Chauvet DJ DMX-AN2 Setup Guide

Before You Start

What you need

• A Chauvet DJ DMX-AN2 with its power supply, or a Power over Ethernet source
• One Ethernet cable, run directly between the AN2 and your computer
• DMXDesktop v1.0.50 or later, where Art-Net, sACN and USB DMX all share the one DMX I/O table

Licence requirement

The AN2 has two DMX ports, so driving both of them means running two universes. Universe capacity follows your licence: Free covers one universe, Standard covers two, and Pro goes far beyond that. On a Free licence the AN2 still works, but only one of its two DMX ports will carry data. See pricing for the full breakdown.

Feeding DMX back into DMXDesktop, by setting an AN2 port to Input, is a Pro feature. Everything else in this guide is output only.

Step 1: Connect the Node

Plug the AN2 straight into an Ethernet port on your computer. On a Mac with no built-in port, a USB-C or Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter is fine. Power the node from its supplied adapter or from a PoE switch.

Use a direct cable for this first configuration. Going through a venue or office network makes first contact harder than it needs to be, because the AN2 arrives on an address that almost certainly does not match that network.

Step 2: Give Your Computer a Temporary IP Address

A factory AN2 sits at 2.0.0.1. Your computer cannot reach it until it holds an address in the same range, so set a temporary manual address before anything else.

Do not give your computer 2.0.0.1. That address belongs to the AN2, and assigning it to both creates a conflict where neither is reachable.

Windows

Open Settings → Network & Internet → Advanced network settings. Pick the Ethernet adapter the AN2 is plugged into, open its IP assignment settings, switch to Manual, turn IPv4 on, and enter the values above.

macOS

Open Apple menu → System Settings → Network. Select the Ethernet service, click Details, open TCP/IP, set Configure IPv4 to Manually, and enter the values above.

This link carries lighting data only, so it needs no gateway and no DNS server.

Step 3: Open the AN2 Web Interface

Browse to http://2.0.0.1. Sign in with Admin as both the user name and the password.

If the password has been changed and then forgotten, CHAUVETDJ works as both user name and password. Treat that as a recovery route rather than the everyday login.

If the page will not load

• Disconnect any VPN. VPN clients frequently capture the whole 2.x range and swallow the request.
• Turn Wi-Fi off for a moment, so your computer stops trying to route 2.0.0.1 through a different adapter.
• Confirm the Ethernet service is genuinely connected and is holding 2.0.0.2.

Step 4: Move the AN2 to a Permanent Address

The factory 2.x range is unusual and easy to collide with later. A small private subnet on a dedicated cable is tidier and easier to remember:

Why 10.x rather than 192.168.x? Chauvet's documentation states that the AN2's Art-Net function only works on addresses beginning with 2 or 10. Staying on 10.x keeps the door open if you ever switch a port over to Art-Net.

In the AN2 web page, set IP Mode to Manual IP, IP Address to 10.20.0.2, Net Mask to 255.255.255.0, and leave Default Gateway empty (enter 0.0.0.0 if the field insists on a value). Click Apply.

The page will stop responding at that point. That is expected: the node has moved to the new subnet and your computer has not followed it yet. Change your Ethernet adapter to 10.20.0.1 with the same mask, then reopen the configuration page at http://10.20.0.2.

Step 5: Set Both DMX Ports to sACN

Use sACN on both ports. It carries exactly the same lighting data as Art-Net, and its universe numbering starts at 1, which removes the single most common source of confusion when patching a node.

Click Apply. The AN2 offers frame rates down to 10 Hz, but 40 Hz is the fastest setting it has and the one to use for smooth fades and clean movement.

Step 6: Configure DMX I/O in DMXDesktop

Open Settings → DMX I/O. The table columns are Uni, Dir, Driver, Target, Out Uni, Priority, Merge, Status and Enable.

On Standard, the rows you need are usually already sitting there, switched off. When a stage has no drivers configured yet, DMXDesktop lays out Art-Net, sACN and USB rows for universes 1 and 2 in advance. Find the two sACN rows and turn Enable on rather than adding duplicates. On Pro, universe 1 is laid out for you and the Add Driver button covers whatever else you need.

You never type the AN2's IP address. With Multicast on, DMXDesktop derives the destination group from the Out Uni value, and the AN2 picks up whichever universes its ports have been told to listen for. Priority starts at 100 and can be set anywhere from 1 to 200 if you ever run a second source against the same universe.

Your edits are staged, not applied as you type. The Save Changes button shows a count of everything pending, and nothing reaches the wire until you click it. If two rows would send the same universe to the same place, that button turns into Fix clashing rows until you resolve it.

Last step: patch the fixtures on Port A to Universe 1 and the fixtures on Port B to Universe 2.

Universe Numbering: sACN and Art-Net

This detail catches out more rigs than any other setting on a node.

• sACN starts at 1. Set the AN2 ports to Universe 1 and Universe 2 and match them in DMXDesktop. Nothing is shifted anywhere.
• Art-Net starts at 0. DMXDesktop always presents universes to you as 1, 2, 3 and so on, and converts on the way out, so user-facing Universe 1 leaves as Art-Net Universe 0.

So if you later switch the AN2 to Art-Net, its Universe fields become 0 and 1 for the same two universes. On sACN they stay 1 and 2. Entering 0 and 1 for sACN is the classic mistake, and it leaves Port A silent.

Firewall and Network Permissions

Windows

When Windows asks whether DMXDesktop may communicate on the network, allow it on Private networks. If nothing reaches the node, check that the dedicated Ethernet adapter is classified as Private and that DMXDesktop is permitted through Windows Defender Firewall.

macOS

Click Allow when macOS asks whether DMXDesktop may find devices on your local network. You can confirm or restore it later under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network.

Troubleshooting

• You switched the rows on and nothing changed. Check the Save Changes button. Row edits stay pending until you save them.
• Nothing is going out at all. Check the Status column in DMX I/O. A failing output shows you the exact error there, and a row that is enabled but idle simply is not being fed, so confirm your fixtures are patched on that universe.
• One port works, the other does not. Nine times out of ten this is universe capacity. Free covers one universe. On Standard or Pro, confirm both sACN rows show Enable switched on.
• Fixtures respond on the wrong port. The AN2's port Universe number and the DMXDesktop Out Uni value have to agree. A port set to Universe 1 listens for sACN universe 1 and nothing else.
• Everything looks correct but nothing moves. Multicast traffic gets blocked more often than people expect. Confirm the firewall allows DMXDesktop, and take VPN software out of the picture while you test.
• You cannot reach the node after changing its address. Your computer and the AN2 have to share a subnet. Set your Ethernet adapter back to 2.0.0.2 / 255.0.0.0 in case the address change never applied, and try http://2.0.0.1 again.
• The AN2 web page rejects your login. Use CHAUVETDJ as both user name and password to get back in, then set a password you will keep.

Final Configuration Checklist

• Computer Ethernet: 10.20.0.1 / 255.255.255.0, no gateway
• DMX-AN2: 10.20.0.2 / 255.255.255.0, no gateway
• AN2 Port A: sACN, Output, Universe 1, 40 Hz
• AN2 Port B: sACN, Output, Universe 2, 40 Hz
• DMXDesktop: two sACN output rows, Uni 1 / Out Uni 1 and Uni 2 / Out Uni 2, Multicast on, both enabled
• Fixtures patched to Universe 1 (Port A) and Universe 2 (Port B)

With that in place, raise a dimmer or run a test pattern on each universe. The AN2's Ethernet and DMX indicators should flash while DMXDesktop is transmitting.

Printable PDF Version

The same walkthrough as a short PDF, handy to take to a venue:

• Chauvet DJ DMX-AN2 setup for Windows (PDF)
• Chauvet DJ DMX-AN2 setup for macOS (PDF)

The PDFs are English only. This page is always the current version.