dualETH-PixelControl quick start#
This guide takes a freshly-flashed dualETH-PixelControl Gen5 from "powered on for the first time" to "outputting DMX from your console". It assumes you're running firmware v7.1 or newer — if your unit is on v6.x, the web UI is laid out differently and you should consider updating the firmware first.
What you'll need#
- A dualETH-PixelControl board (HALO Gen5 hardware).
- Power — either a USB-C cable to any standard 5 V supply, or PoE if you ordered the unit with the PoE add-on (see below). The board draws about 1.15 W (0.232 A @ 5 V) at idle.
- An Ethernet cable from the board to either your network switch or directly to a computer.
- A web browser on the same network.
That's it for the hardware setup — there's no mobile app, no cloud account, no companion software.
About PoE#
The PoE add-on is active, IEEE 802.3af-compliant. That means it works with any standards-compliant PoE switch or injector — basic 802.3af gear is fine, you do not need PoE+ (802.3at) or PoE++ (802.3bt). The board draws under 9 W from the link, well within the 12.95 W budget that 802.3af guarantees.
You do not need a passive PoE injector. Cheap "passive PoE" gear that puts 48 V straight onto the spare pairs without negotiation is a different system — the board's PoE circuitry expects a standards-compliant PSE on the other end.
First boot#
When you power the board, all three status LEDs come on dim cyan. That's the boot indicator — the chip has started but Ethernet hasn't come up yet. It usually clears within a couple of seconds. If it stays dim cyan for more than ~10 seconds, the board is waiting for Ethernet link — check your cable and switch port.
Network defaults#
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| DHCP | Enabled |
| Static IP (fallback) | 10.0.0.1 / 255.0.0.0 |
| Node name | dualETH-HALO |
| Web UI | HTTP on port 80 |
If your network has a DHCP server, the board will take an address from it. If not, it falls back to the static 10.0.0.1 — which means a direct cable to a computer with a manually-set address in the 10.0.0.0/8 range will work (e.g. set your computer to 10.0.0.2 / 255.0.0.0).
MAC address#
Each board has a unique MAC derived from the processor's factory address. If you've upgraded an older unit from v6.x to v7.x, the MAC will have changed — see the firmware update guide for what to update on your network.
Reading the status LEDs#
There are three LEDs in a row on the board. They tell you what each port is doing without needing to open the web UI.
| LED | Position | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Port A — receive | DMX-in activity |
| 1 | Port A — transmit | Art-Net / sACN / pixel data going out of Port A |
| 2 | Port B — transmit | Art-Net / sACN / pixel data going out of Port B |
LED colours are mode-aware:
- Cyan blip / pulsing white — DMX-in mode (LED 0 only). Cyan flashes per incoming DMX frame; white pulse means no DMX detected.
- Blue blip / pulsing pink — DMX-out mode. Blue flashes per Art-Net or sACN packet received; pink pulse means no traffic.
- Green blip / pulsing orange — WS2812 pixel mode. Same blip-on-data, idle-pulse semantics as DMX-out, but in pixel-mode colours so you can tell at a glance which ports are pixel ports.
- Solid red — "wrong direction" indicator. Lit when a port is configured for input but the LED is on the opposite direction (e.g. LED 1 — Port A TX — is solid red when Port A is in DMX-in mode).
Connecting to the web UI#
- Find the board's IP address. If you set it yourself, you already know it. If it's on DHCP, check your router's DHCP client list for
dualETH-HALO. - Open
http://<that-ip>/in any browser. The web UI is served from the device — no internet connection required. - The first page is the Status dashboard: uptime, network details, per-port packet counters, the same status LEDs visualised in the browser, and a heartbeat dot that pulses on every successful poll.
Default port configuration#
Out of the box, both ports are configured as:
- Mode: DMX out
- Protocol: Art-Net
- Merge: HTP (highest takes precedence)
Default Art-Net universes:
| Port | Net | Subnet | Universes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 0 | 0 | 0, 1, 2, 3 |
| B | 0 | 0 | 4, 5, 6, 7 |
Default sACN universes are 1–4 on Port A, 5–8 on Port B.
Sending your first universe#
If your console can already speak Art-Net or sACN, you can be outputting DMX in under a minute:
- Point your console's Art-Net output at the board's IP, net 0, subnet 0, universe 0. (Or sACN universe 1.) That's Port A's first universe by default.
- Plug a DMX fixture into Port A.
- Bring up a fader. LED 1 should start flashing blue on every packet received.
If the LED isn't flashing:
- Still pulsing pink? Console isn't reaching the board. Check your console's destination IP and that both devices are on the same subnet.
- Solid red on LED 1? Port A is configured for DMX-in, not DMX-out. Switch the mode in the web UI's Port A page.
Changing modes#
Each port can run in one of four modes:
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| DMX out | Convert Art-Net / sACN to DMX-512 |
| DMX in | Capture incoming DMX-512 and broadcast it as Art-Net |
| RDM out | DMX out plus RDM responder discovery |
| WS2812 | Drive an addressable pixel strip — up to 680 pixels per port (170 per universe × 4 universes) |
Open the Port A or Port B page in the web UI to change modes. Settings are saved to EEPROM as soon as you click Save — there's no separate "commit" step, and they survive a power cycle.
Where to go next#
- Updating dualETH-PixelControl firmware — flash a newer firmware over USB.
- The web UI's Status page is the fastest place to diagnose anything else; it surfaces last reset reason, free heap, watchdog counters, and rolling per-port packet rates.