Sending DMX information to StageCL Lighting Console

Trying to send DMX info via the DMXout Chop to my StageCL lighting board, but no luck. I read that ArtNet is capable of sending AND receiving DMX information. If that is true, would it be an equipment restriction on my lighting console, or I am doing something wrong?

Currently, I am running TD on MacBook Pro 2014. I set the Network Address in the DMXout CHOP to match the ArtNet IP Address on my console.

Looking at the user manual for the Stage CL, as far as I can tell it does not support DMX Input. If you are trying to control fixtures with TouchDesigner that are plugged into the 5pin DMX port on the Stage CL, what you can do is use an ArtNet / sACN node which would allow you to control said fixtures with both the Stage CL and TouchDesigner.

You would plug the Stage CL and the TouchDesigner computer’s ethernet ports into an ethernet switch and then plug the ethernet switch into a sACN / ArtNet node which would have a 5pin (or 3pin) DMX Output Port that you could use to control said DMX lighting fixtures with data from both the lighting console and TouchDesigner simultaneously.

Depending on the settings of the node, the data from both sources would either be merged HTP or, if you are using sACN, could be controlled by sACN priority where having the same priority would merge HTP and differing priorities would have one stream override the other.

If you’re looking for cheap, I would recommend the DMXking eDMX1 PRO for ~$150USD:
image
https://dmxking.com/artnetsacn/edmx1-pro

Or if you don’t mind wiring your own power and 5pin DMX connectors on, for the same price you can get a DIN mount DMX node with 4 outputs for future expansion:
image
https://dmxking.com/artnetsacn/edmx4-pro-din

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@Peeet
Thank you for the response! I will definitely look into one of those ArtNet nodes. The whole concept was to take the RGB data from a video TOP and have the lights match the content being displayed.

You mentioned that the data would be merged. So if I’m sending RGB data from TD and the StageCL, how exactly is the data merged in that aspect? In this situation, it seems like the StageCL is being used specifically to address the LEDs, and the parameters (ie faders, scenes, chases) on the board would be arbitrary.

Could you clarify this a little bit for me? I am not very familiar with sACN protocol but it is something I will look into.

The address of the fixtures is determined by the settings on the fixtures themselves. 5pin DMX is a one-way protocol (ignoring RDM) so the lighting board doesn’t determine the addresses of the fixtures, you have to tell it (via DMX Patch menu in Stage CL) which fixture types are at which starting addresses. If you put an incorrect address into the Stage CL, it will still blindly just send out the values to that incorrect start address and then you’ll see weird things happening at the light (like colors being off or moving lights behaving erratically) so you just have to make sure the addresses entered into the lighting board match the addresses set on the lighting fixtures.

Same thing with TouchDesigner; and if the addresses in the Stage CL, TouchDesigner and on the fixture itself all match, then it’s up to the node to decide what to do with the two ArtNet / sACN streams coming in over ethernet. Most nodes default to merging HTP which means merging the two data streams using a “Highest value Takes Precedence” method. Literally just whichever value for each attribute is higher will get passed through, so if you’re sending yellow from one source (aka red:255, green:255 and blue:0) and red from another (red:255, green:0, blue:0) yellow will still show through because the green value is higher from one of the sources.

If you are, for example, sending cyan from one source ( red:0, green:255, blue:255) and orange from another (red:255, green:127, blue:0) you would actually get white because the highest of each attribute from either source is 255.

Usually when mixing TouchDesigner and a lighting console like this, I set the console to output “black” aka RGB at 0 and let TouchDesigner’s values “shine through” for the RGB attributes while sending zeros for every other value from TD so as to not disrupt other lighting fixtures (like moving lights with pan/tilt)

HTP does not work as well for moving lights or any non-RGB / dimmer level attributes because using the highest value doesn’t make sense for mixing pan and tilt values whereas it does for mixing colors.

If you use sACN instead of ArtNet (the Stage CL and TouchDesigner both support sending DMX via either sACN or ArtNet) then you can instead use the “priority” setting to denote one of the sACN streams as a “higher priority” than the other. The priority range is 0 to 200, and most sources (like TouchDesigner and the Stage CL) default to priority 100. If you set TouchDesigner’s priority to something above 100 (like 110) in the DMX Out CHOP, then the node should ignore the sACN stream from the Stage CL completely and only output the values from TouchDesigner. If they are both the same priority then usually nodes will fall back to HTP merging again, just like ArtNet.

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This was a more than deserved explanation. Thank you so much! TIL that I have much to learn :smile:

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Hi @Peeet,
Jumping in this conversation. I have a question.
Any reason why you wouldn’t use LTP to merge data in this case?
I have used it in the past with moving lights and RGBWA and it seemed pretty solid to me.