Run my laptop instead of my ion board when we go out on location.

There are several companies who make USB-DMX boxes and accompanying software, but last I heard, ETC isn't one of them.

A quick google search with USB and DMX should turn up a few low-cost options - but you might want to consider buying a very tiny console instead. Personally, I find the use-just-one-finger approach very frustrating, and having faders very handy. The Smartfade consoles are great for that kind of setup, and are comparable in cost to a dongle, output box, and laptop, although you may already have a laptop or notebook laying around...

You might want to check out other forums like ControlBooth - both for other small consoles and DMX boxes.

I believe this capability will be available in the near future for the the Eos family and it's called Nomad. The excerpt below is from an article about the recent Prolight +Sound Show in Germany where ETC was giving away a Nomad dongle in a lighting contest.

"The Nomad dongle gives you access on your laptop to the powerful features of ETC’s lighting control consoles, to take with you anywhere. You can program and play back your show at your computer or use it as a backup to any of ETC’s lighting desks."

Here is the link to the article: https://etcconnect.com/news.aspx?ID=20653

the information at the prolight trade show was: there will be a dongle to allow output from the offline editor software. but the current version of the offline editor doesn't know about the dongle, so you will need a future version, probably 2.2. you can use it with sACN and ArtNet products or with ETC's Gadget, which is one universe from an USB connection.

Cool, thank you. New and interesting things are always being developed at etc.

We will have information about Nomad posted to the website the third week of April.  Nomad currently supports Cobalt.  When 2.2 is released, Nomad will support both Cobalt and Eos software from a Mac (native) or a PC.    

thanks!

Anne

So one Nomad key which will work with either EOS family or Cobalt family software?

Best,

John

Yes.  

-)

Anne