Duet memory

Chip Moody

Well, to date I've never had to use Duet modules/firmware. Now I've got a device that only has a Duet module available, and figure I might as well dive in headfirst and use Duet modules that might be available for ANY of the devices on my system.

What have people's experience been with configuring masters when using Duet modules, aside from making sure the Duet firmware is installed, obviously? I'm using a Denon DNV300, NED Projector and NEC Plasma modules, so I'm assuming I should bump up the Duet memory partition a bit to be safe? Maybe?

I'm also assuming that I can get away with just using the .jar COMM modules and ignore the UI modules that come with these, just like I've done with Netlinx modules? I.E., there's no interdependency I'm aware of...

I will say - I am looking forward to being able to just pulse channels on the virtual device to make things happen, and likewise monitor channels for feedback - rather than having to rely on SEND_COMMANDs and parsing a buffer for EVERYTHING...

Thanks,
- Chip

ericmedley

I've been setting my Duet memory to 12mb. That always seems to do the trick. You may have to tweak it to get what you want.

vining

ericmedley wrote:

I've been setting my Duet memory to 12mb. That always seems to do the trick. You may have to tweak it to get what you want.

12mb? When I telnet into the master and type "set duet memory" it tells me to set the memory between 2- 8mb. Was this changed by the Queue and Thresholds include file a while back or something.

Any way two weeks ago I set it to 8 and changed the BC rate to 0. I neglected to reboot. Then a day or two later I modified my office program and downloaded it to the master. It made it part way through the reboot and then nothing, dead. Now I'm thinking great, not this **** again until I remembered I had changed these setting a few days ago and came to the conclusion that I hadn't rebooted so the changes never took affect until this download and subsequent reboot. I changed the setting back to 2m and all was well again.

Now I don't have any duet mods running either and only made the change because some post stated increasing the memory is good for you regardless, whether you're running duet mods or not. Well I'm not and I did and it screwed me up.

ericmedley

vining wrote:

ericmedley wrote:

12mb? When I telnet into the master and type "set duet memory" it tells me to set the memory between 2- 8mb. Was this changed by the Queue and Thresholds include file a while back or something.

Any way two weeks ago I set it to 8 and changed the BC rate to 0. I neglected to reboot. Then a day or two later I modified my office program and downloaded it to the master. It made it part way through the reboot and then nothing, dead. Now I'm thinking great, not this **** again until I remembered I had changed these setting a few days ago and came to the conclusion that I hadn't rebooted so the changes never took affect until this download and subsequent reboot. I changed the setting back to 2m and all was well again.

Now I don't have any duet mods running either and only made the change because some post stated increasing the memory is good for you regardless, whether you're running duet mods or not. Well I'm not and I did and it screwed me up.

Here's the text from a telnet session on an NI-3000

Welcome to NetLinx v3.21.354 Copyright AMX Corp. 1999-2006
>show mem
Volatile Free : 29527432 (largest free block in bytes)
NonVolatile Free: 635864 (bytes free)
Disk Free :120107008 (bytes of free space)
Duet Memory Free : 1044500 (bytes)
Partition 1 - 1044500 (bytes)
Partition 2 - <UNKNOWN>
>set duet mem

Duet Memory: 12M
Enter new Duet Memory size (between 2M and 36M):

there is a new and improved Queue and Threshold Sizes include out.

Chip Moody

Which isn't needed for x100 series processors, right? The AMX tech notes don't do a great job explaining where & when to apply these, IMHO. Gives me as much of a warm fuzzy as "To find out how much DUET memory you need to run your program is by trial and error".

ericmedley wrote:

there is a new and improved Queue and Threshold Sizes include out.

Joe Hebert

Chip wrote:

I'm assuming I should bump up the Duet memory partition a bit to be safe? Maybe?

I wish I understood how the memory partition works since the default settings don?t seem to be appropriate for most cases. To me it?s a bit of voodoo.

vining wrote:

12mb? When I telnet into the master and type "set duet memory" it tells me to set the memory between 2- 8mb.

Sounds like you?re using an NI-700. I had to increase my DUET memory from the default of 2M to 4M to get the web interface to work even though I wasn?t using any DUET modules

vining

Hmmm. It's actually a NI-4000. I changed the Queue & Threshold axi from last year's version to the newer on. I tried again last night to set the duet memory, this time to 5M and again, it would finish the reboot. I had to set dip switch one reboot, telnet back in and set it back to 2M, reset dip 1 and reboot and it worked fine again.

I don't get it!

Device 5001 AMX Corp.,NI-4000,v1.13.6 contains 

>Welcome to NetLinx v3.21.354 Copyright AMX Corp. 1999-2006
>show mem
Volatile Free   :  1534076 (largest free block in bytes)
NonVolatile Free:   975208 (bytes free)
Disk Free       : 23920640 (bytes of free space)
Duet Memory Free :  1021800 (bytes)
 Partition 1 -   1021800 (bytes)
 Partition 2 - <UNKNOWN>
>set duet memory

Duet Memory: 2M
Enter new Duet Memory size (between 2M and 8M):

Joe Hebert

Who am I?

VAV?s NI-4000 wrote:

Device 5001 AMX Corp.,NI-4000,v1.13.6 contains

According to the Firmware Files page, v1.13.6 is the latest NI Series X100 Device Firmware.

The latest Device Firmware for your NI-4000 is v1.12.140.

I?d say your NI-4000 is suffering from an identity crisis.

vining

Well it did just come back from Tech Support. I though the firmware was platform specific and it won't allow you do load an non compatable system firmware.

feddx

NED Projector? Be Careful of the NEC Projector though.... Or a Duet endeavor

Chip,

My first foray into Duet Modules was the NEC NP2000. I used the Duet module in one job and then used a homemade NetLinx module from then on.

The module is ok but it is slow to respond with channel feedback sometimes (All Duet Modules that I have used so far tend to lag at some point, and then come back with a flourish), and there is NO "image auto adjust" in the module (or at least not when I did it about 6 months ago. I used PASSTHRU- and a remote emulation serial code). Your assumption on the the UI is correct. It is unnecessary and the module can be run from commands and channels right from code.

Depending on the master (from what AMX told me) there are different thresholds for Duet Memory. I think I've always set it to 6 or 8 depending on the Master I'm using and have had no major problems (other then the aforementioned lag).

When you load the code into the Master after compiling, you will notice a GIANT load of files now being sent. Be aware that if you are used to compiling with source, and then not sending the source to the master via unchecking the "yourprogamname.src" box in file transfer, the source will STILL be sent if there is source in the same folder as the code. The only way to avoid this is the remove the source from that folder or just to not compile the code with source.

LASTLY, and I write this because I've done it and scratched my head about it for a while and then felt like sometihing you put into the garden shed. You NEED to have not only the most current build of Studio, but you need to have the DUET runtime (I think that's what it's called) downloaded as well. The first time I tried to compile, I got a slew of unfamiliar errors, and I discovered that the DUET portion of Studio was a separate download from the mothership. This puts the DUET SNAPI in the mix, and then all was well.

I hope this helps.

--"remember, the reason I'm doing this job is that I'm about the dumbest person you'll ever meet, and if I understand it, then the end user will have no probelms with it..."

Chip Moody

Thanks for all the input. I feel far more well armed to go with this.

Joe Hebert

vining,

Did you get this resolved? Inquiring minds want to know.

vining wrote:

Well it did just come back from Tech Support. I though the firmware was platform specific and it won't allow you do load an non compatable system firmware.

vining

Nope. I changed the firmware and it's still 2-8M.

npepper

Chip Moody wrote:

I will say - I am looking forward to being able to just pulse channels on the virtual device to make things happen, and likewise monitor channels for feedback - rather than having to rely on SEND_COMMANDs and parsing a buffer for EVERYTHING...

While I may be ranting a little bit, at this time I really don't see the need for anything Duet, as it doesn't offer any advantages. Currently, every device module that I write allows me to pulse and monitor channels, no SEND_COMMAND needed.

Duet modules have always seemed slow and unresponsive, possible to to the Java VM that has to be run on the processor. I liken it to Java on the PC, while it is a great language, it is slower than an application in a regular language (generally speaking, I'm sure there are arguments the other way).

Until AMX makes a switch to a 100% duet written program, what is the need for the slow modules?

And why to I have to pay for software to develop programs for AMX hardware, it seems a little ridiculous to me, just charge more for the hardware or something.

Nick P

filpee

npepper wrote:

While I may be ranting a little bit, at this time I really don't see the need for anything Duet, as it doesn't offer any advantages. Currently, every device module that I write allows me to pulse and monitor channels, no SEND_COMMAND needed.

Thats fine so long as your are aware that pulsing say channel 1 will give imediate feedback that channel 1 was pressed (channel echo). So in effect you need to offset any channels you expect to see back.

I belive this is also true for Send_Command and Send_String.
Which is why you Send_Commands to netlinx modules yet receive Strings.

Programming in Java also allows alot more flexibility in the way that you code.

I dont know if I agree that Java IDE should be free but the fact that every other device that I work with that needs programming comes with free programming software I was surprised when I asked AMX for a license.

Oh and from habit I always set Duet Mem to 8 meg. Like someone else mentioned you need to do that just to run the web interface let alone run any Java code.