Control of DMX devices via Art-Net?

I’m curious if anyone has contemplated the creation of a integration to control DMX fixtures via Art-Net.

“Art-Net 4 is an award-winning data distribution protocol that allows DMX512 and RDM lighting data to be transported over an ethernet network. It uses a simple UDP based packet structure designed to provide efficient and low overhead data flow.”

I’m thinking a fairly simple Smartapp could be created to provide Art-Net commands to an DMX controller, such as the eDMX1Pro by DMX King (https://dmxking.com/artnetsacn/edmx1-pro).

Here’s the latest Art-Net specification: http://art-net.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=412

In a way, i’m imagining a very paired-down version of a popular iOS DMX controller app called Luminair (http://synthe-fx.com/).

Finally, here’s more info on the DMX specification: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMX512

Anyone interested in playing around with this? I have lots of ideas, but am not very proficient at coding this type of thing… Would love to team-up with someone.

@pstuart can say more, but unfortunately UDP is not supported on the hub. People who build integrations usually end up with a “man in the middle” server like a raspberry pi or a mini Mac. Which gets technically pretty complex.

@JDRoberts- Thanks for the quick reply. That’s unfortunate :confused:

Anyone have any updates on future UDP support? I poked around the community and it seems to be one of the infamous “coming soon” features. :expressionless:

@posborne - I noticed some recent posts by you regarding TCP/UDP connections from the ST Hub… Can you comment on whether or not something like my idea above will be possible in the future? Is UDP support on the road-map?

I think providing Art-Net capability to ST would be really handy for those of us with DMX lighting fixtures.

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Hi Bryan,

I brought up UDP again with the LAN team lead (@Bryce_Geiser). There is actually some UDP support present in the hub but it is not fully fleshed out in the cloud today and we will be taking another look at the feature and requirements of devices to decide how best to support it. These changes would come with version 20.x at the earliest based on our current roadmaps, but it could be later based on how things line up. Version 19.x is now in a feature freeze and there are a number of LAN improvements (mostly behind the scenes) coming with 20.x already.

Glancing at the ART-NET specification quickly, there could be some challenges that might make support for the protocol hard even with a basic UDP implementation, namely that the discovery of controllers appears to use a non-standard (not SSDP/mDNS) discovery mechanism based on UDP multicast/broadcast. It’s unfortunate that they decided to not use a standard discovery mechanism as we plan to have a good story for discovery and IP change detection for devices making use of those more standard discovery protocols.

It looks like once discovery is complete, the controller (probably the role the hub would be playing) can direct other controllers or nodes via unicast which is more likely to be what could be supported initially (assuming a unicast send with a reply on the ephemeral port). This would require the IP of the controller/nodes to be provided to the SA, which may or may not be a suitable solution.

Support for sending broadcast/multicast might not be off the table, but it would be a more involved feature that would require some additional thought on our side concerning portability and security.

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What’s wrong with using a control software on a PC like Light Factory and sending telnet commands to it? I do lighting for a local theatre and we use Light Factory to control our DMX system. It works with Art-Net and takes HTTP, telnet, and UDP commands.

Thanks for the quick and detailed response @posborne!

Excited to see the future releases, hope that expanded UDP support makes it in soon.

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I know this thread is old, but this has me curious. I am looking to add a Lixada USB DMX controller to my studio PC, and am considering how to use IFTTT to trigger programmed scenes from the controller for my DMX lighting. Mostly I would like to use one of the contact sensors to trigger the lights / DMX scene.

Thought process…

Editing PC is housed in the closet in this room, power and HVAC run, an access is run through the stub wall using brush plates so the only thing showing in the studio is the KVM console and a couple of small USB 3.0 hubs.

So Lixada USB DMX controller to DMX cables, and run the cables to the lights through the room. Set the terminator on the last light. Daisy chain the power using the same cables we use for shows. (Entire array takes less than 10 amps total draw). Control power to light array via Ikea Tradfri smart plug.

Contact sensor on desk door that houses the USB mixer. Thus when the mixer is accessed, the contact sensor is open.

Logic,

Come into studio, open cabinet slide mixer to front of desk / working position. Contact sensor triggers Smartlighting rule to turn on Tradfri plug, second rule turns on virtual switch that acts as a trigger for IFTTT, this trigger in the “on” position, should send a signal somehow TBD back to my Freestyler app to load and run a predetermined scene and lighting comes up and does its thing.

The big issue I have is trying to determine how to make that connection to Freestyler and even if IFTTT is the right approach…