Art-Net light steering

In this workshop we’ll setup a DMX output over Art-net (TCP/IP) to drive an RGB PAR.

For the example, we’ll be using a Stairville LED36 PAR, but the workshop and its principles can be adapted to other fixtures.

!Warning: It is imperative to have only one person/device working on one same universe and subnet. If several devices stream Art-Net on the same Subnet/Universe the data streams will mix and the results will become incomprehensible.

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Creating the Patch

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Open the DMX panel and the Output tab.

Click the button to add a DMX Output.

Select the DMX Output and in the Editor panel, rename it and point to the IP address of your Art-net to DMX converter.

Take care that the Subnet and Universe are set correctly for your device/converter as well.

When configured in DMX mode, the Stairville LED36 expects the following input:

CH.1	CH.2	CH.3	CH.4	CH.5
Mode	RED	GREEN	BLUE	SPEED
0-63: RGB Control	0-255: DIM	0-255: DIM	0-255: DIM	-
64-127: 7 Color fades	ignored	ignored	ignored	11-100: high to low
128-191: 7 Color changes	ignored	ignored	ignored	151-255: Speed control by the device, via music or controller
192-255: 3 Color changes	ignored	ignored	ignored	151-255: Speed control by the device, via music or controller

*Tip: Throughout the following steps, you can visualize the data being streamed on the DMX output by selecting the DMX Output and in the Editor panel, by selecting the Spy tab.

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Controlling in the Graph

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In the Graph Editor, create a new Compute Graph.

Drag & drop the DMX Output from the DMX panel into the graph.

In the pop-up window, select Set Value on a channel.

Duplicate the created node 4 times and set each of them to control one channel from 1-5.

Set CH.1 to 63, and manually change the values of CH.2, CH.3 and CH.4 to observe the different color values responding on the PAR.

From the Generator category, add an LFO node.

Set the following parameters:

• Period: 2.0
• Phase: 0.0
• Offset: 128.0
• Amplitude: 127.0
• Duty Cycle: 0.5
  

Set the Graph into Play mode (left of the Graph’s timecode).

Connect the output of this node to one of the 3 color channels to observe the results.

Feel free to explore more complex interactions in the Graph with the tools at your disposal.

For example, you could duplicate the LFO node twice to have one on each color channel and modify the Period and Phase values to offset the cycles from each other.

*Tip: Connecting each LFO to a Scope node helps to visualize the data they output from within the Graph Editor.

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Recalling presets from Tasks

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As seen above, using the Graph Editor is practical to create dynamic data patterns on the DMX output but recalling specific colors is easier to do with a task.

In the Tasks panel, create a new task, and drag & drop the DMX output as a subtask.

Select the set Value 8bits command and set the Red channel (CH.2) to 255.

Duplicate this subtask twice and set the Green (CH.3) and Blue channel (CH.4) to 0.

Duplicate this subtask again and set the Control channel (CH.1) to 63.

Rename this task Red.

In the Graph Editor, ensure that all graphs previously created are turned OFF so they don’t interfere with the new values the Task will set.

Launch the task to observe the results.

Feel free to create as many preset colors as you want, and to explore different possibilities by tweaking the Duration and Wait options in each subtask. You can also explore different actions available as subtask.

*Tip: You can right click on any color picker in the interface to open the Color Selector pop-up window. In this window, you can preview different RGB values to produce different colors.

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Selecting the Color in a User Interface

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To link the data of a Color Selector in a UI to the data values of the LED PAR we’ll use a Compute Graph and Variables.

In the Graph Editor create a new compute graph. Copy and paste all the nodes from the Graph created above into this new graph and delete the LFO nodes.

In the Variable panel create 3 Integer variables and rename them Red, Green and Blue.

Drag & drop these variables into the graph and select the Read option.

Link these variables to their respective channels of the DMX Output nodes.

When this graph is on, the values from the variable will be forced in the DMX Output.
Take care that only one graph at a time is updating the values in the DMX Output or the result may not be what you are trying to achieve.

In the UI Designer panel create a new User Interface and add a Color Selector.

In the Actions tab of the Color Selector open the edit: onColorChanged option.

In the Action Editor window, open the Variables tab and drag & drop the three variables Red, Green and Blue into the Execution List.

Select each color/action created and set the Actions to Set value and drag & drop the Color Selector item from the UI Values tab into the Value field.

For each color variable, select the appropriate color from the Color Selector in the Value field dropdown menu.

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