Directly interfacing with Astera ART7 and AX1 LED pixel fixtures

Hi everyone,

Just curious if anyone has tried directly interfacing with the ART7 wireless interface for the AX1 pixel tubes, or other similar fixtures.

https://astera-led.com/ax1/

These fixtures are very very affordable and common among many av / tv / film rental houses - you’ve likely seen them use on several music videos already and other live events.

I think it’d be great to have the option to directly interface/map RGB samples to the fixtures directly in TD, without resort to their proprietary app, a lighting console or additional hardware.

Haven’t tried these but if they are DMX compliant then you should have no problem if you get a DMX device that is supported by TouchDesigner to output to. With the DMX Out CHOP the ENTTEC DMX USB-Pro is supported as a USB device or the better route would be to get any device that accepts ArtNet or sACN which also have a real DMX output to go to either of the Astera devices you mentioned.

thanks Ben, was just curious in particular whether anyone had interfaced directly with the Astera interfaces at all really. [i do have a DMXusbPros which I’m certain will work of course.]

No, with the ART7 box the only way to control them from TouchDesigner would be as you say with the DMX USB Pro, or other serial DMX output. Aside from the ART7, You can also control Astera products wired using the PowerBox and DataLink products:

With both of those you can plug ethernet in directly from your TouchDesigner computer to these boxes and send Art-Net or sACN data to the boxes and then these two boxes will convert the Art-Net / sACN to some sort of data signal that is actually carried over the two wire DC jack that is also powering the tubes.

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Thanks for this @Peeet. Got to try to find suppliers that carry the newer pixel tubes, the older/cheaper AX1 tubes don’t appear to be compatible with these ones.