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    EVeik
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Nomad and ETCNet2

Can Nomad on PC/MAC use Net2?


A Nomad dongle was recently acquired to be used as a backup to Ion in a system with many Net2 Nodes (installed and portable).  In testing out the system, the Nomad would not control anything over EDMX.  In PC version, there is no way to select EDMX in the shell settings. The box is grayed out.  In Mac, the shell settings allow you to select/check EDMX, however as soon as you hit accept and return back to the settings, the EDMX box is unchecked.


This proved problematic as Nomad cannot be used to backup this system.  Is there any discussion about adding Net2 in future (I realize how backwards that sounds)?  This is a big flag for those systems who are updating consoles but not the node/gateway infrastructure.

Thanks.

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  • 0
    Nomad does not speak Net2. Net2 is not intended to be added, either. May I suggest perhaps adding a Gadget to get DMX output?
  • 0 in reply to saranow

    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.

  • 0 in reply to EVeik
    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
  • 0 in reply to Paul Toben

    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

  • 0 in reply to Steve Bailey
    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.
  • 0 in reply to Paul Toben

    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

  • 0 in reply to Steve Bailey
    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.
  • 0 in reply to Glenn.Gould
    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.
  • 0 in reply to Anne Valentino

    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

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  • 0 in reply to Anne Valentino

    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

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