Connection settings

You’ve already set up Art-Net on DMX output: Art-Net, sACN and USB DMX: picked your universes, maybe changed the universe base and the ArtPollReply names. This page goes one layer deeper — which network address Relackout actually uses, how it introduces itself to other Art-Net software, and what happens to all of this when you move a workspace to another computer.

Where connection settings live, and who they’re for

1. 1

   Open Settings from the home screen.

   zoom_in

2. 2

   Scroll down to the Remote Access heading near the bottom of the page.

   zoom_in

Network interface and IP: how does anyone find Relackout?

Relackout doesn’t give you a control to manually pick a network interface for Art-Net or sACN. For Art-Net it automatically takes your computer’s first active IPv4 address; sACN goes out through whichever interface the operating system picks by default. If your machine has both a wired connection and Wi-Fi, Art-Net uses whichever one the operating system lists first — there’s no dropdown to change that.

This is a different thing from the broadcast address you saw on the Art-Net card (something like 192.168.1.255:6454): that address is where Art-Net packets are sent. The address this page is about is the one Relackout claims as its own — the one other software sees it as.

ArtPollReply: announcing your name and IP

When another piece of Art-Net software asks “who’s out there?”, Relackout answers with an ArtPollReply. That reply carries: Relackout’s IP address, the Short name (ArtPollReply) and Long name (ArtPollReply) you set on the DMX output page, and the universes it’s sending.

That’s exactly why the short and long names matter: any console or visualizer on the network lists Relackout under these names. With more than one computer running Relackout on the same network, a distinct name on each makes the right one easy to pick out — you change them on DMX output, in “The name your network sees”.

The universe base you set there is baked into the same reply. If a node or viewer sees Relackout in its list but the universe numbers look shifted by one, that’s the first thing to check — again on the DMX output page.

Connection settings travel with your workspace

Exporting a workspace as a single file to move it to another computer brings every setting from this page and from DMX output along with it: Art-Net’s universe selection, universe base and short/long names, sACN, USB DMX assignments, and Remote Access itself — its switch, PIN and port.

The one thing that doesn’t travel as a fixed value is the IP address itself. As the network interface section above explained, Relackout doesn’t save its Art-Net IP — it detects it again from the computer’s own network every time Art-Net starts. Move the file to another machine, possibly at another venue, and the IP follows the new network automatically. The address you picked for the Remote Access QR code does travel with the file, but if that address doesn’t exist on the new computer, Relackout falls back to the first address it finds there.

What’s next

To recap: Relackout picks its own network address automatically, announces itself with the names you set under DMX output, and bundles every connection setting — except the IP itself — into a workspace export. Coming up: the full export and backup workflow on Backup and export, and setting up PIN-protected phone access on Remote control from your phone.