Nomad and ETCNet2

Nomad does not speak Net2. Net2 is not intended to be added, either. May I suggest perhaps adding a Gadget to get DMX output?

A Gadget is certainly an option but there are 3 universes on this site controlling installed / portable Sensor+ racks, variety of moving lights, and variety of LED's scattered across a theatre. It looks as though the only option is to change out all the Net2 nodes for Net3 gateways. Not the most inexpensive solutions but good to know. This is a good flag to remember when speaking to other sites using Net2 and thinking of upgrading to Nomad.

EDIT*

I understand wanting to get users/systems up to speed with Net3, but upgrades to existing systems don't always work in the order of gateways first console second.  In my experience, consoles usually get updated before infrastructure.  And upgrades usually occur in phases so consoles and gateway upgrades may be years apart from one another. 

My two cents.  I think it would be worth looking into the possibility of unlocking Nomad for Net2 just for the fact of having Nomad act as a backup to any Eos Family console which can support Net2 output.

Also, if it is not already on the SCR list, please add that Nomad on Mac will allow to select EDMX even though it is not really an option.

Thanks.

I would buy one Net 3 4-port node for output from your Nomad, and then use a Net2 4-port node set to DMX In to get data into the Net2 system. Will definitely be cheaper than switching out your whole system to Net3

What would be useful here is a Net 3 to Net 2 converter box. Or just allow Nomad to talk Net2.

I am, as BTW in the same boat with 3 - Net2 4 port nodes (no upgrade available) as well as 4 Net2 2 port nodes that - in theory could be updated to sACN, except then Pathway wont provide the software and ETC won't support it either.

So, I am then stuck buying 7 new Gateways if I needed to use Nomad in a similar fashion, which I don't, fortunately. 

Granted the stuff is 10 years old and nothing lasts forever, but I hate buying new gear when the older stuff works perfectly fine.

SB

You won't get any argument from me, since the Net3 gateways don't provide any practical functional advancements over the Net2 nodes (and no, RDM doesn't count). It absolutely seems like an arbitrary limitation to prevent Nomad from outputting to perfectly good Net2 nodes. However, I think the "Net3 to Net2" conversion box you speak of *is* a Net3 gateway. I'd hate to see ETC spend any energy building a dedicated box when they already have a solution.

Paul, what you are describing is a Net3 gateway with 4 DMX outputs, then sending 4 universes of DMX to a Net2 4 port node to get the DMX converted to Net2, then connecting that Net2 node to the EDMX network to all the Net2 devices . It is certainly a solution, but clunky and also the only method that currently works. Other then this route, no Gateway or Net2 node has 2 Cat5 ports, thus no way to stay in the sACN to EDMX world.

SB

Paul, what you are describing is a Net3 gateway with 4 DMX outputs, then sending 4 universes of DMX to a Net2 4 port node to get the DMX converted to Net2, then connecting that Net2 node to the EDMX network to all the Net2 devices . It is certainly a solution, but clunky and also the only method that currently works. Other then this route, no Gateway or Net2 node has 2 Cat5 ports, thus no way to stay in the sACN to EDMX world.

SB

Yep Steve, that's exactly what I'm describing. ~P

I had to do a similar work around for one of the theatre 2014 upgrade projects I did. The client's system was all net2, they didn't wan't upgrade to all nodes, so I had to output all of their net2 data into a net3 node to get the sACN that the CEM3's receive.

Hi all. We did not disable Net 2 from Nomad - so it is sadly not as simple as "turning it on." There are significant driver issues for Net2 output via a PC/Mac. While we understand the frustration of not being able to use legacy nodes, there is not an engineering solution readily available for Net 2 implementation. We have investigated this very throughly, and will continue to monitor possible solutions.

Hi, I'm very disappointed to find this today having spent ages trying to get this to work (and being told at Plasa "It supports your existing ETCNet (no mention of version) nodes")

This is a bug and should be fixed - the Nomad Shell allows you to enable it (at least on OS X, I haven't tried Windows) and looking your 2.2 Release Notes for "Eos Family Lighting Control Software" which focusses on Nomad "This release supports direct output to a lighting rig via a PC/Mac, via a new product called Nomad" has, at the bottom, a lengthy section on "ETCNet2 Network Compatibility" stating simply "This release is compatible for the exchange of EDMX and/or configuration information with the following ETC hardware and software [..] ETCNet2 DMX Node - Version 4.0.6 and later software"

Under "Incompatibility" it states "Eos Family v2.2.0 is incompatible with hardware and software running ETCNet2 software prior to those listed above." - you would expect if Nomad was fundamentally incompatible, it would be mentioned in one of these two sections.

Part of the reason for purchasing Nomad was to use it with my existing ETC equipment - now it seems this isn't possible ?? The documentation is very misleading.

I really hope that ETC can fix this

Ross

Hi Anne, With you mentioning driver issues, I just wanted to check: If I send my ion in for the windows 7 upgrade, will the OS upgrade affect its ability to output EDMX?

Sorry about the confusion with the documentation. We've adjusted the Nomad docs to bring more attention to the Net2 issue. The release note for 2.2.1 will correct this as well. There is no issue with Win7 images running Net2 on Element, Ion, Gio, Ti or the RPUs. Best, Anne

So what about those of us where the suggestion was made that we *could* use this ? - even your video introducing Nomad says it works with "your existing lighting network" (many of which will be ETCnet 2?) - I do feel this is very misleading, especially as I now have to purchase more hardware to make use of Nomad :(

Regarding your comment above that you did not disable Net 2 but there are "significant driver issues" and "there is not an engineering solution readily available for Net 2 implementation" - however MA Lighting offer ETCnet 2 output using a dongle that's provided *BY* ETC and it's given free of charge to their customers ?

Surely the Nomad dongle could have incorporated this, or an additional one could be made available if physical size was a concern - seems a bit unreasonable that ETC don't support their own (albeit older) protocol, but actively support competitors providing it?

We understand that theaters rarely have the resources to upgrade an installed lighting control system all at once. This is why we continue to support ETCNet2 in our Eos family consoles. If you have an ETCNet2 system with an Obsession 2 or Emphasis console, you can replace the console with an Element, Ion Gio or Eos Ti console and not replace the nodes.

Nomad may not be right for you if you have an existing network of ETCNet1, ETCNet2 or AVAB UDP devices. Options exist, some described above, to use Nomad with your legacy network. These options may not be worthwhile. If you really want Nomad, contact your ETC dealer to discuss alternatives.

Adding EDMX to Nomad is not a trivial task. We would need to develop and test EDMX software for Win7-32bit, Win7-64bit, Win8, Win10 and Mac. We would need to support a wide variety of network interface and multiple interface on the same computer. Most modern laptops include multiple network interfaces. If we limited Nomad to only run on one platform, it might be manageable. However, we can’t limit Nomad to one platform.

We believe that we should focus our efforts on forward looking features, like controlling LED fixtures, rather than adding support for protocols that were replaced >7 year ago.

As Anne said above, we are sorry that our documentation and video misled you. We are taking steps to make it clearer the Nomad does not support ETCNet2. We will also remove the EDMX settings from Nomad Mac settings.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Dennis Varian