RDM Devices

The RDM Devices panel lists every ANSI E1.20-2010 responder the engine has found behind a discovered Art-Net node. Each row carries the responder's reported identity, current DMX start address, footprint, active personality, the universe it was found on, and the age of the last response. Selecting a row opens an editor for the parameters the device exposes.

Related concept: Output.

The panel ships as a sibling tab to the Spectralite Controllers panel in the Fixtures workspace preset. To add it to any other workspace, use Window > Add panel > RDM Devices.

All discovery controls live in the panel toolbar.

Search (left): filter the table by manufacturer, model, label, or UID substring.
Rescan all: asks every discovered Art-Net node to flush its cached table and re-run discovery across each RDM-enabled universe it exposes. Use this when a responder is connected but does not appear, when a UID has been removed but the node still reports it, or after recabling a DMX run. The button reads Rescanning… and is disabled while a discovery is in flight.
Refresh: asks every discovered node for its currently known table across each universe it exposes, without re-running discovery, the fast path for "did anything change since I last looked?". The engine issues this same request automatically every thirty seconds, so the list stays current without manual refreshing.
Outputs: a popover listing every Art-Net output. Each row shows the output name, a badge with the age of its last full discovery (never until one runs), and a Rescan button that runs a full discovery on that single output, covering every RDM-enabled universe the nodes reached through it expose. When no Art-Net output is configured, the popover shows a one-line notice and the table stays empty.

Device columns

Each column sorts when its header is clicked. The cached values shown reflect the responder's most recent answer to the corresponding PID, not the value last requested from the UI.

Manufacturer: from MANUFACTURER_LABEL (PID 0x0081).
Model: from DEVICE_MODEL_DESCRIPTION (PID 0x0080).
Label: from DEVICE_LABEL (PID 0x0082). Editable for devices that advertise the PID.
Address: current DMX_START_ADDRESS (PID 0x00F0). Editable for any device with a DMX footprint.
Footprint: number of DMX channels the device consumes in its current personality (from DEVICE_INFO).
Personality: the active personality's mode name and channel count, from DMX_PERSONALITY_DESCRIPTION (PID 0x00E1). Until that description arrives it shows the current personality number and total count from DMX_PERSONALITY (PID 0x00E0). Editable for devices that advertise the PID.
Universe: the universe (Art-Net port-address) the device was found on. Discovery scans every universe a connected node exposes, so a device appears here whatever universe it is patched to.
Output: display name of the Art-Net output that surfaced the device.
Last seen: age of the most recent inbound RDM response from this device.
Identifying: whether the device's IDENTIFY_DEVICE PID is currently set to on.

Editing a device

Clicking a row opens the editor pane underneath the table. Which controls appear depends on what the device exposes. The DMX address control appears for any device with a footprint greater than zero, and the Identify toggle appears for every RDM device, because ANSI E1.20 requires every responder to support IDENTIFY_DEVICE and requires DMX_START_ADDRESS for any device that occupies DMX channels, and responders do not list these mandatory parameters in SUPPORTED_PARAMETERS. The Label and Personality controls appear when the device advertises DEVICE_LABEL or DMX_PERSONALITY (PID 0x0050) respectively, since those are optional parameters.

Device label (PID 0x0082): up to 32 characters. Empty labels are allowed.
DMX address (PID 0x00F0): 1 through 512. Values that would push the device past channel 512 in its current personality are rejected.
Personality (PID 0x00E0): pick from the list of personalities the device returned via DMX_PERSONALITY_DESCRIPTION. Changing personality usually also changes footprint, so check the address afterwards.
Identify (PID 0x1000): toggles the device's locate mode. Most fixtures respond by flashing or sweeping.

Editing a value stages a draft; nothing reaches the fixture until you apply it. A changed field shows an apply control, and text and number fields also apply on Enter. Press Escape or use the revert control to drop the draft back to the device's current value. The Identify toggle is momentary, so flipping it applies straight away. When you apply, the field sends a single RDM SET, addressed to the node and the universe the device was found on, and shows an updating state until the responder confirms the stored value with a follow-up read. A confirmed write flashes briefly and then settles to the value the responder reports, not the value you typed, so a device that clamps or rejects an edit shows its actual stored value. A write that is refused or times out marks the field as failed, reverts the draft, and shows the NACK reason so you can try again.

Sensors

Devices that report sensors through DEVICE_INFO list their readings in a Sensors block at the bottom of the editor pane, one entry per sensor. Each entry shows the sensor's description (from SENSOR_DEFINITION, PID 0x0200) and its current value with the unit the device declares. The engine reads each value through SENSOR_VALUE (PID 0x0201) every five seconds, so the figures track the device live. A Spectralite Node reports its internal temperature, uptime, free heap, and DMX frame rate this way; third-party responders expose whatever sensors their firmware defines. A reading that has not refreshed within the last thirty seconds is dimmed and italicized to flag that it may be stale.

What's supported

The engine speaks RDM over Art-Net. The PID set covers discovery (DISC_UNIQUE_BRANCH, DISC_MUTE, DISC_UN_MUTE, all handled by the Art-Net node), enumeration (SUPPORTED_PARAMETERS, DEVICE_INFO, MANUFACTURER_LABEL, DEVICE_MODEL_DESCRIPTION, SOFTWARE_VERSION_LABEL, DMX_PERSONALITY_DESCRIPTION), sensors (SENSOR_DEFINITION, SENSOR_VALUE), and the four editable PIDs above. Discovery is driven by the Art-Net nodes the app has found, and each node is asked to scan every RDM-enabled universe it exposes, so fixtures are found whatever universe they are patched to, not only universe 0. Because the app can only ask nodes it already knows about, Art-Net node discovery must be enabled through the toggle in the Art-Net Nodes panel. sACN itself does not carry RDM because E1.31 is streaming-only, so an Art-Net output must also be enabled. Streaming via sACN and RDM via Art-Net can run on the same rig at the same time.

Troubleshooting

Device does not appear

Check that an Art-Net output is configured and enabled in Edit > Outputs.
Confirm Art-Net node discovery is enabled and the node appears in the Art-Net Nodes panel. RDM discovery only asks nodes the app has already discovered, so a node that is missing there yields no RDM devices.
Check that the Art-Net output is bound to the interface the node is on. A node on a non-default NIC is discovered only when an output uses that interface.
Check that the Art-Net node sits on the same subnet as the interface Studio polls it from. Many nodes drop RDM packets that cross subnet boundaries even when DMX still routes.
Click Rescan all, or open Outputs in the toolbar and rescan the single output, to force the node to re-run discovery.
Confirm the responder is RDM-capable. Many older fixtures speak DMX only.

Edit appears to do nothing

Some fixtures report a PID in SUPPORTED_PARAMETERS but silently reject the value. Check the row's tooltip for a last_error. If the field clears immediately, the device accepted the SET but ignored it; consult the fixture manual for the values the PID actually accepts.

Personality change moves my fixture

A personality change can also change DMX footprint. The DMX address you set before the change may now overlap with another fixture or fall past channel 512. Verify the address in the Address Space panel after switching personality.

Spectralite Controllers: Spectralite hardware discovery, separate from third-party RDM.
Address Space: see where each fixture lands after editing its DMX address.
Fixtures: add a project fixture for an RDM-addressed device.

RDM Devices

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