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Direct Ethernet Communication

How to connect and configure your Make Controller directly to your computer, with no router or network in between.

Overview

A description of exactly what we're up to.

Normally, the Make Controller Kit is ready to connect to a router or switch on your local network and communicate with all the devices on it. This is a very flexible option, as you can then communicate with the Controller via a wireless connection to the same network from your laptop, or from any of the other machines that happen to be connected.

However, it's sometimes inconvenient to plug the board into a router, and you'd prefer to simply plug it straight into your computer. You don't get any of the benefits of being on a network this way, but you still benefit from a nice, fast Ethernet connection. This is a guide to set up a direct Ethernet connection between your computer and the Make Controller Kit.

Hardware

The minimal hardware you'll need is a normal Ethernet cable - that's it. The PHY chip on the Make Controller does auto-switching so you don't need a crossover cable.

Address Configuration

If your PC only has a wired Ethernet interface, you can change the network settings on your PC and be all set to talk to the Controller.

If you have both wired and wireless interfaces, you'll probably want to maintain your wireless internet connection and talk to the Controller on the wired interface. In order to do this, the Controller and your PC must be configured to communicate on a subnet that's not being used by the wireless network. Many networks, and the Make Controller itself, are configured by default to communicate on a subnet in the 192.168.0.xxx address space. If your router is on a different subnet, you just need to make sure that you choose a separate one for the link to your Controller.

The following pages outline how to set this up on Windows and OS X, and lastly the changes you might need to make to the Controller's network settings. *Nix users should be able to get the idea and apply it to their platform of choice.

Settings - OS X

How to configure your computer running OS X for direct Ethernet communication.

Open System Preferences (available from the Apple dropdown menu in the upper left ).
Select Network.
From the Location: dropdown menu, select New Location... and type something like Make Controller. Any name you like will do just fine.
From the Show: dropdown menu, select Built-in Ethernet.
From the Configure IPv4: dropdown menu, select Manually.

Now we can enter in the IP address and the router/gateway for the computer.

OS X network settings for communicating directly with the Make Controller.

In the event that you don't need to preserve a wireless connection, the above settings will be fine - the IP address can be any that looks like 192.168.0.xxx. The value 210 in the above example is arbitrary, but make sure that you use a number that's not assigned to any other devices on your network. Note that this must be different from the address that you give your Make Controller.

If you need to preserve your wireless internet connection, choose another subnet that's not in use on your local network - 192.168.5.xxx is a reasonable bet, although again the 5 is arbitrary. You'll also need to change the Router setting to 192.168.5.1, or the equivalent for the subnet you've chosen.

To maintain your wireless connection, it's also important to set Airport as your primary internet connection, not Built-in Ethernet. To do this, click on the Show: dropdown menu, and select Network Port Configurations. Then, drag Airport up to the top.

You'll also need to change the network settings on the Controller in this case, which is outlined in the next section.

OS X network settings for communicating with the Controller on another subnet.

To get back to using your wired Ethernet interface for an actual network connection, select Automatic from the Location dropdown menu and click Apply Now.

Settings - Windows

How to set up your computer running Windows for direct Ethernet communication.

The following steps walk through how to change your network settings on Windows:

From the Start Menu, select Control Panel.
Select Network Connections.
Right-click on Local Area Network and select Properties.
Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties.
Click on the Alternate Configuration tab and enter your network settings

Windows network settings for communicating directly with the Make Controller.

In the event that you don't need to preserve a wireless connection, the above settings will be fine - the IP address can be any that looks like 192.168.0.xxx. The value 235 in the above example is arbitrary, but make sure that you use a number that's not assigned to any other devices on your network.

If you need to preserve your wireless internet connection, choose another subnet that's not in use on your local network - 192.168.5.xxx is a reasonable bet, although again the 5 is arbitrary. You'll also need to change the Default gateway setting to 192.168.5.1, or the equivalent for the subnet you've chosen. It may be necessary to disable and re-enable the network connection in order for the changes to take effect.

Windows network settings for communicating with the Controller on another subnet.

You'll also need to change the network settings on the Controller in this case, which is outlined in the next step.

Settings - Make Controller

You'll also need to configure your Make Controller's network interface in order to communicate directly.

First of all, you should turn off DHCP since there won't be a router to give out any addresses. Do this by sending the OSC message /network/dhcp 0. If you leave DHCP on, it should still work as the board will eventually use its manual address but you can save it a little searching around by simply turning it off.

The address you give your board will depend on the address you gave your computer. Make sure to give your board an address that has the same first 3 numbers as the address for your computer, and select a 4th number that is different from the address for your computer.

For example, if you gave your computer an address of 192.168.3.211, an address of 192.168.3.212 would work just fine for the board. If your computer's address is 192.168.35.210, an address of 192.168.35.211 would work fine - and so on.

You can change the board's address via OSC from mchelper. For more info on mchelper, check out the Getting Started section. There are just 2 OSC messages to send to the board:

/network/address 192.168.5.200 - change the IP address. Make sure you give the board a different IP address than you gave your computer!
/network/gateway 192.168.5.1 - change the gateway.

The addresses used for the address and the gateway in this example assume we're setting up for communication in the 192.168.5.xxx address space - the value 5 is arbitrary, but just make sure that it's different than the value of any other subnet being used on your local network, and that it matches the value you've used for your PC settings.

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