OLA on GuruPlug

This describes how to setup OLA on a GuruPlug. These devices make excellent low cost DMX512 nodes.

Features of this system:

• WiFi access point with internet connectivity
• RDM control either over DMX or ArtNet
• Protocol conversion to/from: E1.31, DMX512, ArtNet, ShowNet, Pathport, SandNet, ESP Net

Costs involved:

• GuruPlug, $99 +shipping
• Ethernet Switch, from $30
• USB DMX/RDM Interface (choose from Supported Devices) usually around $100-$300
• Wireless Cell Card, shop around. Make sure it works with Linux.

 

Prerequisites

This assumes you have a shell on the guru plug and that it can contact the internet to download the packages. Note that the default guru plug is insecure and comes with a lot of extras (samba, mysql, lighthttpd etc.) that aren’t required. Removing these is outside the scope of this tutorial.

Installation

Add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list:

 deb http://www.nomis52.net/data/ola-arm ./

Then apt-get install ola:

 $ apt-get update
 $ apt-get install olad

Setup

Add a user ola for the daemon to run as:

 $ adduser ola

If you intend to use USB devices, you need to add this user to the plugdev & dialout groups. Modify the lines in /etc/group:

 dialout:x:20:ola
 plugdev:x:46:ola

Finally add any udev rules that you’ll need. See OLA Device Specific Configuration

Running

Change to the ola user and the start the daemon:

 $ su ola
 $ olad -l 3

Now connect the the GuruPlug on port 9090 with your browser to configure it.

Questions

Ask on the mailing list http://groups.google.com/group/open-lighting