Lor With FPP

[TyTheGuy4U]

Hello i am trying to build a light show. i have an old lor 16 channel board and a Renard ss24 board. the Renard i cannot use with the raspberry pi because they do not sell the PiCaps any more. and the lor requires a special dongle for their website. my question was... is there a way to directly connect the lor or Renard through the ethernet port on the pi, and then connect the cable to the controller. and what setting would i use in FPP?

thank you very much

[k6ccc]

The LOR controller takes RS-485 serial data using either the LOR protocol or DMX protocol.  The only catch is that the LOR controller puts the data on pins 4 & 5 instead of MOST DMX controllers using pins 1 & 2 for the data.  That's all the "special dongle" does.  Easy enough to wire one yourself.  It is NOT Ethernet so it can not be connected to the Ethernet port on the RasPi.  I have no info on the Renard controller.

[MikeKrebs]

The Renard can be run with DMX (reflash the PICs) or serial (renard protocol) from FPP using an appropriate usb adapter.

[TyTheGuy4U]

k6ccc,

you mentioned wiring it myself how would I do that?

Mikekrebs,

would a USB to Ethernet Adapter be one I could use?

[JonD]

Not all LOR 16 port controllers support DMX,  The original 16 channel controllers only support the LOR protocol.  IF the Renard supports DMX, and the LOR controller is a newer model that supports DMX, you could in theory connect the Renard in front using standard DMX wiring pinout, and then make a cross over cable from the Renard to the LOR.  The crossover cable would need to move the data lines coming out of the Renard over to the positions the LOR controller is expecting.

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[TyTheGuy4U]

So I went and bought a usb to ethernet adapter for the renard. And made a DMX cross over cable. I don't understand why I would need a DMX crossover cable if I am using a AC light controller. With cannot run DMX. Anyways. I connected it ethernet adapter to the pi and tried both crossover and regular ethernet cables connected to the adapter.  Then I connect the other end of the cable to the board. But still no blinky lights. I am assuming it's a setting problem. I don't really know what else to do to make this work. Without the falcon picap. And being so close to christmas I don't think I'll have one in time.

Any more suggestions will be amazing!

[TyTheGuy4U]

I misunderstood the crossover cable.  That's from renard to lor. I am more worried about lights even turning on at this point. Here is the setup. Raspberry pi running fpp - usb to ethernet adapter -  standard cat5 cable  - renard ac board

I go in to fpp using my ip address and enable the test mode. But nothing happens

My settings are 
Type: Renard - Speed: 57600 - 8n1 - start channel 1 - end channel 24 - Port: ttymao ( I think is what it said it was)

Any help is appreciated 

[JonD]

Raspberry pi running fpp - usb to ethernet adapter -  standard cat5 cable  - renard ac board

You are listing baud rates which implies a RS485 serial connection.  A standard network cable is used for both ethernet and serial connections, but they are two different technologies sharing same cable style.  It is important not to plug a serial port into an ethernet port and vice versa.  You can fry your electronics doing that.

Assuming you will need a high-speed usb to RS485 adapter, but only a guess.  Have no Renard experience and those are above my pay grade.

[k6ccc]

Please get away from referring to RS-485 serial as Ethernet - It's NOT.  In fact mixing RS-485 and Ethernet can result in the magic blue smoke leaking out under the wrong circumstances.

One of my standard recommendations is to use a different color Cat-5 cable for Ethernet (computer LAN) and RS-485 serial (LOR or DMX).  In my case I use green Cat-5 cable for E1.31 Ethernet, and purple Cat-5 cable for RS-485 serial.  For my standard home LAN, I use blue Cat-5 cable,

Yes, Ethernet and RS-485 both use RJ-45 connectors, but they are very different.