Q Light Controller+

Hi there!

Yesterday I had a first show with my own band, now using QLC+ for light control. Currently we run it on a Lenovo Yoga on Windows 10. (Attaching a picture for you.)

The computer was connected via wifi to a Teltonika RUTX10 router (OpenWRT-based) and hooked up to this was a Netgear 16port POE+ switch that eventually fed an Eurolite Node1 ArtNet-to-DMX node. (The PoE-powered smaller version “DXT Node 1”)

I also had two Air2DMX Nodes active that used the same wifi.

After a while, the Node1 sort of crashed. Its green output LED turned orange and it didn't pass any DMX commands from QCL+. Only a power cycle of the Node1 helped. The Air2DMX nodes in the meantime did a good job. This type of crash happened a couple of times later on during the show. The DMX led indicator blinks orange, which stands for “hold” on loss of input ArtNet signal.

Now I'm unsure… is my Node1 broken? Is the Node1 crap? Is something wrong with QLC+? (The latter is not so likely I guess, since the Air2DMX nodes did well.) Or is something else going on that I don't see?

Has any of you seen this happening before?

Transmission mode was set to “full” which. I think this is a good idea in case of any packages getting lost, however it puts a constant data stream on the net. In my opinion, any ArtNet node should be able to handle this.

Normally I would run QLC+ on Linux, however for reasons of some unwilling software manufacturers, I also have to run Windows and/or OS X, so the Yoga with its touch screen happens to be this only box I run Windows on. I tried the web remote control for QLC+ with an iPad, but I need the speed dial widget which is not available via web.

I'd be happy to share experience on this Node1 thing. Thanks for your time, and praised be Massimo for his invaluable work.

Best
Frickler

FunzelFrickler wrote: ↑Sun May 07, 2023 10:39 am Now I'm unsure… is my Node1 broken? Is the Node1 crap? Is something wrong with QLC+? (The latter is not so likely I guess, since the Air2DMX nodes did well.) Or is something else going on that I don't see?

Do you use unicast or multicast for your Artnet transmission? (See options in the in-output tab and on the Artnet universe)

When I read your debugging story, I come to the conclusion (on paper) that it's your router as an access point which is the troublemaker.
I'd start checking if openWRT does something to broadcast storm traffic. Artnet is a constant stream of UDP packets; using the multicast output option is considered a Wifi broadcast storm. Disable broadcast filtering and you will be good.

I use unicast. Fun thing is that my up to three air2dmx nodes work flawlessly and these do connect via Wifi to the very same openWRT system. So if the router would block anything, it would only block data to its LAN port.

I did some further investigation in my workshop meanwhile. When the situation occurs, the Node 1 is not reachable via HTTP any more. It has a built-in web server for configuration purposes. It seems that it is completely off-line. In many hours of my first test-run, I only had this crash of the Node 1 happening once. There were no particular causes I could come up with. During the show however, I had 4 of those crashes. What I of course need is 0.0 crashes.

What I like about the unicast and full broadcast idea is that it basically enables hot-plugging of any DHCP-enabled Art-Net node at any time. I would like to keep this setting.

I tried more funny things. First of all, I figured out that the router, which actually is a Teltonika RUTX10 with their own variant of OpenWRT, doesn't transmit UDP broadcast that well once there are more than 4 Wifi clients in its 2.4GHz network. But still it does transmit packages, but lights will not be controlled that continuously due to dropped packages. (So far the workaround is to put laptops, iPads etc. on the 5Ghz network of the router.)

Second, I tried that old ENTTEC ODE (Open DMX Ethernet) that I had sitting around, the very first version of it, as a sending node to create ArtNet messages using a simple plain hardware DMX console. Which works well, I must say, after the cumbersome configuration of the old ENTTEC thing.

However, the DXT Node 1 does not receive any messages from the very old ODE, while the air2dmx thingies via the imperfect router do so quite well. Also I can receive ArtNet from the ODE using QLC+.

FunzelFrickler wrote: ↑Tue May 09, 2023 7:10 am and these do connect via Wifi to the very same openWRT system.

Thx for the additional explanation.

FunzelFrickler wrote: ↑Tue May 09, 2023 7:10 am doesn't transmit UDP broadcast that well once there are more than 4 Wifi clients in its 2.4GHz network

Exactly - that is the reason why I suggested using unicast. So now the trouble points back to a buffer overrun inside the Node 1. I would confront the builder for new firmware.

Things have happened.

Eurolite / Steinigke replied to my request that my DXT Node 1 probably has a very old firmware. They suppose that an update would fix the issue. However, in order to get the device updated, I'll have to return it via my retailer. Which is what I'll do.

Furthermore, I started a conversation in the Teltonika User Forum about this specific issue with their RUTX10 router and they had several suggestions to try that might help. Even if they won't help, I was impressed that Teltonika support apparently even read and understood the documentation of the air2dmx system.

And another thing: I got myself a Showtec NET-2/3 Pocket, which is basically the idea of the Node 1, however with two DMX ports which can be sender or receiver (either both of them or only one of them). This one also takes PoE and worked pretty much out of the box with all of my gear. Because of its nice display and menu, setting it up is quite quick. If you're after a wired ArtNet Node, I'd definetely suggest to watch out for a cheap offer for this one, it's not so much more than the Node 1 but gives you double the options.