ENTTEC Open USB-DMX Software?

[Clarissa]

Hi, I got my hands on an ENTTEC Open USB-DMX box. I'd like to play with it doing setup for my church's Christmas musical. We have a Martin XCiter and an ETC Express 24/48 for lighting consoles. This box is more just something I'd like to play with during the setup - because I can VNC into the computer that's running the box from my netbook Basically, a really over complicated remote but not needing any special hardware.

Right now, before I dig in, I have two real options for running the thing I've learned. I could use Q Light Controller on my Mac, or I could use FreeStyler in Windows XP (boot camp). Before I dig in and learn one of these programs (or a different one if there's something better for free) I'd like to know which one y'all think works best. Yes, I've searched - but all the threads (there aren't many) are old, not very specific about pros and cons, and related to long outdated versions of these programs.

It seems FreeStyler is the favorite, would y'all say that's true? Why?

Thanks for your help and input

Clarissa

[ojno]

What about MagicQ PC? ChamSys Ltd

MagicQ has the advantage of giving you some 'real' remoting with its web interface, and ArtNet etc in/out.

The interface is a little weird to use, because it is an onscreen replica of a real console, but it's very powerful.

[thelightguy87]

oh freestyler, how I am sorry that you must go through using that software. I did not like using that software when I started, I have an enttec USB Pro. I am currently using Light Factory, which is fantastic, just not free. For free software I would say Magic Q. No questions.

Things I didn't like about lightfactory, well, I didn't like how the cue stack was structured, the timing that defaulted at 100% and increased to like 500% was always confusing to me. It was a nice improvement having multiple cuelist, but either I just didn't have the patience to properly learn the software, or it was lacking in useful and common functions.

Things I liked were in the pan tilt window, I really liked how you could create your own shapes for the pan and tilt of your movers. that served VERY useful for me, and for a while was one of the only reasons i still used that program. I disliked the on the right side, the virtual channel faders...and I generally didn't like the GUI. I thought it was difficult to find import functions.

The Stand Alone function never quite worked for me, I think I just set it up wrong. And after than I found lightfactory and never went back.

Is Freestyler usable? Yes,
Is it something to use as your main console...no way.

This is just my personal oppinions about the program, I haven't used it in probably 4 years so I don't know if they've fixed a lot of the issues I had with it.

[Clarissa]

Thanks, it's the haven't used it in 4 years that I'm finding. The new version looks REALLY good. I tried Magic Q on my Mac last year (the Enttec box has been floating around awhile). I could never actually get DMX out of it. Nothing, no matter what I tried. I figured it only really worked with their hardware? Or at least not with the cheap ENTTEC box...

Thanks for your ideas guys, and if someone can tell me Magic Q SHOULD work, I'd love to take another stab at it...

[thelightguy87]

I know i've had Magic Q output DMX with my DMX USB Pro, does it say open usb dmx in the hardware for magic q, for some reason I'm recalling that the open dmx doesn't work with it, only the pro.

I'll take another look at freestlyer, and submit a new review. I can't imagine they changed it too much from what I remember, as there was a new version out when I used it.

[ojno]

Unfortunately, from the MagicQ website:

MagicQ Mac does not yet support the following options: ... Open USB DMX dongle. The Open USB DMX dongle is only supported on Windows.

Though I can tell you from personal experience that it works with the Enttec DMX USB Pro on all three OSs. The Pro really is a good investment, it's much faster and more reliable than the Open, which is like a winmodem -- everything done in software. The Pro actually generates the DMX itself.

However if you can bootcamp as you said, then you can use MagicQ with the Open USB dongle on Windows.

(edit: You may need to install this driver: http://www.enttec.com/dmx_usb/CDM2.02.04.exe.)

[Footer]

Originally Posted by ojno

MagicQ has the advantage of giving you some 'real' remoting with its web interface, and ArtNet etc in/out.

The web server remote only works if you have real Chamsys hardware attached, such as their USB dongle or any of the wings. This feature and the trackball feature are both locked out of the "demo" version of the software. To my knowledge, these two items are the only things you can not do on the demo version.

[Clarissa]

THANK YOU OJNO! I wish I'd read that before, it'd have saved me literally hours of grief. See, that's the reason I wanted to get y'all's experience. Anyways I have:

A 13" MacBook Pro running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

A 10" Asus EeePC 1005HA Seashell netbook running Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10

I don't have Windows installed at all, but I do have the XP CD that came with the netbook... if I NEED to use it to run FreeStyler I will. I think I can probably set up boot camp on the MacBook too if I need to, I could get a Windows 7 license or see if that XP works or something (I realised later it probably won't since it's an OEM copy and while I never used it on here it was probably pre-activated on this netbook).

I would LIKE to get something working on the Mac and the netbook. QLC seems like an option but I've heard it doesn't work on modern Linux releases due to the lack of driver support for the USB dongle? Is this the case... Will I be able to get this working at all without Windows? I want to know if any of you have experience before I waste hours trying without success

Thanks and blessings!

Clarissa

[JChenault]

The OP said he has a Enttec open DMX. I believe all of the replies have talked about the Entec USB Pro.

I believe that the Open DMX is not generally supported. My understanding is that it uses a lot more system CPU and if prone to dropping out occasionally. I am not aware of any software only production solution that supports the OpenDMX.

Now - I could be wrong - but I think you may have a lot of issues trying to use the Open DMX with a software solution in production.

[Clarissa]

Yes I have the Open USB DMX. I've successfully ran it on a desktop Windows XP computer at my church with FreeStyler before (old version). But in general it doesn't work well and most software seems flakey with it. That's why I'm looking advice before digging into it again!

And if the advice is to throw the thing in a trash can then so be it...