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sACN unicast support

Posted: Tue May 12, 2020 7:15 pm
by meelow
Hi MadMapper Team,

I want to control hundreds of leds (many universes) via MadMapper.
Does MadMapper offer sACN (E1.31) mode only in multicast?
I fear to clogg up my ethernet bandwidth.

MadMappers ArtNet does support unicast.

There has been several questions on this board about unicast sACN:
- https://forum.garagecube.com/viewtopic. ... ast#p31805
- https://forum.garagecube.com/viewtopic. ... ast#p58115

Any plans to implement this?

PS thanks for this awesome software (and the lockdown offer - i probably will get hooked)

Re: sACN unicast support

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 11:15 am
by mad-matt
It's not planned at the moment.
Why not using ArtNet ? Artnet is better, unicast is working without manually entering IP addresses thanks to ArtNet Polling mechanism (ArtPoll / ArtPollReply). With sACN you would have to enter IPs manually, which can be a long task and prevents using DHCP.
We might implement unicast sACN but since most good LED drivers support ArtNet it doesn't seem a big point. What's your driver ?

Re: sACN unicast support

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2020 10:26 pm
by meelow
Hi Mad-Matt,

thanks for your reply... it took me a while to revisit this forum :oops:

i am using a Falcon controller currently (https://www.pixelcontroller.com/store/i ... er=product) that is connected to many WS2812B. For this installation i am using ArtNet and it works like a charm (https://www.facebook.com/sehraeuber/vid ... 2397088079)

in future i want to use smaller, independent objects that are battery driven and are controlled via WiFi. I am building the controllers myself using a ESP8266 and a slightly modificated version of this software: https://github.com/Aircoookie/WLED.
They only recently added ArtNet support - which i will give a try soon. If that works i will stay with ArtNet :-)

Still i think sACN with unicast might give your software a edge when it comes to really using a LOT of LEDs... (e.g. using this controller: https://www.pixelcontroller.com/store/i ... er=product
(i do not use DHCP but static IP adresses - that why i only have to enter adresses once and can do it before the show)

Re: sACN unicast support

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2020 10:29 am
by mad-matt
ArtNet unicast or sACN unicast would have the same effect on the network.
ArtNet it much better for unicast thanks to the discovery mechanism (ArtNet polling) avoiding you to enter each IP address manually. And I don't known how wee would handle sACN synchronization in unicast while it's straight forward with ArtNet.
The only interrest for MadMapper would be to be compatible with devices that donnot implement ArtNet.