Martin RS485 protocol

I read in ”Martin pro news” from September 1994 an interview of Nils Thorjussen there he taked about the new Wholehog II. He said “Furthermore, we can output as many as four different protocols simontaneously, which means even DMX alongside Martin.”

I wonder if this is possible? Is there any other consoles which also can do this (HOG 1000, Echelon and so on)?
  • A decde or more ago, multi-protocol support was common. You could find consoles with DMX+AMX, DMX+Analog, DMX+CMX, DMX+LWR, DMX+AMX+D54, and so on.

    Almost everything went to DMX, so you're unlikely to find multi-protocol support in any recent consoles.
  • I’m sorry that I didn’t explain myself good enough. I got the impression that the Hog2 were able to run multiple protocols 1994. I wonder if it was a software thing so you can take any Hog2 and load the right software and get it to talk both DMX and Martin, or if it’s a hardware thing?
    I also wonder if it’s still working on the newest Hog2?
    I got the impression that a lot of newer and smaller controllers use the same software as Hog2, for example Hog1000. Is that right? If so, will it be possible to load the right software in this newer controller so it also output both DMX and Martin?
    I wonder because I have a retro light-rig with a lot of old Martin effects. Martin has made a DMX-to-Martin-interface, but it only control one type of effect, and in a small number. I need six different interfaces, each on a separate Martin-universe, with a really lot of cable to get it to work. Another solution is over twenty interfaces, one on each effect. The third solution (that I use now) is to use a Martin 3032-controller for Martin light and a different controller for other lights, but that is not a good solution.

    Thanks for your help
  • Brad may know this better than I do, but I've never seen a build of the Hog II software that supported anything other than DMX.
  • The early Wholehog 2 console did indeed output Martin, HES and other protocols as well as DMX. However in later versions of software this code was removed as DMX became the standard. Just like older features of the Wholehog 2 software (instalook) you can not access this any longer as its time as passed.

    I supposed if you could find an old v1.x versions of Wholehog software you could use that, but then the software and feature set will be so old it probably will not be worth it.
Related