Interfacing Vixen 3.0.10 to the Raspberry Pi DMX utility.

 Interfacing Vixen 3.0.10 to the Raspberry Pi DMX utility.

This article covers getting Vixen 3.0.10 [BETA] working with the DMX utility. Vixen supports E1.31, which is a standard network protocol for talking to DMX devices. Using E1.31 we can have Vixen running on a different system than the Raspberry Pi. This way the Raspberry can act as a DMX server, while any system can send packets to it.

I’m not a Vixen expert. The below details the steps I took to get Vixen to talk to the DMX Utility. The setup is Vixen running on a PC running Windows (I’ve tried with both 8 and 7) and the DMX utility running on a Raspberry Pi. (The Pi is running Raspian 3.10 (wheezy)) I’m using the wireless network on the Pi. (Which doesn’t appear to have any latency issues when receiving UDP packets – which is what the E1.31 spec calls out).

The DMX utility needs to be started with the --e131 and/or the --e131m option. (see the “start here” link)

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On vixen, select the “Setup Display option in the “System Configuration” box.

Next we’ll add our “Elements” (Lights). The lights I’m using are LED RGB each consuming 3 channels, one each for Red, Green and Blue. I select “Single Item” and then press the green button. (The “+” one).

I name my elements L1 through the L5 (I’ve a small installation). Let’s start off with L1.

We need to configure the Color Handling, so we select “Color Handling” from the drop down and click the “Configure” (cog) icon.

Select “They can be any color”. Once you click “OK”.

You should see the amount of Patch Points go up to 3.

Once all 5 elements have been configured, you should have this on the left hand side of the screen. (Five RGB Lights/elements – each using 3 channels.)

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Now we need to set up the controller and link the lights to channels on the controller. On the right hand side of the screen we select “E1.31 Output Controller” from the dropdown list and click the green button. We can name our controller anything. I’ve named it “DmxPi”. We really on need 3x5=15 channels, but I’ve created 20 output count, as that’s what the DMX utility defaults to.

 Now we select each element from the left and a group (using the Ctrl-Key) of outputs on the left and “patch” the elements together by pressing the “Patch Elements to Controller” button. You need to patch L1 to #1, #2 and #3 and L2 to #4, #5 and #6, etc…

We need to configure the controller for Universe, where it starts and how big it is. Press the “Configure” cog on the bottom right of the screen. You will see the “Setup Form”. If you’re using Unicast (using the - - e131 option on the DMX utility) then you need to set the destination as the IP of your Raspberry Pi. This is a two-step process. First, right click on the destination dropdown, a box asking for the IP will immediately appear. Type in the IP address of your Pi and click “OK”. Next, select the Unicast option from the Destination dropdown. (Which will now be populated). If you’re using multicast (using the –e131m option on the DMX utility) then select the Multicast network that your Pi is on. (ie, wireless, or Local Area if you’re hooked in to the lan). Select the universe that you’re in. One is probably the best default. If you set it to something else, then use the –universe option on the DMX utility to ensure that both ends match). Set the size of the universe to 20 (again, I’m only using 15 channels). Don’t forget to check “Act” to activate the address. I set the Max Repeat and Max Suppress count to 3, so that there’s not a lot of noise on the network, but during debug/set up, you may want to leave these are zero. Click OK and then OK on the Setup Display page, and now you can start a “New Sequence”. (Read the Vixen docs on what to do here)