbit.registry.DeviceRegistry updatePusher
INFO: Device changed: d8:80:39:66:2b:59
Updating pusher from bcast.
Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (3398) Power Total (35080) Delta Sequence ( 0) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge
Updating pusher from bcast.
Mac: d8:80:39:66:2b:59, IP: 192.168.1.3 Firmware revision: 141 # Strips(8) Max Strips Per Packet(9) PixelsPerStrip (50) Update Period (3398) Power Total (35080) Delta Sequence ( 0) Group (0) Controller (0 ) + Port (9897) Art-Net Universe (5) Art-Net Channel (1) Strip flags [0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0] Pusher Flags (12) Segments (0) Power Domain (0) Unicast Stooge

The freeze in output occurs around the time that the terminal displays the above "<Art-Poll> VerH... and the "Device changed..." text.

I'm not much of a programmer so I'm unable to interpret what this data might mean but maybe someone on here will have an idea?

Thanks for any help. Until I figure it out I'll keep running QLC+ 4.10.2 but it does kind of hurt my eyes not having the Retina display resolution.

Thanks,
Alex

plugz · Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:07 pm

Hello,

What happens when the ArtNet Bridge is running on a computer different than the one running QLC+ ?

janosvitok · Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:19 pm

You can read what is an ArtNet poll here: http://www.artisticlicence.com/WebSiteM ... rt-net.pdf

Can you try another software (artnet generator - e.g. https://www.openlighting.org/ola/)?

alexdeleonmusic · Sat Jun 10, 2017 1:37 am

Hey guys, thanks for such quick responses.

plugz, I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of testing that before, but I just tried running the bridge on a separate computer (a PC) and it works flawlessly. :/ Ha.

So now I'm more confused.

janosvitok, I would like to try it with a different DMX/art-net software but I seem to be unable to find one that runs on the Mac that I am comfortable using/configuring. Any suggestions?

I find it odd that the problem doesn't occur in earlier versions of QLC+ but now I'm even more perplexed at it working fine with the current version as long as I run the bridge on a different machine. Ideally I would get it all running on the same machine but for now maybe this will work.

Thanks guys. Any more ideas are greatly appreciated.

Alex

plugz · Sun Jun 11, 2017 3:43 pm

Changes have been made to the ArtNet plugin in version 4.10.3.

What probably happens now is that both QLC+ and the ArtNet bridge both try to listen on the same port.

As ArtNet does not allow changing this port, you can't run 2 ArtNet programs on the same computer.

But you don't need a second computer, you can run the ArtNet bridge (or QLC+) in a virtual machine.

janosvitok · Sun Jun 11, 2017 8:31 pm

I don't know ArtNet internals good enough, but maybe you can use multiple loopback addresses (127.0.0.x). E.g. make QLC+ listen on 127.0.0.1 and the other program on 127.0.0.2.