How Do You Trigger LED Effects With DMX in Firmware 3.55?

Firmware 3.55 adds Master and Slave roles—plus analog playback—to a capability firmware 3.54 introduced first: triggering LED effects stored on an LEC3 or SPI Matrix SD card directly from a DMX signal. Until 3.54, a synchronized chain could only be started by HTTP triggers, the physical buttons, or the Web Player.

This article is written for existing LEC3 and SPI Matrix owners deciding whether the update is worth scheduling. For the wider picture of how a show gets onto the card in the first place, see our guide to running a pixel LED show from an SD card. It covers the new Master and Slave roles, the separate mode settings for DMX and Art-Net, and how to play card effects on analog LED strips from the same chain.

What Does DMX Triggering Add?

DMX triggering means a lighting desk starts, stops, or switches animations that already sit on the controller’s SD card, instead of streaming pixel data in real time. The desk sends a cue; the controller does the rendering. This is the SD Card Mode already used across LEC3 and SPI Matrix installs, now reachable directly from a DMX desk.

That split matters on site. In a trigger setup, the console only has to carry a handful of control channels—SD Card Mode uses 7 DMX channels—while the effect itself never leaves the device. Long shows keep running even when the network or the desk is doing something else.

What Could Start an Effect Before Firmware 3.54?

Earlier firmware offered three ways to launch a stored effect inside DMX Synchronization: an HTTP trigger, a button on the device, or the Web Player. All three assume that something other than the lighting desk is in charge of the cue.

That’s fine in a museum or a shop window. It’s awkward in a venue where the desk already runs every other fixture. Firmware 3.54 let DMX itself fire the cue, and firmware 3.55 builds a proper Master/Slave structure and analog output on top of it.

How Do Master and Slave Devices Share the Trigger?

From firmware 3.55, every device in a chain carries a role—Master or Slave—set in the web configuration under Advanced settings. The Master is the device that receives the DMX trigger and sends synchronization data onward to all Slaves daisy-chained behind it, over standard XLR cabling.

Only the Master needs a control input. The Slaves follow the synchronization data they receive down the chain, which keeps the wiring to one signal source no matter how many devices you add—up to the standard DMX limit of 32 daisy-chained devices on one line.

Where Do You Connect the DMX Source and the Analog Strips?

The DMX signal source connects to the DMX IN port on the front panel of the Master device. From there the trigger propagates to every Slave, so all outputs in the chain start the same effect together.

The DMX OUT on the last Slave is the second half of the update. From 3.55, that port can carry the SD card effect out to an external DMX decoder driving analog LED strips—the same approach already used to combine digital and analog strips on a single controller. You can run digital and analog strips from one fully stand-alone chain.

Why Are DMX and Art-Net Modes Now Set Separately?

Both protocols can work in two different modes. SD Card Mode triggers animations stored on the card, while Pixel Mode controls individual pixels from the incoming signal—3 DMX channels per RGB pixel, 4 per RGBW pixel. Until 3.55, that mode setting was shared between DMX and Art-Net.

Sharing the setting forced a choice you should never have had to make. Now each protocol carries its own mode, and the two can do different jobs at the same time.

Criterion	SD Card Mode	Pixel Mode
What the incoming signal does	Selects and triggers stored effects	Sets the colour of individual pixels
Where the effect is rendered	On the controller, from the SD card	In the software or console upstream
Channels used	7, fixed	3 per RGB pixel, 4 per RGBW pixel
Typical use	Stand-alone installs, fixed show cues	Live mapping and real-time playback
Set independently for DMX and Art-Net	Yes, from firmware 3.55	Yes, from firmware 3.55

The practical combination is the point of the change. You can leave DMX in SD Card Mode as a trigger layer for the show cues, and keep Art-Net in Pixel Mode for live output from your software—both running on the same device at once.

What Happens If the DMX Signal Drops?

That’s controlled by the Hold DMX setting in Advanced settings, and it isn’t new to 3.55. With Hold DMX on, the controller keeps playing the last animation if it loses signal unexpectedly, instead of stopping. With it off, losing signal stops playback.

How Does a Mixed Digital and Analog Chain Look in Practice?

Picture a stand-alone installation with several controllers in a row. The first device is the Master and takes DMX from the house desk on its DMX IN. Digital pixel strips run from the SPI outputs of every device in the chain.

The last device in the row is a Slave, and its DMX OUT feeds an external DMX decoder driving analog RGB strips—architectural coves, for example, that don’t need per-pixel control. One cue from the desk starts the animation on the card, and both technologies run from it at once.

How Do You Set It Up Step by Step?

1. Update the firmware to 3.55 on every device in the chain.
2. Open the web configuration of each device and go to Advanced settings.
3. Set the first device to Master and all remaining devices to Slave.
4. Connect the DMX signal source to the DMX IN port on the Master’s front panel, and daisy-chain the Slaves with standard XLR cabling.
5. Set the DMX mode to SD Card Mode, and set the Art-Net mode separately as your project needs.
6. On the last Slave, connect DMX OUT to an external DMX decoder for the analog strips.
7. Upload the effects to the SD card and test the trigger from the desk.

Which Mistakes Break DMX Triggering Most Often?

Most failures after this update are configuration mismatches, not hardware faults. These are the ones worth checking first.

• Updating only the Master. Every device in the chain should run the same firmware version.
• Two Masters in one chain. Exactly one device sends synchronization data; the rest listen.
• Wiring DMX into a Slave. The trigger belongs on the DMX IN of the Master device.
• Expecting Pixel Mode to fire card effects. Triggering stored animations requires SD Card Mode.
• Leaving Art-Net on the old shared assumption. Since the settings are independent, check both after updating.
• Expecting analog output straight from DMX OUT. You still need an external DMX decoder between the controller and analog strips.

Planning a stand-alone chain that has to answer to a lighting desk? Book a free consultation with our team.