Gateway-Comparison-Table
Category: Gateway
Gateway: Merging DMX, Art-Net and sACN
Guides: Using Art-Net on an iPad
Guides: Power over Ethernet
Power-over-Ethernet or PoE defines the way that an ethernet cable can be used to send both power and data to a product. The product which uses PoE is called a ‘PD’ (Powered Device) and the product which supplies the power and data – often an ethernet switch – is called the ‘PSE’ (Power Sourcing Equipment).
PDs require differing amounts of power depending upon their design and the load they are driving.
PSEs are capable of supplying different amounts of power.
These variables are addressed by a number of IEEE standards:
- PoE is described by IEEE802.3af-2003. It allows a maximum of 15.4W to be supplied.
- PoE+ is described by IEEE802.3at-2009. It allows a maximum of 25.5W to be supplied.
- PoE++ is in development and will be described by IEEE802.3bt-2017. It allows a maximum of 90W to be supplied using all 4 pairs. There are 4 different power levels available: 38.7W, 52.7W, 70W and 90W.
The wattages described above refer to the power made available by the PSE. As there are significant losses in the cable, the amount of power available at the PD is lower.
Gateway: sACN and Art-Net implementation
The sACN (streaming ACN) protocol is supported in Artistic Licence ethernet products. The differences between Art-Net and sACN lead to some minor clashes which this document seeks to clarify.
Universe numbering
In Art-Net, universes are called Port-Address and number from 0 to 32,767. There are 32,768 unique numbers.
In sACN, universes number from 1 to 63,999. There are 64,000 unique numbers. The standard reserves the values of 0 and 64,000 to 65,535 for future expansion.
Clearly there is the potential for confusion over the number ‘0’. If a universe is set to ‘0’ and the sACN protocol is selected, Artistic Licence products will use a universe value of ‘1’ instead.
Merging and arbitration
The sACN protocol uses a concept called Component Identifier (CID) as a method to optionally distinguish unique streams of data, and a concept called Priority as a method to define the priority of a stream.
The following table defines how sACN packets A & B are arbitrated or merged when directed to same universe.
Gateway: Reset product IP address
Our gateway products, which include artLynx uno, artLynx duo, artLynx quad, artLynx RJ45, netLynx quad, rackLynx octo and dataLynx II all have a factory reset switch. To reset to factory defaults, hold down the switch and cycle the power. Once you have reset to the factory default, the IP address will change. See Gateway: Finding the IP Address of a product.
The IP address of legacy Artistic Licence network products can be reset to factory default using the front panel controls as described below:
IP reset procedure (legacy products)
A: Set Sub-Net wheel and both Universe wheels to F, power off, power on.
B: Set Sub-Net wheel to 9, power off, power on, power off, set Sub-Net wheel to F, power on.
| Product | IP reset procedure |
| AL5001 | A |
| AL5002 | A |
| Data-Lynx O/P | B |
| Data-Lynx I/P | B |
| Data-Lynx IO/P | B |
| Down-Lynx | A |
| Up-Lynx | A |
| Net-Lynx O/P | A |
| Net-Lynx I/P | A |
| Cata-Lynx I/P | A |
| Cata-Lynx O/P | A |
| Ether-Lynx II | B |
| Art-Lynx O/P | A |
| Art-Lynx I/P | A |
| Art-Pipe | B |
| Art-Relay | B |
| Multichrome E1 & E2 | A |
Gateway: Finding the IP Address of a product
There are three methods for finding the IP address of an Art-Net product:
- Connect using DMX-Workshop, this will display the product in a network list along with its IP address. DMX-Workshop can be downloaded from here. DMX-Workshop provides a gateway recovery system that uses the RDMnet – LLRP protocol. This allows a gateway to be recovered even when it is on a totally different IP range to DMX-Workshop. The LSI article HelpDesk17-Low-level-recovery-Oct2018 explains this in more detail.
- Ping: Open a command line window and use the ping command. If the products are on the normal Art-Net address range, type: “ping 2.255.255.255”. This approach is best on a Mac as Macs do not support net-bios.
- Perform a net-bios search (Windows only). To do this, connect the product to your laptop’s network, open browser and type in the net-bios name of the product you are using (see below). Occasionally the net-bios cache in the browser gets out of date. To flush the cache and restart, type “nbtstat -R” in the browser window.
Current Products (product code – net-bios name)
- oemGate quad – oemGatequad
- rackLynx octo – rackLynx
- daliGate quad – daliGatequad
- netLynx quad – netLynxquad
- dataLynx II – dataLynxII
- artLynx duo – artLynxduo
- artLynx quad – artLynxquad
- artLynx RJ45 – artLynxRJ45
- versaSplit EthB – VersaEtherB
Legacy Products (product code – net-bios name)
- Data-Lynx O/P – DATALYNXOP
- Data-Lynx I/P – DATALYNXIP
- Data-Lynx I/OP – DATALYNXIO
- Down-Lynx – DownLynx
- Up-Lynx – UpLynx
- Net-Lynx O/P – NetLynxOp
- Net-Lynx I/P – NetLynxIp
- Cata-Lynx I/P – CataLynxIp
- Cata-Lynx O/P – CataLynxOp
- Ether-Lynx II – EtherLynxII
- Art-Lynx O/P – ArtLynxOp
- Art-Lynx I/P – ArtLynxIp
- Art-Pipe – ArtPipe
- Art-Relay – ArtRelay
- Multichrome E2 – E2MultiChrome
- Eaton / Cooper Controls EN2RDM – EN2RDM
- Eaton / Cooper Controls EN8RDM – EN8RDM
- Thorn SensaDMX – SENSAEDMX
- Lex Products LexNet – LEXNET