USB over twisted pair (CAT5)

[loopee]

MIIKKKLLLL

It's quite easy

You will need Beyond installed on both machines, obviously, ensure that the IP addressing is correct on both machines and they can ping each other

On the remote machine, go to Settings / Network / Network Settings and tick "Enable Talk Server" and click "Ok"
Then go to Settings / Network / Network Settings and click on the "BEYOND Talk server" this will enable the server aspect

On the local machine, go to Settings / Network / Network Settings and tick "Enable Talk Client"
Then go to Settings / Network / Network Settings and click on the "BEYOND Talk client" this will enable the client aspect

Once you have done this you should see the workspace on the server machine respond when you do things on the client workspace

Edit: just for anyone else reading this and for clarity, the server/remote machine is the PC with the FB3 connected and the client/local machine is the one that you operate from

BTW, the TCP talk server is for allowing other application (i.e telnet) to send commands to Beyond and not for Beyond-to-Beyond control

[kl79]

Thank you for the nice tips !

[loopee]

I just had a play with the TCP Talk Server and made a short video of it

[norty303]

Andy's comment about cost was an interesting one earlier (or in the other thread) about £250 being expensive for a USB extender.
For the actual functionality/convenience in this application, I think its quite cheap, particularly when you split the cost per FB3 connected for the extra functionality. IF you need a cat5 solution, chances are you have multiple projectors of moderate size, so £250 is a drop in the ocean as far as stock is concerned. Hell, my ally stage box to house it all cost more than £250!

Certainly, a £250 USB extender is instantly cheaper than another laptop running Beyond to act as the server, and also much more 'plug n play' in the field. Give me the hardware solution any day, than another instance of Windows and other software to go crapola.

I can see how the network option might be useful over a BIG site, where lasers are distributed widely and you can have a Beyond node located at each projector site, but thats a different level of work to where a lot of us are.

Interestingly, this functionality has existed in LivePro for some years, so I guess Pangolin just extrapolated it for Beyond.

how would you get say 6-8 fb3's working over a single cat5 cable

In the Beyond hardware/emulaser dialogue it reports USB2 data speeds, so each FB3 uses 50mb/s out of the 400mb/s = 8 FB3
Mine temporarilly dropped to USB1 over the weekend and you instantly saw the effect on the output. I still got output but the point count and frame rate went right down. It was actually quite an elegant way of failing, and for the couple of minutes the show went on regardless.

[WookieBoy]

Hey Norty...

so is this lovely picture you posted the "kit" you mentioned previously?

[norty303]

Yeah, I guess it is.
A couple of refinements I'd make to the design though, such as I'd get a half depth line milled where the internal plate needs to be bent at 90 degrees. It was a total bugger trying to bend 1.5mm ally over a tight radius without the proper tools, but a 0.75mm thin score line would make it much easier. Some countersinking added to some holes too, so it all goes together much easier and without drills

[norty303]

I also realised over the weekend that it would be possible to add a couple of USB to DVI adaptors, so you had a couple of projector outputs for EMULaser too.

[Shawnb]

i grabed a NEW Icron USB 2.0 RG2104 off ebay last week for $68 got it and it works GREAT

[sbk]

i grabed a NEW Icron USB 2.0 RG2104 off ebay last week for $68 got it and it works GREAT

Yes, every USB extenders which doesn't work with TCP/IP protocol are doing the job flawlessly as they just do a real-time conversion of the USB signal in a proprietary protocol, then convert it back to USB at the other end without any software layer other than the embedded one.

It's only once you add a layer of bad software drivers running on the computer to encapsulate the USB data stream into network packets that it goes bad.

[Pangolin]

Guys, we're testing new solutions for this. In the case of one of them, a client uses it with 14 FB3 on a network cable. In the case of another, it is an inexpensive device that doesn't even use any USB on your computer and doesn't need a separate computer. We've got to do more testing but it looks like there are some more solutions than just Startech.

Bill