WiFi connection for USB devices - sorted

[smogthemog]

Well it's probably been done and talked about before but here is my attempt at it and I thought I would share it because I finally got it working
Here is the setup I have:

3gHz Laptop with internal Wifi running WinXP SP3.

***Gap***

Linksys WAG54G WirelessG ADSL Gateway with 4 port switch.
RJ45 connector lead into one of the ports of the Linksys and then into the RJ45 plug on the Belkin.
Belkin F5L009 Network 5 port USB HUB.
DAC(s) connected to the Belkin

I installed the software and drivers that came with the Belkin Network USB hub and connected the Lappy to the Linksys via the WiFi connection. I switched off the ADSL modem part of the Linksys as I didn't need it. Then i I created a 'network bridge' from the wireless connection to the LAN connection in 'network settings' in XP, cancelling any internet sharing on either of these connections before I proceeded.

This now allows me to plug in my USB DAC's and via a WiFi connection, control my projectors from my Laptops.

[andy_con]

glad you got it up and running mate.

did you test the range? mines pretty good

[smogthemog]

I tested it from the conservatory, around the back of the house, to about 15m out from the front of the house - Signal was weak but it worked.

[andy_con]

excellent .

[Things]

Oh I never thought you could do it like this!

I bought a mini ITX board to do exactly this!

How much was the router and the little USB/ethernet hub thing?

[andy_con]

the belkin wireless usb hub is about £40-50 and it can be used with any wireless router

[smogthemog]

Correct Andy, I paid £45 for this one but PC world do them for £47.95 if you order online.

As for the Linksys - £5 from a car boot sale Worked a treat

[Things]

Ahh OK, I found one on newegg for $90US which I thought was a bit expensive, but I guess not

[heroic]

I just got a couple of these little Belkin units, I'm using them on good old-fashioned steam powered wired ethernet. They work really well, even in VMware Fusion! (I installed the drivers for the device into the VM, not into MacOS, so that the VMware USB EHCI emulation code wouldn't be needed). We even had two Belkin units at once working!

They seem to be much better protected against noise than the USB extenders I've used in the past- we tried hitting them with our Dodgy Fogger Test of Doom which produces nice big pulses of broadband EM and ground bounce- no response. They even tolerate being disconnected from the host machine briefly, without needing to restart software or reboot the VM.

The only niggle I've found is that if the USB goes away (ie., the FB3 gets unplugged from the Belkin) while any of the Pangolin software is running, the Windows instance slows to a crawl (like one screen update every twenty seconds) and eventually crashes. Also, the FB3 firmware upload in LiveQuick doesn't work over the network device, but that's no big hardship since you only need to do it once.

[andy_con]

ive put a lot of time into trying to get livepro working with this belkin wireless usb hub.

but if you stop using livepro for long than 20 seconds it just freezes livepro and crashes. i spoke to bill about this and apparently its the hub not livepro.

now this is strange as the hub works perfect with moncha and fiesta.

but bill knows much more about livepro than me and when viewing the error log file said its was the belkin hub.

one thing ive not tried is the latest version of livepro for the fb3. i must get round to testing this.

[smogthemog]

I found Moncha, EL running any prog and Medialas DAC running Mamba to all work flawlessly. However, the Rockey dongle for Mamba wont work through it, I have to stick that straight in my laptop USB port. The Belkin/laptop See's it but Mamba doesn't.

[danielbriggs]

Andy,
Just a few ideas:
- Have you got the latest 1.2.0 firmware on the Belkin box running?
- Are the FB3 properties on the Belkin box set NOT to "automatically connect and disconnect"?
- And is "attempt to reconnect the device if the connection is lost" ticked?

[andy_con]

no idea as ive not looked at any of them

but when i get round to it i will take a look.

or i may even wait till the next meet as that seems to be the only time i get to play with my kit these days

[drlava]

This looks very interesting as a possible distance solution for the audio DAC. Will one of these wireless USB things come to selem?

[smogthemog]

There not strictly a Wireless USB thing, it's a RJ45 linked Network USB hub. The wireless bit only comes to be when they are RJ45 connected to a Router

[ElektroFreak]

NICE!! I have actually been using two laptops to provide this same function. I place one laptop near the stage and projector and another in the booth with me. Then I connect to the stage laptop wirelessly using VNC remote connection software. This is a MUCH superior idea. Good stuff!

[Things]

I also used to do that, but put a mini ITX board nexto the projector and VNC to it. Although VNC is pretty slow if you are wanting to do live shows. Windows remote desktop is better, but a lot more bandwidth hungry and harder to get going.

If anyone see's these for cheap, please let me know! $99 is the cheapest I can find right now from newegg.

[allthatwhichis]

Just get an ipod touch to use VNC. It worked like a charm at FLEM. I use it all the time with AutoPlay.

[andy_con]

dan helped a few people set up there iphones to link to their computers at the last meet.

in theory its great but not a good range and drops signal all the time

[Things]

I have VNC on my ipod touch, but once again, it's pretty slow :/

[ElektroFreak]

Using the latest version of UltraVNC, I notice very little lag between computers (can't speak for handheld devices). Sure, the graphics are a little choppy, but I'm not trying to play video games. Every mouse click causes an instant response on the remote computer, and if there is lag I can't tell..

[heroic]

The minimum lag that is possible with wifi and VNC is about 80 milliseconds, which isn't really good enough for a beatmatched live performance. You can get much better using this USB-over-ethernet device, down to the point where the delay is imperceptible.

[ElektroFreak]

I understand what you're saying, but 80ms isn't even a perceptible amount of time when your talking about a stage full of Martins and par cans all doing their own thing along with the lasers.. I haven't had any problem keeping things fairly well beatmatched so far.. perfection would be nice and this method is far superior to be sure, but 80ms is really not much time. Using the latest version of UltraVNC every move I make is smoothly reproduced on the remote machine instantaneously (at least so far as my senses can tell.) The graphics on the control computer are very choppy, but that's irrelevant to me since I can see the results of my actions by watching the laser itself.

[heroic]

Well maybe I'm overly sensitive to mismatches (I am a DJ, after all) but 80 msec is easily long enough to "look off" in a beatmatched composition. Especially if the lights are locked but the laser isn't.

I got this figure by measurement- used a PS/2 keyboard, a dual trace scope, a Coherent LPM with logger output and two Macbook Pros on 802.11n wifi.

Minimum latency comes down to a more reasonable 45 msec when I use wired ethernet, but it's still longer than I'd like. It's also highly variable, wherein the delay depends on what is going on on the screen (since VNC is a state machine and it won't necessarily listen to keystrokes while it's busy updating itself).

[ElektroFreak]

I can understand being overly sensitive. I do a bit of audio engineering and production work, and any soundcard latency over 6ms is noticeable to me. I just recently started doing small shows, but so far I have yet to have anyone come up to me and say "dude, your lasers ware a few hundredths of a second off." It really depends on audience perception more than my own. I am, like you, a huge nitpicker, so I will be using this system as well, but part of me keeps asking if it's really worth it if the only person that will notice is me (and even I have a hard time noticing)..